Electronic EFTCO Cleaning Document (eECD) Solution
The electronic EFTCO Cleaning Document (eECD) is the new digital variant of the paper EFTCO Cleaning Document or paper ECD.
Tank cleaning is a cornerstone in the logistics process for which safety, quality and operational efficiency must be safeguarded. To achieve this goal, EFTCO, ECTA and CEFIC developed in 2005 a uniform EFTCO Cleaning Document or ECD of which in 2022, more than 4.000.000 paper ECD’s are issued annually in 4-fold!
More info about the ECD or EFTCO cleaning document can be found on the EFTCO website.
To improve the efficiency, sustainability and compliancy, the paper ECD copies are now fully digitalized and turned into a collaborative eECD process. This digitalized process works in closed loops whereby all actors have a digital licence and overcomes the typical administrative burdens of a paper driven process.
A more descriptive background of the eECD process can be found in the ECTA best practice guideline about digital documents eCMR and eECD from Jan 2021.
The latest process description and systems user manual is available for companies subscribing to the eECD Use Case. Find under “my login” on this website or within the eECD application.
The benefits at industry level exceed 16M€ per year and can be summarized as follows:
- Less truck rejections -real time notifications
- Increased asset utilization
- Fast Lane efficiency increase at loading gates
- Reduced administration costs
- Reduced IT complexity thanks to an industry process harmonization
- Reduced cross-contamination risks
As of Q2 2023, ECLIC launches the enhanced eECD 2.0 solution. With the new 2.0 process, the problem of coexistence between paper and digital is solved by creating a “hybrid” document. All actors will be able to scan the unique QR code and check the eECD on validity even if they do not have an eECD licence. With eECD 2.0 each actor can digitalize at their own speed and decide to use the paper ECD’s, the digital eECD 2.0 paper copy with QR code or the full enabled digital solution without any paper.
While paper ECD’s are still the norm today, this upgrade towards the new eECD 2.0 “hybrid” solution will allow a faster digital adoption and transition while keeping one uniform industry way of working across all actors in Europe.
A communication flyer was issued in support of the eECD 2.0 project in November 2022 and can be found here.
The eECD within the enhanced eECD 2.0 process will contain a new compliancy score. This compliancy score is an extra box number 16 printed on each and is eECD specific. This score not only gives an insight which actors have been actively contributing to this eECD it also indicates if the data used within the cleaning process are provided from the source.
This compliancy score is not static and is being built up dynamically throughout the end to end cleaning, planning and loading process. The higher the digital compliancy score, the more “stars” are added and the higher the level of digital collaboration amongst all actors. Besides, the more stars, the higher the data accuracy level because the data have been used from the right primary source and time stamps have been added. To ensure you have the latest eECD 2.0 compliancy score you will need to scan the eECD QR code.
In comparison, the paper ECD will have no compliancy score because all data on paper can be changed/overwritten over time.
The digital eECD process is built in the cloud using API or application programming interface connections. Please note that same connectivity methodology is used for all ECLIC solutions (ePPL, eECO, eDD, eEQUIP,…) so that only one interface needs to be built which can be re-used for other Use Cases.
The API connectivity allows a company to use the solution´s process through its stand alone eECD web application or, in case of larger volumes, can be interfaced via its API calls through any other cleaning, TMS, YMS or ERP software. This eECD API connectivity is flexible and avoids that logistics data should not be typed over when different actors work in different systems. Depending on the company role (carrier, cleaner, loader) and required functionalities, an API connection can be build between the eECD platform and your local system.
Given that ECLIC is a not for profit association, these API’s are granted to IT solution providers free of charge. An overview of the available eECD API’s can be consulted via github.
In case an IT solution provider or software vendor wants to help one of their licenced customer(s) to connect to the eECD platform, they can send an information request to info@eclic.eu to obtain an account. Obviously, they will need the approval of an licenced customer.