Collaboration in the freight industry has the potential to generate significant socio-economic and environmental benefits, and is key to the development of the Physical Internet. Addiciontally, freight service providers would commercially benefit from the reduced operating costs achieved throuth the reduction in the number of trucks, mileage, and increased trailer utilisation, from wich, assuming perfect competition, custormer would ultimately benefit as well.
FSL demonstrates that ther is a win-win for logistics service providers and their customers, where "coopetition" can be delivered through a collaboration platform yielding significant commercial benefits for all participants.
The platform developed by the FSL project partners´Heriot-Watt University and Trakm8 PLC, deploys a multi-fleet logistics optimisation and decision support altorithm, managing those freight logistics assets wich, when combined, deliver a more efficient and environmentally friendly solution.
The Business model developed by Connected Places Catapult ensures that both the original contract holder and those deployed by the FSE platform retain their profit margins and share the differential between the price of the latter and operating costs of the former. Initial results obtained from model simulations with realistic data indicate significatn financial benefits for FSL platform members using the "gain sharing" model, based on game theory.