Actual I.T. has successfully completed the DigLogs Interreg project as an active partner and WP5 leader. Â We are proud, in particular, of our Deliveries Planning pilot, developed within the DigLogs project in cooperation with PoloInoltra. We hope that our DelPlan route selection algortihm developed as the engine of the pilot will continue its footpath towards future digitalization enhancements in the Transporrt&Logistics sector.
DelPlan videoclip: https://youtu.be/ypDE8I5gkDg
DelPlan application landing page: https://diglogs.portline.eu/about/
The DigLogs Final Event and Partners meeting has taken place on 1st and 2nd December 2021 in Venice. As WP5 package leader, Actual’s PM has witnessed the final pilot presentations, checked the status of all 7 pilot actions, their required deliverables and timeframes, making sure all has been completed as per AF. Actual’s PM provided reminders and instructions to the pilot PPs on how to finalize the missing WP5 deliverables and fulfill the project objectives, following up on their timely completion. Actual and LP presented the Transferability Plan and the expectations from each partner in regards to the last deliverable, the Action Plan, providing the guidelines and clarifications to the project partners. Actual’s PM has actively participated in the follow up project discussion, sourcing the ideas for the possible projects to be. Actual has concluded its project footprint at the Final Steering Committee meeting, followed by the final networking event with project partners.
You can find all the pilot video clips and project information at the project website:
https://www.italy-croatia.eu/web/diglogs
As part of the DigLogs project, under the Interreg Italy-Croatia programme, Actual I.T. has developed a specific graph traversal algorithm to solve the Deliveries Planning  problem. The first prototype of the DelPlan application has been completed as planned, by 8th June. Below is the pilot action description and the diagram of the solution design.
Deliveries Planning pilot description:
At present, Carriers have high operational costs due to the complexity of the intermodal shipments planning management. At the same time, the decision-making process when setting a specific route for a service could be affected by personal bias, resulting in an inefficient service routing, with consequently higher costs. Another major problem is caused by the complexity in re-routing services in case of unexpected events, including delays, traffic, weather, and other variables. Due to the complexity of rerouting services, the unreliability of Estimated Time of Arrivals (ETAs) can mislead users and make the intermodal services less competitive than the standard ones.
The creation of an automated Deliveries Planning system aims at preventing these issues, by guiding the operator throughout the decision-making process, showing the various alternatives for an intermodal service, allowing to book in advance the service needed, simplifying the procedures for Custom Declarations and the processing of Dangerous Goods. At the same time, the system would allow a track and trace system to guide the whole service, reprocessing ETD considering traffic and weather conditions.
The PCS Automation – Deliveries Planning pilot aims at creating and testing a Deliveries Planning module, which could in the future extend the Port Community Systems. The Deliveries Planning Technology aims at providing an improved knowledge for operators in the decision-making process for the shipment routing through comparison of multimodal services in terms of prices, transit times and schedules, matching ITUs requirements/compatibility with the vessel, shipment requirements and Dangerous Goods limitations, while providing re-routing options based on traffic & weather conditions. The full scope of the Deliveries Planning innovation system aims at guiding the operator with an automatic booking process (including Custom Declarations and Dangerous Goods processing), then follows the shipment through a Track&Trace system, giving a real-time updated ETA, and finally provides emission certificates at the end of the journey.
The pilot application focuses its scope on the route selection algorithm, exploring all the parameters that might affect the selection and establishing the criteria for prioritizing optimal route selection. It examines the circumstances and parameters that might cause rerouting at each node along the chosen route. Finally, it will examine KPIs for calculating route performance and provide comparison reports among different available options, as well as comparison between planned (nominated) and completed (travelled) route performance.
Figure 1: Deliveries Planning – Pilot Solution Design
The 5th DigLogs Partner meeting, under the Interreg Italy-Croatia programme, has taken place on 8th and 9th June online, due to COVID-19 restrictions. The focus of this meeting was the presentation of the 7 pilot projects and their progress. Actual I.T., as the WP5 leader, reviewed the pilot progress, concluding that all pilot actions were proceeding fine and are well on target, with valuable results for the DigLogs project and its objectives. Actual I.T. then outlined the next steps, gave guidelines and emphasized the expected deliverables from each partner. Finally, Actual and LP presented the Transferability Plan template and related methodology, with the expectations from each partner. The Steering Committee discussion focused on the preparations for the final Partner Meeting and the Final Event plan for December 2021.
Actaul is playing a crucial role in the final phase of the DigLogs project, WP5 – Project pilots implementation, with the following objectives:
- to test the most valuable solutions mapped in the previous work packages
- to demonstrate reliability and applicability of innovative solutions assessed to a larger group of stakeholders
- to improve hubs performances towards multimodality management and passengers mobility improvement
- to determine transferability measures to allow players outside the partnership to adopt tested solutions
- to collect together precise indications to guarantee project results durability
Seven pilots are to be implemented under Actual’s WP supervision, related to the freight and passenger sector. As the WP5 package leader, Actual has been steering the pilot project partners’ actions, reviewing in details each Pilot Work Plan (PWP), making sure pilots are in accordance with the AF and delivery of the WP5 objectives. At the same time, as the only technological partner within the partnership, Actual has performed technical reviews of all the PWPs. Most importantly, Actual is engaged as the developer of one of the freight pilots: the Deliveries Planning pilot, to be implemented with the project partner Polo Inoltra.
The 4th DigLogs  Partner meeting, under the Interreg Italy-Croatia programme, has taken place on 22nd and 23rd October online, due to COVID-19 restrictions. As WP5 leader, Actual has presented the objectives, plan, detailed tasks for each partner and timeline for WP5, emphasized once again the impact of WP4 results on WP5, providing clear guidelines for the WP5 activities. Actual has developed methodology for WP5, as well as template for Pilot Work Plan (PWP) and presented its content, tasks, responsibilities and expected deliverables from each partner. Actual has also very proactively participated in all the discussions, related to WP4 and WP2 activities and their alignment with the methodology.
 
In accordance with COVID-19 containment measures, since 16th March 2020 Actual d.o.o, the partner in the EU funded project DigLogs under the Interreg Italy-Croatia programme, has been operating mainly remotely through the smart working, in order to reduce the movement of people and direct contacts as much as possible. Despite the limitations, we continued to deliver the highest levels of quality, performance, availability and security for our clients.
DigLogs project activities have been continued via e-mail, skype and Zoom platform, in order to continue the uninterrupted execution. Actual staff is used to work remotely, applying suitable online tools and using social skills, in order to provide high quality of service. Our project tasks have been executing in a timely manner. Our response time is as normal. However, additional time and effort has been invested in communication activities with clients who are not up to speed with smart working, in order to ensure smooth project execution.
The 3rd DigLogs Partner meeting, under the Interreg Italy-Croatia programme, has taken place on 7th and 8th April on Zoom platform. The discussions were very intense and effective. Actual has very proactively participated in all the discussions, related to WP4 and WP2 methodology and activities. We have presented the strategy for WP5, explained the impact of WP4 activities and results on WP5, and provided clear guidelines in advance for the WP5 activities.
The nature of WP4 activities, as well as WP2 communication targets, requires intense bi-directional contacts with target groups, which would be much harder to achieve in the current circumstances due to CoVid19 outbreak, especially for the Italian partners. The issue has been brought up at the Steering committee, following the 3rd partners meeting on Zoom. Most partners expressed the willingness to deploy efforts in remote communication and try meeting the targets in due time.
