The powerful voice of the transportation and logistics industry

Standardization, knowledge sharing and advocacy: these are the three pillars of DALTI, the industry association of ICT suppliers in transport and logistics. According to official secretary René Knapen, DALTI's strength is clear. "By joining forces, we are working together to create a healthy logistics sector in which everyone is heard."

ICT suppliers in transportation and logistics stood alone for years. Due to too little contact with the rest of the industry, working together was often inefficient. And that, in turn, made it expensive. "In this sector, there are many companies that award contracts to each other," says René. "But because everyone had their own way of, for example, file formats, it was always quite a puzzle before you could start working with each other's work. That could obviously be much easier!" And so in 2017, a group of bright minds at DALTI set to work on standardizing their data. 

The sense of standardization

"The demand for one standard message exchange was high. After all, easy contact means faster and therefore cheaper work." The answer to this demand turned out to be the Open Trip Model. an open source partial model that makes the exchange of data between parties easier, thanks to one standard working method in the industry. "Currently, part of the Netherlands is embracing this model and we dare to look across borders. Now first to Germany and later hopefully further within the European Union. Because this demand for standardization is also alive there. The Netherlands often turns out to be a trendsetter in transport and logistics, so hopefully this ICT development will also catch on abroad."

The power of knowledge sharing

Following the success of the Open Trip Model, industry association DALTI was officially established in 2018. It became an organization with more goals than just industry standardization. "We noticed in the industry that there was a need for making new contacts and sharing knowledge. Why should everyone invent the wheel themselves when we can do it together?"

That is why DALTI organizes workshops and meetings for members and their employees. These range from a basic "welcome to the world of transportation and logistics" story to deep, current topics such as Artificial Intelligence. "It's great to see this industry opening up to new insights and information. Many people in the industry have been doing this work for years, yet everyone can still learn something new."

The usefulness of advocacy

Whereas the transport and logistics sector in the Netherlands was previously fragmented, today it has a single point of contact that stands up for everyone's interests. "If the government or another large party wants to talk to the world of ICT suppliers, they now knock on our door first. That efficiency is very welcome for all links." 

Because of the short lines of communication with its members and its huge network of transportation and logistics companies and government agencies, DALTI is always on top of the latest developments in the industry. "And that's what we talk at length about. In the two annual meetings with our members, we talk to each other as if we were one team. We are no longer competitors then, but a group discussing collective challenges. That alliance is strong and the outside world sees that too."

A powerful alliance

Currently, DALTI consists of 50 motivated members. "In the world of ICT suppliers for transport and logistics, that is already a very nice number of key players. Our goal is to make this group even larger within a few years and to be able to look beyond national borders in the future. In this way we can truly be the voice of the entire sector and form one powerful alliance at home and abroad."