Electronic consignment note in the combined transport of goods

ZESZY TY N A U K O W E II INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE_______________PO LITEC H NIK I ŚLĄSKIEJ 2002 TRANSPORT SYSTEMS TELEMATICS TST'02 TR A N SPO R T z.45, nr kol 1570

transport economics and organization Robert K R U K 1

W ojciech W A W R Z Y Ń S K I2

ELECTRONIC CONSIGNMENT NOTE IN THE COMBINED TRANSPORT OF GOODS

The combined transport of goods becomes a competitor for the road transport, especially, if it is supported by the fast growing telematic technologies. The example o f this is electronic consignment-note.

Described in paper the form of electronic consignment-note increase speed the information to be transferred and upgrade quality of service by information volume included in such letter. In consequence, the schedule o f transport processes can be easier matched to the needs and expectations of actual and potential clients. So, it can be stated that proposed in the paper the solution becomes the way of participation increasing of combined transport in a whole transport.

ELEKTRONICZNY LIST PRZEWOZOWY W TRANSPORCIE KOMBINOWANYM ŁADUNKÓW

Zastosowanie szybko rozwijających się technologii telematycznych staje się czynnikiem polepszającym konkurencyjność transportu kombinowanego ładunków w stosunku do transportu drogowego. Przykładem takiego działania jest wprowadzenie elektronicznego listu przewozowego.

Przedstawiona forma listu przewozowego zwiększa szybkość przekazywania informacji o przewożonym ładunku, a tym samym usprawnia organizację procesu przewozowego. W liście tym zwiększona jest ilość i jakość przekazywanych informacji oraz podany jest harmonogram procesu przewozowego dając zarazem możliwość kształtowania organizacji przewozu w zależności od aktualnych potrzeb potencjalnych klientów. Zaproponowane rozwiązanie może być elementem zwiększenia roli transportu kombinowanego w przewozach ładunków ogółem.

1. INTR O D U CTIO N

In the last period, com pany business based upon broadly understood inform atics solutions becam e a key condition or econom ic developm ent o f these com panies. The com pany that does not use inform atics and telem atics elem ents in its business becom es less com petitive and develops at a slow er rate. T his is especially true for the com panies dealing in the transportation business m arket [3]. A pplication o f advanced telem atics technologies including those connected w ith quick inform ation exchange about transported passengers and goods, becom es a factor increasing the com petitiveness o f a transport com pany on the transport service market.

1 The Division o f Railways and Transports, The Railways Centre o f Science and Technology, Chlopickicgo 50, 04-275 Warsaw, Poland, rkruk@cnlk.pl

;The Division o f Transport Telecommunication, Faculty of Transport, Warsaw University of Technology, Koszykowa 7 5,00-662 W arsaw, Poland, wwa@it.pw.edu.pl

262 R o b ert K RUK , W ojciech W A W RZYŃSKI

T he telem atics technologies play m ore and m ore im portant role also in the railway transport, including com bined one. T he com bined transport is the m ost developed and com petitive tran sp o rt segm ent in the railw ay transport. An increased role o f inform atics and telem atics in the organization and realization o f forw arding process in the com bined transport is a condition fo r further developm ent o f this transport segm ent, thus increasing the role of railw ay transport in the transport o f goods. O ne o f issues that increase th e role o f telem atics in the com bined transport is an electronic consignm ent note.

2. C O N SIG N M E N T N O TE AS A B A SIC T R A N SP O R T D O C U M EN T

T he consignm ent note is the basic transport docum ent. F ig .l show s the sam ple o f a consignm ent according to the appendix B (C IM ) [2] to the C onvention on International railw ay transport C O T IF [1], T his convention governs the international transport of passengers and goods by railw ays betw een its states-signatories. S ignatories o f COTIF conventions are m ost o f th e countries o f E urope, including P oland, states o f N ear and M iddle E ast and N orthern A frica.

T he C IM consignm ent note contains am ong others the follow ing inform ation:

- sender and addressee, - station o f sending and receipt, - type and w eight o f load, - transport route,

- inform ation ab o u t transport price,

- inform ation identifying w agon(s) w ith the cargo.

