Providing standards, tools and services
for the automotive supply chain

Finished Vehicle Logistics

Digitalising Vehicle distribution. A cooperation between Odette and ECG

About

Finished vehicle logistics concerns the activities involved in the movement of a vehicle from the time it leaves the OEM production line until it reaches the dealer or final customer. Besides the actual transport of the vehicle, which can be made by road, rail, sea and even air, other important activities include storage, post-production modification, maintenance, repair and pre-delivery inspection.

This is a highly specialised sector of the transportation industry with very specific requirements but while the digitalisation of supply chain processes upstream from the vehicle manufacturers has been underway for many years, the downstream processes have been somewhat overlooked in the drive towards standardisation. Each major player developed their own proprietary solution which posed a serious challenge for logistics service providers and limited the flexibility of OEMs to improve their distribution processes.

In 2019 Odette and ECG, the Association of European Vehicle Logistics, formed an alliance to share experience and develop standards that meet the business requirements of both the OEMs and their service providers in outbound logistics.

The first result of this alliance was a set of UN/EDIFACT and XML messages covering the complete FVL communication process. Published in 2020, this message set is now being implemented by several vehicle manufacturers, compound operators and vehicle forwarders and has seen further enhancements arising from the implementation experience. Following this initial success, ECG and Odette have worked together to produce a set of KPIs for FVL and a standardised VIN label to make vehicle processing more efficient and to include the latest information requirements such as Fuel Type.

News

  • news

    New tool accelerates the logistics flow for finished vehicles

    09 Jan 2023

    ECG and Odette have come together to develop a ground-breaking standard for VIN labels to help overcome inefficiencies in the process of delivering finished vehicles to its final destination. And it’s already under deployment by Volvo Cars worldwide.

  • news

    Fast track updates speed FVL digitalisation for German automakers

    06 Jan 2023

    Odette continues to support European vehicle manufacturers as they start to implement the standard digital messages developed by Odette, ECG and VDA to support communication across all Finished Vehicle Logistics processes.

    BMW and VW are now well advanced in the introduction of the messages with their FV LSP partners

  • news

    KPIs for Finished Vehicle Logistics

    31 May 2022

    Vehicle manufacturers use KPIs to measure the performance of their LSPs but even if there has often been some commonality of purpose, the methods of measurement have not always been the same and standardisation was much needed.

Initiatives

Finished Vehicle Logistics Implementation Group

Following the joint development of several tools and recommendations aimed at accelerating the digitalisation of finished vehicle distribution processes, Odette and ECG continue their collaboration to improve existing and new requirements.

Resources

RFID in Vehicle Distribution Processes

This Odette recommendation describes the processes and methods of tracking and tracing vehicles in the distribution processes from factory to dealer using RFID technology and a smart label. It has been developed to move towards achieving widespread standardisation of RFID component usage, tag data storage and RFID technology implementation across vehicle distribution chains.

Reference LR02

Version 1.0

Published Jan 2010

VIN Labels in the Vehicle Distribution Process

Developed by Odette and ECG, this recommendation has the following objectives:

- Define a standard location and fixing method for the vehicle identification label
- Recommend a size and layout for the vehicle identification label
- Define a minimum content for the vehicle identification label
- Recommend a bar-coding standard
- Provide recommendations for the quality of the vehicle identification label

Reference FV26

Version 1.0

Published Nov 2022

Digitalisation of Finished Vehicle Logistics

This Recommendation covers typical logistics and service processes undertaken in the distribution of finished vehicles between vehicle manufacturers and their dealerships or other end customers. It specifies standard electronic messages for automated data exchange between vehicle manufacturers (or other shippers) and providers of logistic services. These logistics services can include transport, storage, maintenance, repair and any other actions that may be required during the movement of vehicles from the manufacturer to the dealership.

A set of messages associated with this Recommendation has been developed to cover all communication processes currently defined as being required between partners (vehicle shippers and logistics service providers) in the Finished Vehicle distribution chain.

Reference FV00

Version 1.00

Published Jun 2020

FVL EDIFACT Messages

EDI Implementation Guidelines

A suite of 12 EDIFACT messages have been developed jointly by ECG, Odette and VDA to cover the entire outbound logistics processes as described in the Finished Vehicle Logistics Process Description (FV00). The publication also includes example use cases and sample messages for each logistics process.

Reference FV01-FV12

Version 1.1

Published Sept 2022

FVL Vehicle Transport Forecast Message

XML Implementation Guideline

Reference FV13a

Version 1.1

Published Sept 2022

Reference FV13b

Version 1.1

Published Sept 2022

FVL Vehicle Transport Order Message

XML Implementation Guideline

Reference FV14a

Version 1.2

Published Dec 2022

FVL Vehicle Transport Order Response Message

XML Implementation Guideline

Reference FV14b

Version 1.2

Published Dec 2022

FVL Vehicle Status Request Message

XML Implementation Guideline

Reference FV15

Version 1.1

Published Sept 2022

FVL Vehicle Status Report Message

XML Implementation Guideline

Reference FV16

Version 1.1

Published Sept 2022

FVL Vehicle Transport Status Report Message

XML Implementation Guideline

Reference FV17

Version 1.2

Published Dec 2022

FVL Vehicle Service Order Message

XML Implementation Guideline

Reference FV18

Version 1.2

Published Dec 2022

FVL Vehicle Inventory Report Message

XML Implementation Guideline

Reference FV19

Version 1.1

Published Sept 2022

FVL Vehicle Damage Report Message

XML Implementation Guideline

Sent to communicate damage information from the LSP to the OEM.

Reference FV20

Version 1.1

Published Sept 2022

FVL Compound Geo Fence Data Message

XML Implementation Guideline

Reference FV21

Version 1.1

Published Sept 2022

FVL Envelope

XML Implementation Guideline

Reference FV22

Version 1.2

Published Dec 2022

Reference FV23

Version 1.2

Published Dec 2022

Key Performance Indicators for Finished Vehicle Logistics

Provides a consolidation of existing and new KPIs for use between OEMs and logistics service providers involved in the transport of the finished vehicles and their interim storage during the transport process.

Includes a definition of 9 indicators (objectives, scope, how to measure) and a description of application and communication conditions.

Reference FV25

Version 1.0

Published May 2022

Vehicle and Transport Status Code List

This Code List document is a support for the FVL messages which are used to provide status information related to individual vehicles and to any truck on which they are being transported. It is published separately because it is expected to be more volatile than the specifications of the status report messages themselves.

The status report messages involved are FV09/FV12 (EDIFACT) and FV16/FV17 (XML).

Reference FV24

Version 1.2

Published Jan 2023