iPort Rail App

Development and Demonstration of a collaborative Digital Platform Solution to Substantially Improve the Rail-Road Freight Interface This project aims to help address a strategic need to develop a capability of Flexible Freight in the rail sector through the development of a digital platform that will enable diverse actors within the rail-road freight supply chain (incl. Freight Forwarders (FFs), Freight Operating Companies (FOCs), road haulage and end-customers) to contract for rail-connected logistics services, easily and cost-effectively. The collaborative platform will enable more efficient linkage between container-based rail freight arriving at an inland port and its onward journey by road to the end customer. The project will prototype and demonstrate various manifestations of the platform (apps), such as a mobile smart device that links rail container freight with local road logistics companies to facilitate speedier and more efficient off-loading and loading of containers. The platform will create 4 interfaces (apps) with the following stakeholders: (a) Rail freight companies that want to take orders for train fulfilment (to run trains at capacity), (b) Road Hauliers to bid for ‘final mile deliveries’ from the port to the end-customer and recover back-loads, (c) FFs looking to ‘place orders’ to move containers from the seaports to the customer, using rail, (d) End-customers for visibility of their container movement to integrate their operations with logistics. The project will prototype the digital platform and field-test it in an operational rail freight environment at iPort Rail in Doncaster, with other actors in the supply chain also contributing to the field-testing, including a road haulage company and a Freight Forwarding company. It is anticipated that there will be multiple stakeholders attracted by the benefits of the platform, evidenced through the field trials at iPort Rail, in terms of the reduction of waste and locked-in value within the current logistics delivery system. Adoption of the solution is expected to make a significant contribution to increasing rail freight capacity, reducing carbon, improving customer satisfaction and reducing costs. At a time when the digital transformation of every industry is well and truly underway, this project will lead the next revolution in logistics and ensure that rail-freight is at the heart of this revolution.