T he consignm ent note is being issued on the cargo sen d er’s station and it is transported by train o r trains together w ith the transported goods. In this way, the consignm ent note and the goods it is issued fo r are m oving sim ultaneously. T he rate o f load inform ation circulation depends then o f speed o f transport o f these goods. Inform ation about the goods arrives to each p oint o f transport route at the sam e tim e that th e goods. In the com bined transport, where m ost o f the loads are transported by direct trains betw een tw o interm ediate loading term inals the inform ation about a p articular load unit appears at the receiving term inal at the m om ent of train ’s arrival to this term inal. A ssigned railw ay services subm it the co nsignm ent docum ents to the services m anaging the term inal. Load inform ation circulation runs in parallel w ith the transport o f the load itself. L arge transport o r forw arding com panies dealing w ith railway transport has com puter system s th at “speed up” load inform ation flow , but only w ithin the organization structures o f the com pany itself. T hey are ju s t internal com pany system s and not general system solutions w ith form al and legal authorizations. Instance m ay be the system of advising the load units used by P olzug C om pany [6].

Electronic consignm ent note in the com bined transport o f goods 263

F ig .l. Sample o f first page of a CIM consignment note

3. C O N C E PT O F ELECTRO N IC CO N SIG N M EN T NOTE

T ransfer o f presently applicable consignm ent note from paper to electronic form results in the increased speed o f load inform ation transfer. H owever, possibilities o f telem atics technologies are m uch broader. T he electronic consignm ent note should contain inform ation about the entire transport process and possibilities o f its realization it should be created at the stage o f lo a d ’s unit preparation for transport and to have a possibility o f introducing revisions to the inform ation entries over the duration o f transport.

264 R obert KRUK, W ojciech W AW RZYŃSKI

T h e proposed idea o f electronic consignm ent n o te consists o f three layers differing with inform ation w ritten to them and possibilities o f their revisions.

- layer I - inform ation about the load (load unit),

- layer II - inform ation about the transport process (transport process schedule), - layer III - inform ation about realization o f transport process.

F ig.2 presents the diagram o f proposed form o f electronic consignm ent note together w ith the dependencies betw een specific layers.

L ay er I - Basic inform ation (load, sender, addressee)

L ay er II -

Schedule of tra n s p o rt process (fo rw a rd er/o p era to r o f com bined

X

of the tra n s p o rt process (tra n s p o rt realization services)

^ direction of information flow between layers at creation of the consignment note

^ direction of information flow between layers at revision of the consignment note

Fig.2. Diagram o f layers of an electronic consignment note

3.1. LAYER I - INFORMATION ABOUT THE LOAD

T his layer should contain inform ation about the load and sender and addressee. In particular, this layer should contain the follow ing inform ation:

- type and quantity o f load,

- inform ation identifying the load unit, - w eight o f the loaded unit,

- inform ation about the sender, - place o f sending,

- inform ation about the addressee, - place o f receipt,

- tim e fram e o f the entire transport process, - price o f the transport.

M o st o f the above inform ation is contained in the CIM consignm ent note. W e may assum e that this layer reflects the present consignm ent note supplem ented w ith the inform ation concerning tim e fram e o f the entire transport process. Inform ation in layer I is the c u sto m e r’s inform ation and refer to the cu sto m er’s dispositions concerning the load. Thus, all the revisions to this layer should be m ade only upon their approval by the customer.

Electronic consignm ent note in the com bined transport o f goods 265

3.2. LAYER II - TRANSPORT PROCESS SCHEDULE

This layer contains inform ation concerning planned course o f the entire transport process. T his is, am ong others, inform ation concerning:

- time o f load u n it’s transport from the sender to the sending term inal, - num ber o f train and tim e o f train departure from the sending term inal,

- time o f arrival to the interm ediate term inals and num bers o f trains and departure times o f train w ith the load unit from interm ediate term inals,

- time o f train arrival to the receiving term inal,

- time o f u n it’s travel from receiving term inal to the addressee.

This inform ation constitutes transport process realization schedule. This layer should be created after layer I, as inform ation o f layer I is superior in relation to the inform ation o f layer II. Changes in the entries w ithin layer II should be m ade by the party issuing the consignm ent note (forw arder, com bined transport operator, dispatcher) unless these changes collide with the inform ation entries o f layer I. In the contrary case, first the custom er (disposing o f the load) should be contacted in order to change the arrangem ents and revise the inform ation entries contained in layer I.

3.3. LAYER III - REALIZATION OF TRANSPORT PROCESS

T his layer contains inform ation about the real realization o f the transport process and inform ation about reservation o f place in the wagons for loading the load units in each train o f the entire transport process. In particular, this inform ation pertains to:

arrival o f the unit to the sending term inal (date and tim e o f u n it’s taking over from the custom er, date and tim e o f arrival to the term inal, identification data o f road vehicle), dates and tim es o f train departure from the sending term inal and dates and times o f train arrival to the interm ediate term inals o r receiving term inal,

delivery o f the unit to the receiving term inal (date and hour o f departure from the term inal, date and tim e o f delivery to the addressee, identification data o f road vehicle),

reservation o f loading places in the trains and actual loading o f the unit (train num ber, w agon location w ithin the train, wagon num ber, location o f u n it’s loading place in the w agon).

