CO₂ management as competitive advantage through daily automated emissions reporting
A fully automated emissions management system that delivers audit-ready CO₂ data at shipment level on a daily basis? SITRA has turned this ambitious goal into reality.
Summary
SITRA recognized early that data is the new gold in logistics and initiated professional CO2 management driven by management vision rather than customer pressure. As a desk forwarder without direct access to primary data, SITRA built its own Track & Trace system and partnered with shipzero starting in 2019/2020. Despite technical challenges in TMS data export, SITRA worked as a pilot customer with shipzero to establish daily automated data exchange. Today, SITRA achieves very high data quality with audit-ready reports delivered daily instead of monthly, fully automated and validated within 24 hours. By 2026, SITRA plans to launch a customer portal with integrated webshop where customers can calculate emissions per transport and book CO2-neutral options.
SITRA uses shipzero to:
· Deliver audit-ready CO2 data at shipment level on a daily basis through fully automated data exchange and validation within 24 hours
· Achieve very high data quality that supports ISO certification requirements and provides precise emissions data at customer and shipment level via API
· Overcome the challenge of limited primary data access as a desk forwarder through comprehensive data quality management and continuous interface development
· Enable future customer-facing emissions transparency by integrating emissions metrics into their customer portal and webshop, allowing customers to calculate and book CO2-neutral transport
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As a classic desk forwarder without direct access to primary data, SITRA struggled to provide precise emissions data beyond TMS assumptions, requiring a custom Track & Trace system and facing technical hurdles in data export quality.
shipzero partnered with SITRA as a pilot customer for daily automated data exchange, working through technical challenges together and integrating with vimasoft to extract and process high-quality data from the TMS.
Challenge: Limited access to primary data and TMS export difficulties
The initiative for professional CO2 management didn't arise from customer pressure, as is often the case, but was driven by management. SITRA saw the opportunity to position itself early and provide emissions data on a daily basis at customer and shipment level via API. However, the biggest challenge emerged: As a "classic desk forwarder," access to primary data was difficult.
That's why SITRA decided in 2021 to build its own "Track & Trace" system to aggregate more data. The reason: The more precise the emissions data, the lower it often turns out to be, because baseline assumptions are often deliberately conservative. This can save customers real money. SITRA had already become aware of shipzero in 2019/2020. However, the logistics professionals were still asking themselves: "Who needs something like that?" After an initial exchange in 2021, a personal meeting took place a year later at the BVL Congress (now BVL Supply Chain CX), followed by an on-site visit at SITRA. The decision in favor of shipzero was deliberate – the logistics service provider no longer considered alternative providers.
The implementation on shipzero's side proved to be technically challenging and resource intensive. Long development times resulted from difficulties in exporting data from the TMS in the required quality. SITRA was forced to learn the system from the ground up – nearly every change request became a bottleneck. The process was laborious and sometimes took months.
"We had to work based on assumptions; our TMS didn't help us with that."
Solution: Partnership approach with vimasoft integration and continuous development
Today, the service provider vimasoft (also a network recommendation from SITRA) extracts the data from the source system and makes it available for shipzero. The interface is being continuously developed. As a pilot customer of shipzero for daily automated data exchange and data quality management, SITRA went through a long process with ups and downs – but overcame the hurdles together with the technology partner.
The collaboration with shipzero has evolved significantly over time. SITRA particularly appreciates the quick feedback and clear communication. The transparency in communication and jointly overcoming challenges have led to a growing foundation of trust.
"We feel like we're development partners, not just customers."
Results: Daily audit-ready reports and ISO certification support
The results are impressive: SITRA now achieves very high data quality, which also helped with ISO certification. By May 2026, SITRA plans to integrate emissions metrics into its own customer portal.
"The frequency of audit-ready reports has increased from monthly to daily, fully automated and validated within 24 hours."
Outlook: Customer portal with webshop and CO2 calculation for the next generation
The next milestone is just around the corner: In 2026, SITRA plans to launch a new customer portal with its own webshop for transport services. After all, the target audience is getting younger and increasingly prefers digital communication channels. Thanks to the integration of shipzero, customers can calculate the expected emissions per transport – ideally with the option to book CO2-neutral.
Looking ahead, SITRA pursues the goal of also offering Book & Claim as well as alternative freight products. However, this first requires corresponding market demand. With the technological foundation it has created, SITRA is well-equipped to actively shape this development – true to the motto from the logistics service provider's image film: "It's about taking new paths before they become the standard."
SITRA was founded in 1994 as a logistics service provider and is now led by two female managers with extensive logistics expertise from various positions. With 45 employees at two locations in Hamburg and Peine, the company offers land transport throughout Europe with a focus on Germany as an "asset light" trucking forwarder.
An anecdote that says a lot about the company culture: The Peine branch emerged from loyalty to a long-time employee who wanted to follow his girlfriend to Lower Saxony. What began as a studio apartment at an elderly lady's house, who regularly brought homemade cake, has now grown into an eight-person "SITRA shared apartment" in a spacious historic building.
With eight product lines - from full and partial loads to express and special transports, GDP-certified transport, and trade fair logistics - and certifications according to ISO 9001 and 14001, SITRA positions itself as a versatile pioneer. Data analytics is a key success factor in this regard. This includes collaboration with the Technical University of Hamburg, which emerged from a shareholder's network.
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