ECG — 2025-07-15
News from ECG
ECG – The Association of European Vehicle Logistics – hosted a webinar on 15 July titled "The Trials and Tribulations of Moving to Electronic Consignment Notes," bringing together industry experts and stakeholders to explore the challenges and opportunities of going digital in vehicle logistics.
Our speakers included:
The webinar offered valuable perspectives on the complex journey toward digitalisation in FVL, particularly the transition to electronic consignment notes (e-CMR). Our expert panel shared insights from policy, operations, and technology standpoints, highlighting both the opportunities and hurdles of this important shift.
Moving to electronic consignment notes should not be a big deal. The aim is to rid ourselves of the wasteful process of printing and carting around piles of paper. Piles of paper which then fill offices and take up space.
The EU Commission’s mandate for Electronic Freight Transport Information Regulation-the eFTI—aims to do just that, it aims to do away with waste and move the industry forward, explained Lia Potec, Team Leader for eFTI at the EU Commission.
The eFTI team aim to have platforms in place such that by 09 July 2027, all consignment notes can be accepted in electronic form. That is the CMR in eCMR format for the movement of goods by road, the CIM in eCIM format for movement of goods by rail and CMNI as eCMNI with regards to the movement of goods by waterways.
But will the EU eFTI platforms be ready for the trials in 2026? And more importantly will the current eCMR’s on offer in the industry be easily interoperable with the eFTI eCMR?
“Operators may use certified eFTI platforms and service providers,” she said, adding that users can indeed use service providers of their choice as long as the data can be accepted on the efTI platforms. And she highlighted that users always need to have a human readable format in case the machine to machine interface is not working.
But is it all really mandatory? Have all member states themselves ratified the move to electronic consignment notes? “Ratification does not mean a member state or country has implemented the move to eCMR,” explains Marc Billiet, Associate Director of EU Goods Transport at the IRU’s Permanent Delegation, adding that the PDF version is always on the radar as all enforcement officers cannot read all data sets.
The nitty gritty of moving to electronic consignment notes Billiet says is “interoperability issues”. The current situation is that most electronic platforms cannot communicate smoothly with each other.
We hear from Mosolf’s Tobias Rosch on the trials and tribulations of using eCMRs. Mosolf currently moves 70 to 80% of its volume using its internal eCMR solution. But there are issues, specifically at the pick up location for new cars. Often OEMs do not permit the use of electronic devices at the pick up location at the factory facility. And then there are issues with driver user errors as well as defective hardware. But Mosolf’s clients have seen huge benefits to moving to digital format and Rosch concludes this is the way forward with new platforms being developed with subsidiary Etecture.
“Empower the driver,” says Pierre Khourey, CEO & Founder of Shippeo. By giving the driver the empowerment to include all the necessary data for the movement of new vehicles from location to location, the necessary data can then cascade. “Interconnection is mandatory,” says Khourey and he requests ECG as an association to step in get more involved.
“Unite supply chains,” said Moritz Rossler from TransFollow highlighting the fact that we are moving to a “more digital future.” But said Rossler: “ An eCMR is not just a scanned PDF, an eCMR is not just a POD -proof of delivery note. An eCMR acts as a legally binding contract of carriage.”
For more information on how the eCMR situation is unfolding in our FVL sector, ECG Members can access the Webinar recording and slides here.
ECG’s Business Intelligence Report on ‘The move to digitalisation-taking paper our of the process’ can be accessed by members here.