Ten steps towards a EU federated operational framework for data sharing in logistics

FEDeRATED is a 15 partners EU CEF project (6 EU Member States and IATA) designed to assist the EC in developing an operational framework  for establishing a Digital Single Market in freight transport and logistics (EU DTLF) .  The FEDeRATED proposal for an operational framework is based on a Vision, Reference Architecture and data sharing experience gained in 23 LivingLabs, covering some 200 stakeholders, 20 countries, and all transport modes.

THE PROBLEM

1. Most supply chain operators and public authorities lack full knowledge - transparency - on where the goods are located, their origin and destination, whether transport will arrive in time and complies with legal obligations.

 

SEAMLESS MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT
2. To enhance their operational brainpower both companies and public authority increasingly focus on using real time data to achieve supply chain visibility - situational awareness - as well as optimized asset and infrastructure use, resilience and compliance with upcoming greening and transparency legislation.

 

 A SOLUTION

3. Digital technology provides companies and public authorities with opportunities - new business models and efficiencies - as well as challenges - uncertain return on investment, digital mindset and need to trust third parties - and is becoming increasingly important to enhance competitiveness and sustainability.

PAPERLESS TRANSPORT
4. The road to take towards data based - paperless - logistics is the transition of physical transport movements into event based data while committing stakeholders to evolve as data points - nodes - competent to share data in multiple transactions.

THE NEED FOR AN EU FEDERATED DATA INFRASTRUCTURE
5. A Core Operating Framework - i.e, to assure sovereign and reliable data, and interoperability - defines the need to build a data sharing infrastructure providing  authorized data holders and data users the possibility to act as a node monetize - developing services based - on data in a decentralized, trusted and pull based approach.

PULL BASED INTEROPERABILITY
6.  37 leading principles elaborate how a data sharing infrastructure can enable companies and public authorities to non predefined query and access data in another’s IT systems.

FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
7. The infrastructure has to provide all stakeholders language alignment via a common language for multi-modal logistics,  the opportunities to find another - discoverability - , to connect - controlled access -, and to make themselves known and conduct business and legal compliance procedures in a secure manner - security,

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
8. The  capabilities of the data users and holders to operate within the infrastructure are to implement, configure, and integrate the harmonized language for multi-modal logistics and linked event based data sharing with business processes and internal IT systems, using their Service Registry, and acquire an Identification to operate as a uniquely identifiable node in the Infrastructure.

ORGANISATIONAL REQUIREMENTS
9.To establish a long term perspective and level playing field  for data holders and data to participate as an infrastructure node, a EU legal framework should set the rules of engagement - capabilities to operate as a node - in connection to a set of arrangements - protocols - and a governance structure for change management to be executed on a EU and national level.

STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
10. To assist companies and public authorities to set the steps toward federated data sharing in logistics a How to Guide, migration strategy, and protype are requested.