Bollore Transport & Logistics, Next4, IMT Mines Albi ink pact to develop AI for container tracking

May 18, 2020: Bollore Transport & Logistics, the company Next4 and the IMT Mines Albi engineering school will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a view to developing new traceability functions for goods flows based on the study of data gathered by internet of things (IoT) sensors. 

In particular, the three partners are committed to unlocking synergies between their various fields of activity in order to improve the agility and resilience of the supply chain relative to the transport of containerised goods.

Next4, a partner and supplier of Bolloré Transport & Logistics since 2018, has developed an innovative solution enabling its freight forwarder and shipping company customers to monitor containers around the world. In July 2019, Next4 initiated a joint research lab with IMT Mines Albi to co-design new innovations based on the real-time analysis of data from its trackers using artificial intelligence.

In 2019, Bollore Logistics launched real time monitoring, an offering based on the IoT and smart data processing. Featuring a proactive alert management system, the new solution developed by the B. Lab enables the end-to-end and realtime monitoring of shipments while guaranteeing the integrity of the goods transported.

Seeking to provide Bollore Logistics customers with new optimisation and prediction functionalities, Bollore Transport & Logistics decided to join forces with this pooled research laboratory. The company notably intends to equip shipments with Next4 trackers in order to analyse the data using artificial intelligence models currently under development, and thus propose new services to its customers. It will also be the first to offer functionalities developed via the Next4 platform, itself interfaced with Bolloré Logistics’ Link traceability platform.