Disruptions – congestion, border delays, capacity shortages and changing rules – are part of daily operations. Digitalisation cannot remove that uncertainty, but it can help to react faster. CEVA Logistics provides one example of how.
In a disruptive and complex freight environment, digitalisation can bring something extremely valuable: speed.
Dispatchers need to simultaneously account for traffic, dock congestion, vehicle capacity, loading configurations, dwell times and changing customer requirements.
This is where digital tools can make a difference.
For example, IRU member CEVA Logistics is using an AI-powered route dispatching tool across more than 40 locations in the US.
The results include a 40% boost in planning productivity, fewer routes, higher cargo volumes and improved on-time delivery performance.
Following the US deployment, CEVA looks to expand its AI route-planning tool to France and the UK. It also plans to apply its milk-run optimisation – where one vehicle collects from multiple suppliers along a fixed route before delivering them to a single location – to dedicated full- and part-truckload services in the US.
From automation to better decisions
By automating consolidation, route planning and dispatching, operators can reduce time spent on repetitive tasks. They can instead focus more on exceptions, customers and situations where human judgement matters.
The same principle applies to visibility. Live vehicle positioning, estimated arrival times, route monitoring and alerts can give operations teams earlier warning when something starts to go wrong.
“The point is not simply to automate more,” said Pierre-Alain Saclier, Vice President of Global Consumer & Retail at CEVA Logistics. “It is to reduce the time between a problem emerging and a decision being taken.”
Every minute matters
This becomes particularly clear in time-critical freight.
Urgent healthcare or industrial shipments leave little margin for delay. An hour’s delay in information can change the entire transport plan.
Through its dedicated 24/7 time-critical control towers, CEVA oversees every shipment with continuous real-time tracking, proactive status updates, and rapid contingency management from pickup to delivery.
That speed is becoming even more important as operating conditions grow more complex.
Since July 2026, light commercial vehicles used in international EU transport have been subject to driving and rest time rules and tachograph requirements. For time-critical operations, this can make traditional point-to-point models more difficult to maintain.
Relay models offer one response. Freight can continue moving between strategically located hubs while drivers remain compliant with driving and rest rules.
“Such models depend on visibility and coordination,” said Pierre-Alain Saclier. “Operators need to know vehicle locations, expected arrival times and where intervention is needed. The more complex the network becomes, the more valuable that information is.”
Connecting the pieces
Route planning affects fuel use, capacity and delivery times.
Driver availability also affects all three.
The same goes for border delays, maintenance and other aspects of road freight.
“The biggest gains may increasingly come from connecting systems across all these aspects rather than optimising them separately,” said Pierre-Alain Saclier.
“Digitalisation cannot remove disruption. But it can give operators more time to understand it, respond to it and keep freight moving,” he concluded.