(Frankfurt am Main/Dürrenäsch, 28 April 2023) The two companies Bertschi AG and Kombiverkehr KG have exchanged the first bookings via the KV4.0 data hub. Last Wednesday, intermodal transports in the Frankfurt operator's network were successfully booked in via the new IT solution for the first time. Order data from the Swiss freight forwarding and logistics company was transmitted to the data hub in EDIGES 4.1 format via an interface and automatically retrieved from there by the Kombiverkehr capacity and train management system for further internal processing.

Kombiverkehr KG already makes timetable, train running and booking data available to other users via the data hub. Terminals and rail transport companies have also started to feed their transport data into the hub in recent weeks and will be able to share it with authorised third parties in future. This includes, for example, data on the estimated time of pick-up. In the future, all other status messages that arise along the intermodal transport chain will also be exchanged via the data hub.

"What once began with a joint research project has been turned into reality this week", says Christoph Büchner, Head of IT at Kombiverkehr, delighted about this significant milestone in the digitalisation of intermodal transport. "With this, together with all the other companies that have worked intensively on this, we are demonstrating that greater standardisation of business processes between all the players in the intermodal transport chain can actually be achieved. The advantage for each company is clear: with only one technical interface and a uniform data format, we reduce the effort of implementing and maintaining interfaces many times over. A single interface is sufficient to technically network with a multitude of partners and exchange transport data."

"We are pleased to be able to take this important step towards standardisation and digitalisation in combined transport as part of the KV4.0 project together with Kombiverkehr and other players," confirms Sandra Stierli, Team Leader Software Development Transport Europe at Bertschi. "The simplified and faster exchange of data via a central hub will further increase the visibility of the transport chain."

With the help of the KV4.0 data hub, forwarders can exchange all data of their intermodal transports between the combined transport operators and their own in-house system, including all RU and terminal data. The system allows access to schedules, bookings, terminal status messages, train running data and pre- and post-carriage information on the road. The data exchange takes place in real time and without barriers, but always exclusively within an authorised distribution circle. The hub is marketed by DX Intermodal GmbH.