E-CMR consignment note

As a part of our company vision, Digitizing International Trade, we have headed the OASIS UBL transportation Subcommittee, and our colleague Peter Borresen, Chief Technology Officer at ClearView Trade, has been chairman for CEN TC 440 WG7 - regarding fulfillment, which deals with despatch advice and receipt advice. This is in connection with ISO 204 (intelligent logistics) via Mike Onder.

All our solutions are based on open standards (UBL and UN CEFACT) and a secure public infrastructure Peppol, which in Denmark is the infrastructure for “Nemhandel” governed by the Danish Business Authority.

The result of the ISO work committee is published in the new updated UBL 2.3 standard, which is the first common standard for digital data exchange for Multimodal transportation (Air, Sea, Road and Rail) and all relevant transport documents, certificates and logistics processes. The new version UBL 2.3 is a TC approved standard, and will be released later in 2021 as an update of ISO 19845.

Our ClearView Trade platform offers Exporters, Carriers and Forwarders access to standardized digital information and supports an automated data exchange throughout the entire logistics value chain.

We now introduce the e-CMR document to our more than 4.000 danish exporting companies to ensure compliance with EU legislation (E-FTI) and the legislation for Proof of Delivery (ePoD) in a cost-effective way, minimizing data errors and associated cost of claims.

CMR (Convention relative au contrat de transport international de Marchandises par Route)

is the United Nations Convention for transporting goods internationally. A CMR consignment note was only possible in paper form until 2017. The e-CMR was officially launched in 2017.

Some of the key benefits to e-CMR include:

Lower costs
Faster administration with reduced data entry, no paper handling, no fax/scan/letter exchanges, no paper archiving, etc.
Faster invoicing
Reduction of delivery and reception discrepancies
Data accuracy
Control and monitoring of the shipment
Real-time access to the information & proof of pick-up and delivery

Because of its digital nature, e-CMR can also be easily integrated with other services used by transport companies, e.g. customs declaration or transport & fleet management services. By moving to an electronic format, the three parties involved in each shipment benefit from increased overall efficiency of logistics, resulting in increased economic competitiveness.

Another benefit is greater road safety, as e-CMR can be linked to eCall, a system for trucks that automatically dials emergency services in the event of a road traffic accident.

ClearView Trade coordinates the implementation of e-CMR with other European projects in the field, including Dinnocap and Fenix, so that our implementation can become the current European standard.

As the carriers and forwarders are an integrated part of this information workflow, we have developed a WEB based app for the e-CMR to allow easy access for any driver (carrier) and API access for the forwarder. The API is made available via the Peppol infrastructure.

The driver (carrier) app supports:

Job list view
Sign in of driver and license plate
Pick up instructions and adjustments
Damage Goods reporting (Photo)
Related documents
Real time transport updates
More options

In the period of May/June 2021 we will start a pilot project for full loads for Arla Foods amba and Nagel, followed by transports of general cargo in July/August.

From September 2021 the e-CMR information will be available for interested carriers and forwarders via the Peppol infrastructure. PEPPOL will come into force in Denmark in January 2023, and we are working to ensure that the information in the mandatory profile on Despatch Advice (shipping notification) can be mapped directly to e-CMR.