eSchedules - Transport Service Promotion
Shortsea, rail and inland waterway Promotion Centres have joined forces to improve the way multimodal transport is promoted throughout Europe. We hope to fund our efforts through a joint Marco Polo Common Learning project. The application for this was delivered to Marco Polo in May 2010. Marco Polo eSchedule Project Idea
This is a promotion and dissemination project designed to achieve fast and comprehensive use of harmonised transport service descriptions in the shortsea, rail and river freight sectors. The main objective is to make it simple for transport buyers to identify and evaluate shortsea, rail, river and multimodal transport alternatives.
The intermodal logistics chain is complex and involves many parties offering multiple transport services, routes and schedules. Transport buyers require fast and easy access to the best services that can meet their requirements. Differing schedule formats and a lack of data consolidation make it very difficult to identify the best carrier that can deliver a given cargo from one point to another within given date constraints. This often results in the transport buyer resorting to the road alternative.
The solution is to utilise harmonised transport service descriptions based on existing standardised EU/UN messages (“eSchedules”) - or messages that can be mapped into such formats. While this is commonplace in deepsea shipping, comprehensive electronic exchange of service data has had minimal impact on the complex European multimodal market.
The mission is to achieve the wide use of up-to-date eSchedules within the European logistics community. This will be carried out through a series of activities that are designed to assist, encourage and promote the use of eSchedules and mapping services. An open and comprehensive on-line facility will provide message guides to explain the range of standardised message formats currently available. A carrier directory will give specific advice on how to connect to up-to-date schedules of individual carriers. Implementation guides will advise on how best to utilize eSchedules. Schedule updates will be distributed and shared automatically. Service search pages will make it possible to find the best transport route. Training will be given.
Five business processes will be re-innovated (service description, service updating, service search, service evaluation and service enquiry). Our aim is to improve co-operation and knowledge sharing among participants.
The project is the initiative of a group of Promotion Centres, who have offered schedule and contact information on web pages for many years. Our aim is to radically improve these services with more up-to-date information and a range of innovative features.
Download eSchedule Marco Polo Application here! |