DHL makes bid for European freight with CILLOX platform

A mere three months after announcing their intention to introduce a digital freight platform, DHL Group has launched CILLOX, a virtual marketplace that matches full truckload (FTL), part truckload (PTL) and less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments with available transportation providers. The platform is now available for management of freight travelling within Germany or from Germany to destinations in Europe.
Amadou Diallo, Executive Vice President Value Added Services & Integrated Logistics at DHL Global Forwarding and CEO CILLOX said, “Our main objective is to make the platform as convenient as possible in order to simplify our customer’s lives and we will continuously evolve the platform according to user needs and feedback.”
According to DHL, CILLOX connects companies with freight shipping needs with transport providers for their particular cargo – without time-consuming negotiations and difficult comparisons of prices and services. “Shippers get immediate access to pricing information based on their shipment characteristics, availability of trucks and last-booked rates,” the company said. “This enables a better comparison and booking of incoming quotes from transport providers. CILLOX offers the freedom of choice of a marketplace, as shippers choose and book the transport provider that best fits their requirements yet enjoy a single point of contact with CILLOX as their contract partner.”
For transport providers, CILLOX provides a platform to present their company’s assets and capabilities to a large audience of shippers so they can find suitable loads to optimise the utilisation of their trucks. “A dynamic transport quote calculator – derived from a continuously growing real-time database combined with analysis of substantial transacted data collected over the years – will assist transport companies to make competitive quotes for each shipment and help them succeed in winning the loads they need,” the company said.
CILLOX also provides a single interface for tracking, documentation and payment processes, and shippers are able to track fulfilment progress and receive real-time notifications via their personalised dashboard in case of delays. The CILLOX driver mobile application matches the GPS position of trucks to the pick-up and delivery addresses of their routes, and reminds drivers to confirm crucial milestones or to document issues. A document scanner integrated into the driver application allows drivers to scan and submit delivery documents with their mobile phone cameras, accelerating payment to transport providers to a matter of days.
While DHL has expressed an intention to roll the platform out over other geographical areas, there is no word as yet on when CILLOX will arrive in Australia.