T he layer III o f the electronic consignm ent note should be created w hen the transport process schedule is know n (layer II) as it depends o f the latter. Inform ation o f layer III should be entered directly by the services realizing the transport process o r directly by the issuer o f the note. I f the present transport process schedule cannot be realized in w hole or in part, first of all the inform ation o f higher layers should be revised (II or I). Changes within the layer (such as change o f the w agon num ber) should take place at the level o f transport process realization services.

Inform ation contained in layer III may be o f im portance during optim ization processes of the superstructure (such as type o f w agon, size o f the train) and infrastructure (such as organization o f interm ediate loading term inals operation) o f com bined transport.

266 R obert K RU K , W ojciech W AW RZYŃSKI

3.4. PARTICIPATION O F EACH LAYER OF ELECTRONIC CONSIGNM ENT NOTE IN THE INFORMATION CIRCULATION DURING THE TRANSPORT PROCESS

Fig.3 represents a diagram o f event dynam ics during use o f an electronic consignm ent note, w ith indication o f role o f each layer. A t the beginning, layer I is being created. Taking into account inform ation o f layer I and inform ation about the possible connection on this route (train tim etables), transport schedule is being created (layer II). Inform ation about realization o f the transport creates layer III.

Fig.3. Diagram o f event dynamics during use o f an electronic consignment note, with indication of role o f each layer

Electronic consignm ent note in the com bined transport o f goods 267

If the transport is being realized in accordance with the schedule, its realization continues till the target location. If there is a discrepancy between the real course w ith the schedule, a new schedule is being created to fit the recom m endations o f the custom er. Then the transport takes place according to the new schedule. If the custom er’s recom m endations are not fulfilled, a contact w ith the client is necessary to update them . T he updated recom m endations are taken into account during creation o f the new schedule. Then the sequence o f events is repeated till the load arrives to the addressee. An im portant feature o f this solution is that the custom er has a possibility to interfere in real tim e with the sequence o f events in the course o f transport process.

4. SUM M ARY

T he concept o f electronic consignm ent note presented above is one o f several proposals how to solve this issue. T he proposed sam ple o f electronic consignm ent letter contains many inform ation ab o u t the load, transport process and realization o f the transport. E xpanding the

“classical” consignm ent letter w ith the detailed inform ation about the actual transport process and its realization increases the am ount o f inform ation available to all the participants o f the transport process, and the form o f this letter gives a possibility to m ake revisions o f entries during the transport period. B y circulating the inform ation about load, w e w ill also include technologies for follow -up o f load in real time, thus obtaining a possibility to locate and control in real tim e the load unit over the entire realization o f transport process. This in turn will enable such shaping o f transport process that the tim e flexibility o f the transport and flexibility o f places o f load sending and receipt are ensured. T im e flexibility represents a possibility o f selection by the client the sending tim e, receipt tim e o r duration o f load transport process. F lexibility o f places o f load sending and receipt means a possibility to transport the load - load unit o f com bined transport - in any transport route. T im e flexibility of transport and flexibility o f load sending and receipt places give opportunities for selection of alternative routes for transport o f load units w ithin the transport connection - in respect o f load sending and receipt tim e as w ell as duration and route o f transport.

BIBLIO GR A PH Y

[1] Convention about international railway transport COTIF of 9 May 1980 r.

[2] Uniform regulations about the conract of international transport of goods by railways (appendix B to the convention COTIF).

[3j BARTCZAK K., Telcmatyka transportu. Problemy Ekonomiki Transportu nr 1/2001. Warsaw 2001.

[4] KRUK R., WAWRZYŃSKI W., Informatycznie wspomagany transport kombinowany źródłem

wzbogacenia oferty przewozowej kolei, Międzynarodowa Konferencja Naukowa Transport XXI WIEKU, Warsaw 2001.

[5] KRUK R. WAWRZYŃSKI W., Wspomaganie informatyczne jako czynnik kształtujący nową ofertę przewozową w transporcie kombinowanym, Konferencja Pojazdy Szynowe 2002, Szklarska Poręba 2002.

[6] SCHULZE-FREYBERG W., Transport towarów w systemie przewozów intermodalnych pomiędzy niemieckimi portami morskimi a Polską, Litwą i Ukrainą. Navigator 13 Logistyka w transporcie szynowym, Oficyna W ydawnicza Politechniki Wrocławskiej, Wrocław 2001.

Review er: Prof. Barbara Kos