Imagine nine major brands like Unilever, Philips, and Panasonic all sending half-empty trucks across Europe on overlapping routes. NEXTRUST got these competitors to share truck space and shift freight onto trains and barges instead. They built cloud software that shows everyone's shipments in real time so loads can be combined and rerouted smarter. The result: fewer trucks on the road, lower costs, and dramatically less pollution — all tested with real shipments under real market conditions.
European logistics is drowning in inefficiency: trucks run half-empty, competing shippers drive the same routes without sharing capacity, and most freight stays on congested roads even when rail and waterway alternatives exist. This wastes fuel, drives up transport costs, and generates massive carbon emissions — a growing liability as sustainability regulations tighten.
The project built cloud-based smart visibility software for real-time freight tracking and collaborative planning, a legal 'trustee' framework with tested contracts for multi-party logistics cooperation, and validated collaborative networks across intermodal rail, waterway, and road transport. Nine demo deliverables were completed including optimised intermodal rail services, waterway backhaul elimination, and full pilot cases in real market conditions.
If you are a consumer goods company dealing with rising transport costs and half-empty trucks crossing Europe — this project developed trusted collaborative networks where competing shippers share capacity. Pilot cases with brands like Beiersdorf, Mondelez, and Unilever demonstrated 20%-40% fewer deliveries and 50%-60% higher load factors across real supply chains.
If you are a logistics provider struggling with empty backhauls and road congestion — this project built cloud-based visibility software and collaborative planning tools that bundle freight volumes across multiple shippers. The platform integrates intermodal rail and waterway options, with pilot cases showing 40%-70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions through modal shift.
If you are a retailer dealing with thousands of supplier deliveries clogging your distribution centres — this project developed methods to optimise supplier planning and real-time shipments. Retailers Colruyt and Delhaize participated directly, testing how bundled and coordinated inbound flows reduce truck movements from a base of over 1,000,000 annual movements.
The project itself received EUR 18,000,000 in EU funding across 35 partners to develop and validate the approach. Individual implementation costs would depend on how many partners join and the scale of freight volumes. The cloud-based visibility software and legal trust frameworks were designed for market adoption, but specific licensing or subscription costs are not detailed in available project data.
This was tested at full industrial scale. Nine major shippers including Unilever, Philips, Panasonic, and Mondelez — collectively representing over 1,000,000 annual truck movements across Europe — participated in pilot cases operated and validated under real market conditions. Both smaller and large pilot cases were run in live commercial settings.
The project developed C-ITS cloud-based smart visibility software and a legal definition of the 'trustee' concept with tested contracts and agreements. Based on available project data, specific IP licensing terms are not publicly detailed. Interested companies should contact the coordinator TX Logistik AG to discuss access.
The consortium spanned 11 countries across Europe including Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, and Poland. The project specifically developed legal frameworks including the 'trustee' concept and tested compliance contracts in demo environments. This cross-border validation makes the approach applicable across European logistics corridors.
The project ran from May 2015 to October 2018, roughly 3.5 years from concept to validated market pilots. However, the approach was designed for accelerated implementation — pilot cases moved from smaller tests to large-scale market validation within that period. Companies joining an existing network would likely see results faster than building from scratch.
The project built C-ITS cloud-based smart visibility software specifically to support re-engineering of logistics networks and real-time utilisation of transport assets. It was designed to work across multiple shippers and logistics providers simultaneously. Based on available project data, integration specifics with existing TMS platforms would need to be discussed with the technology partners.
Pilot cases demonstrated 40%-70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions through modal shift from road to intermodal rail and waterway. Combined with 20%-40% fewer deliveries and 50%-60% higher load factors, these are auditable metrics that directly support corporate sustainability reporting and EU Green Deal compliance.
This is one of the strongest industry-led consortia you will find in EU logistics research. With 30 out of 35 partners from industry (86%) and only 2 universities, this was built for market impact, not academic publishing. The consortium includes nine major multinational shippers — Beiersdorf, Borealis, Colruyt, Delhaize, KC, Mondelez, Panasonic, Philips, and Unilever — alongside 11 SMEs bringing ICT innovation. Coordinated by TX Logistik AG, a German intermodal rail operator, across 11 European countries, the project had direct access to the freight volumes and commercial relationships needed to test collaborative logistics in real conditions. The EUR 18,000,000 budget reflects the scale and ambition of validating these networks across multiple supply chains simultaneously.
TX Logistik AG is a German intermodal rail operator. Their logistics and business development teams would be the right contact for commercial discussions about the collaborative network tools and trustee frameworks developed in this project.
Want to know if NEXTRUST's collaborative logistics approach fits your supply chain? SciTransfer can arrange a direct introduction to the project team and help you evaluate implementation options.
