DACHSER is transferring its range of logistics services to the digital world. As a company-wide digitalization project, the DACHSER platform is a central building block for fundamentally redesigning the customer experience. At the transport logistic trade fair, customers and interested parties were given their first glimpse of the platform, which will be available to all DACHSER customers from 2024.
For many years, DACHSER has been developing software and systems in-house that are tailored entirely to the needs of its customers. The DACHSER platform is a logical continuation of this philosophy. The platform is currently being developed in an agile project setup, i.e. in direct exchange with selected pilot customers.
Transparent one-stop solution
The DACHSER platform brings together the services of the Road Logistics and Air & Sea Logistics business fields in a user-friendly, modern interface. Supplemented by innovations such as end-to-end tracking across all freight routes, this creates a customized, digital one-stop solution for customers. DACHSER is thus taking a major step toward completely transparent flows of goods and data, especially with regards to intercontinental transports using different modes of transport.
The DACHSER platform is developed iteratively and in direct exchange with customers.
Product development is taking place within iterative testing and development phases. Since the start of the project, intensive research phases have been used to query customer needs and obtain feedback on product designs. Since April 2023, pilot customers have already been working with a first version of the platform. All research results are always incorporated into the subsequent development phase. This way of thinking and working is an expression of an agile, digital mindset that DACHSER is promoting throughout the company as part of its digitization strategy.
Highlight at transport logistic 2023
Insights into the new platform were offered for the first time at the leading transport logistic trade fair in Munich. DACHSER customers, interested parties, and the media were able to learn about the project's vision, development, and timeline roadmap on interactive screens.
Back in September 2021, the DACHSER Air & Sea Logistics teams in Boston and Cologne had begun meticulously planning the transport of a colossal extra-long crane. The plan was to ship the crane together with its chassis from Germany to the United States so that it could then complete its journey by road. Its purpose: nothing less than to help build a space rocket in Houston. But then all the careful planning had to be thrown overboard.
Nobody can predict the future—not politicians, not scientists, and not economists. However, that doesn’t mean we can give up the constant task of classifying current developments, tracking trends, and drawing the appropriate conclusions for tomorrow. This requires us to look closely, ask questions—and, most importantly, listen. That might sound obvious, but it can be a real challenge in day-to-day business.
As the year draws to a close, many of us use this time to look back and reflect, but also to prepare ourselves for the new challenges of the future. And that’s exactly what we’ve done in the latest issue of the DACHSER magazine.
It’s not often that logistics topics feature as prominently in the daily and business press as they have over the past few months. The global economy is recovering from the shock of the pandemic and in many places production is once again running at full speed. However, articles about the shortfall in raw materials and products, too few containers and pallets, the driver shortage, and a lack of storage space on overland, sea, and air transports are putting a damper on this revival.