Towards Rail-Road Online Exchange Platforms in EU-Freight Transportation Markets: An Analysis of Matching Supply and Demand in Multimodal Services

Abstract

The European Union (EU) is confronted with too low a share of inland rail freight transport. The implementation of two-sided online exchanges for rail-road freight transport could increase this share. However, such exchanges focusing on the EU market are mainly designed for single modes of transport. Their matching of supply and demand for multimodal services, especially including rail, is still in its infancy. This paper applies a maturity growth framework to speed up the implementation of such multimodal online exchanges. The framework integrates insights from industrial organization theory, platform economy theory, and maturity growth theory. Online exchanges, summarized in a new taxonomy, are compared to study their practices on matching supply with demand on the exchange, especially for multimodal services. Data is collected from case studies, exchange websites and semi-structured interviews. The analysis shows the emergence of new market actors and business models, including digital freight forwarders. These offer a variety of transport mode solutions for EU inland and EU related global freight transport. Maturity in matching supply and demand appears to result from clear objectives to provide benefits to the exchange participants, notably by digitizing the data for transaction completion and providing real time support for operational issues. In this context of rising online exchanges, especially in road and global multimodal transport (air, ocean, and road), the competition to capture a fragmented freight market seems to steadily increase. A similar maturity analysis of exchanges could not be found.

A multilevel, multi-mode framework for standardization in digital B2B platform eco-systems in international cargo transportation—A multiple case study

“…We did not want to focus on PCS platforms, as they already received abundant research attention and are locally-bounded to a singular port and therefore only provide highly localized insights (Moros-Daza et al, 2020 ). Due to the strong localization, PCS commonly do not cover transportation processes beyond a port’s borders comprehensively and therefore, specialized platforms for these parts of supply and transport chains emerge (Elbert & Gleser, 2019 ; Jain et al, 2020 ), viz. what we call digital freight exchanges.…”

Data-driven forwarding: a typology of digital platforms for road freight transport management

“…Platform-based business in the field of transport logistics has multiple facets enabling freight capacity utilization through matchmaking demand and supply (Caplice & Sheffi, 2003 ; Nandiraju & Regan, 2008 ), facilitating information exchange by commoditized logistics services based on advanced algorithms (Witkowski et al, 2020 ), and supporting transport planning through the automated booking of shipments (Akac et al, 2020 ). In essence, DPs in the road freight transport domain represent multisided platforms (Hagiu & Wright, 2015 ) and can be determined as electronic marketplaces between shippers, freight forwarders, and carriers (Bierwirth et al, 2002 ), often referred to as electronic freight exchange (e.g., Caplice, 2007 ; Jain et al, 2020 ). Möller et al ( 2019 ) distinguish between a digital transport marketplace and a booking platform, while a rigorous boundary of the service capabilities remains vague.…”

“…In light of developing platform business concepts in logistics, especially start-ups without own physical (truck) equipment began offering digital transport services to customers, focusing on data algorithms and digital interfaces centering on digital platforms to ensure digitalized RFTM operations, referred to as “digital forwarder” (Elbert & Gleser, 2019 ; Jain et al, 2020 ). For instance, the companies sennder and Instafreight operate a digital platform-based forwarding business and represent the contractual party to shippers and carriers with direct interaction, including communication.…”

Transport Platforms in the EU towards Sustainable Development

“…The value proposition for online exchanges comes from regularly making data standardized and visible to their participants and markets. As a result, dashboards are provided to participants to track shipments (Jain et al, 2020) continuously. Exchange operators following technological progress offer access to their platforms via mobile devices.…”

“…Regardless of the type of platform in transport, they reduce the adverse environmental effects of the sector through digital technologies. When describing benefits from the value proposition of online solutions considering sustainable development principles, one can point out: in economic (e.g., cost savings, market access), social (e.g., reduction in traffic congestion, ensuring that suppliers follow fair working conditions) and environmental (e.g., reduced emissions) terms (Jain et al, 2020). The main threefold impact of transport platforms on sustainable development is shown in Table 2.…”