eCMR or electronic consignment note, why implement it?

The eCMR or electronic consignment note is the digital version of the traditional consignment note or CMR and is regulated internationally by the Additional Protocol to the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road.

Being a digital version of the CMR, the eCMR therefore acts as a contract of carriage detailing the nature of the cargo, the delivery conditions and the terms and conditions of carriage.

The only difference with the traditional waybill is the form of presentation and transmission. While this is physical and requires manual handling, the eCMR is digital and can be generated, signed and transmitted electronically through a specific software platform for this purpose.

eCMR, advantages and challenges

Although eCMR has been approved for decades in the European environment, this technological solution is not implemented in the vast majority of transport companies, freight forwarders or logistics operators.

While eCMR presents significant advantages for all actors involved in a transport operation, it presents hardly any challenges for its implementation. Therefore, integrating eCMR is essential to boost the sector’s competitiveness and further advance the digitalization of the road freight sector.

Advantages

• The main advantage of eCMR is the reduction of costs and time by simplifying administrative management and reducing the use of paper, which requires physical handling, management and custody.
• Likewise, operational efficiency is an indisputable benefit of eCMR, since its implementation allows obtaining real-time information on the status of goods during the transport process, which leads to a reduction in time and better operational planning.
• Relatedly, eCMR facilitates cargo traceability, from pickup to final delivery.
• Moreover, all this process is carried out in a secure manner and data protection is guaranteed, thanks to the authentication and encryption functions.

All this results in a significant increase in competitiveness, both for the companies and the sector. With eCMR, you gain efficiency, flexibility and security, which provides differentiation and increases customer satisfaction.

Challenges

The main challenge presented by eCMR has to do with the industry’s own resistance to change in terms of digitization. For this reason, it is important to promote a cultural change towards the digitization of transport documents and to encourage the training of workers.

At the technological level, this solution is very simple and accessible and only the operators who use the application or website will need to be trained.

Data security could be another drawback of eCMR, but with the right partner and the right solution, data protection is more than guaranteed, as well as its legal and juridical guarantee.

Despite these potential challenges, the advantages of eCMR in terms of efficiency, safety and sustainability outweigh the challenges associated with its implementation.

eCMR software: main features

As one of the challenges is to find a reliable technology partner, we will detail the requirements that an eCMR software must have to comply with the regulations and, thus, really boost the competitiveness of companies in the sector.

In order to implement an eCMR solution in a transport company, in a loading company or in a logistics operator, the most important thing to take into account is that it must have full legal and juridical guarantee.

According to the latest amendment to the ROTT, the electronic consignment note will only have legal and juridical validity when the data provided is accessible to any person authorized to do so; the storage of data and the sending of documents is guaranteed; and it has the advanced electronic signature of all the parties involved.

This ensures absolute protection of the data generated during transport operations and supports drivers in the event of any roadside control.

In this sense, the eCMR process would be as follows:

• Generation of the eCMR by the shipper, including the shipper’s signature.
• Transmission of the document. To the carrier, driver, consignee or authorities.
• Advanced electronic signature of each of the agents.
• Safe storage.
• Real-time tracking and updating of data included in the eCMR.
• Secure archiving and preservation, but accessible to authorized agents.

eCMR or FIELDEAS Track and Trace electronic consignment note

The eCMR is one of the most outstanding modules of FIELDEAS Track and Trace, the most advanced, flexible and secure Supply Chain Visibility platform on the market. This software allows real-time supervision of multimodal transport operations and provides traceability of shipments from origin to delivery at destination by monitoring key information.

Taking into account the advantages and challenges and the main features that an eCMR solution must have, the SeamLess eCMR from FIELDEAS Track and Trace is the only one on the market that offers full legal and juridical guarantee, since it meets all the aforementioned regulatory requirements.

In addition, our solution provides a complete overview of the loading and unloading process, streamlines logistics processes, reduces costs, facilitates document management, eliminates errors in the transmission of information, provides greater transparency, promotes traceability and boosts sustainability.