320,000 Load Carriers in Digital View. With Logistikbude's Load Carrier Management System (LCMS), Niedermaier Spedition automates the management of its returnable containers.

Niedermaier Spedition GmbH saves around three work hours per day through digital load carrier management. Made possible by Logistikbude's LCMS, which automatically reconciles exchange accounts, provides transparent inventory visibility, and replaces manual email back-and-forth. The spedition's trading partners also benefit from significantly simpler and more transparent processes.

As one of the leading transport and logistics companies with 100 vehicles and 250 employees, Niedermaier Spedition has around 320,000 load carriers in circulation - including 40 different types of load carriers such as euro pallets, E1 and E2 crates, and customer-specific load carriers.

250 Trading Partners, PDFs via Email: Staff Stretched Thin

The team responsible for managing Niedermaier's numerous load carriers consists of five employees. One of them is Nicole Arlt: she works as a load carrier specialist and was involved in implementing the new software. Previously, the logistics company relied on an in-house system that posed significant challenges for the team.

"In our previous workflow, we manually reconciled inventory with all 250 partners. We were increasingly reaching our breaking point," says Arlt.

These reconciliation processes consumed significant time, particularly when sending load carrier account statements. For each exchange account, the system generated a PDF that had to be manually emailed to the respective trading partner for review and confirmation. One full-time employee, one part-time employee, and one apprentice were exclusively occupied with booking processes and exchange account management.

The Niedermaier team had therefore been searching for a new solution for some time and evaluated various load carrier management systems.

"None of them were workable," says Arlt. "We would have had to rebuild our entire processes from scratch in overly complicated system environments—we simply didn't have the bandwidth for that."

Niedermaier learned about Logistikbude by chance: "During a meeting with the Nagel-Group, it turned out that they were also considering implementation. It was perfect timing and a strong indicator that Niedermaier and Logistikbude were a perfect fit," Arlt explains.

Automatically Reconcile Exchange Accounts Instead of Manual Email

Dortmund-based Logistikbude has introduced a new software category for digital load carrier management with its proprietary Load Carrier Management System (LCMS). As an LCMS, it fully automates the management of pallets, racks, and containers, eliminating manual, error-prone processes. To do this, the platform integrates existing systems such as warehouse and transport management (WMS and TMS) and supplements missing information through IoT sensors and AI-powered features.

Logistikbude's software has completely transformed Niedermaier's load carrier account management. Cycles and send dates are defined once, then the system automatically sends partners a web link. With one click, partners can view their inventory, payables, and receivables directly in their browser, review everything, and adjust as needed—complete with supporting documents. This eliminates all email back-and-forth.

"In total, we're saving three work hours per day across our entire team," Arlt sums up.

Account setup and maintenance have also become significantly more efficient: master data was imported via CSV from the legacy system, and new accounts are created automatically through an interface to Niedermaier's existing TMS. The load carriers to be managed are pulled directly from order data and automatically booked. This makes the solution a significant relief not only for Niedermaier itself, but also for its trading partners.

Standard Processes as Foundation, Custom Adjustments in Operation

What proved decisive for Niedermaier was the solution's practical, real-world focus.

"Our LCMS incorporates established load carrier management processes from the start, making it immediately operational," says Dr. Philipp Hüning, co-founder and CEO of Logistikbude.

The team then works with the customer to add specific requirements. After comprehensive testing, the solution goes live. "This enables rapid implementation without losing sight of individual operational needs," says Hüning.

During implementation, Logistikbude also provided support through weekly check-in meetings to prevent issues before they could impact operations. Arlt explains:

"The go-live was completely seamless and totally surprised us. It was the least stressful system migration we've ever had."

New Mindset for Greater Efficiency

Beyond that, the solution created a new mindset within the Niedermaier team: processes are now fundamentally questioned and reworked. While Logistikbude continuously develops the software, Niedermaier also achieves increasingly better results in daily operations. That's why the two companies regularly exchange ideas on new developments even after successful implementation.

"We want to create even more efficiency and time savings. That's why we're working together to identify which other processes we can automate," says Arlt.

Industry-standard practice still often involves classic delivery notes from partners, where inventory is recorded manually. To automatically process these paper documents as well, Niedermaier now uses Logistikbude's AI Agent, which uses artificial intelligence to read and process both documents like PDFs and handwritten data. Going forward, the company plans to further automate inventory processes.

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