When it comes to Europe’s relationship with digital sovereignty, the discussion often begins with technology. However, in reality, it begins much earlier than that with the question of whether critical processes will still function when disrupted by new systems, new regulations and adapting partners – all moving at different speeds.
In logistics, this is no longer a theoretical perspective but is essentially the norm. Every day, supply chains depend on thousands of interactions between companies, authorities, customers, transport providers and tech platforms. As these interactions dictate how goods move across borders, we need to make sure the data moves with them. Documents, status information, customs-related data, shipment updates and operational decisions all need to travel reliably and, to a great extent, more fluidly through this highly fragmented environment.
That’s why logistics can be seen as one of the most relevant test cases for Europe’s digital sovereignty. Not because it is the most visible sector in the digital debate, but because it exposes the challenges daily under very real operational pressure.
When software becomes critical infrastructure
For too long, software in logistics was seen mainly as a supporting tool. It helped us plan routes, manage warehouses, track shipments, exchange documents and improve transparency. While this remains true, these processes were often handled within the boundaries of individual companies or specific systems.
Undoubtedly, that model is now changing. As transport documentation becomes increasingly digital in nature and the regulatory requirements that dictate it are maturing across Europe (albeit at a fragmented pace as well), software is no longer simply supporting logistics. It is quickly becoming an integral part of the infrastructure that makes logistics, with its built-in fragmented nature, possible.
This shift has changed the role of IT fundamentally. When software becomes infrastructure, then it has to be treated with the same level of seriousness as any other critical foundation. In a perfect world it has to be dependable. It must be secure. It must be adaptable. And, most importantly, it must be built in a way that allows many different independent actors to collaborate without creating new dependencies.
At Rhenus, we often describe IT as the heartbeat of logistics. And with good reason. The analogy highlights a very practical reality: IT provides the stable digital foundations that keep supply chains running. AI, automation and predictive logistics can create significant value, but only when the underlying systems can exchange data reliably and securely.
That is why I believe that the future of digital logistics will not be decided by the most exciting technology alone. It will be decided by the quality and strength of the digital foundations it sits upon.
Fragmentation changes everything
The logistics industry knows fragmentation very well. Our daily reality shows that no single company controls the full supply chain. Our understanding of this is what makes logistics efficient and global, yet the more we expand and intertwine, the more our digital transformation grows in complexity too.
Not too long ago, when processes were essentially completely paper-based, fragmentation was visible but manageable. Of course, it created delays, manual work and inefficiencies, but our people and teams could often bridge the gaps. Over time, as processes become more digital, the fragmentation itself takes on a different form, becoming less visible, but far more structural.
A digital document that cannot be read by another system is not progressing. A national implementation that cannot connect to a neighboring market is not sovereign. A platform that creates new dependencies is not resilient.
This is the key lesson logistics can offer the wider European debate on the matter. Digital sovereignty is not achieved by replacing paper with software. It only works when digital systems remain controllable, interoperable and resilient over time to new surprises.
It also can’t be achieved in a bubble. In a sector like logistics, isolation is simply impossible; every participant depends on others. Control therefore takes on a different meaning. It’s now more about how companies and public institutions come to understand, influence, and adapt the systems on which they depend. It means that critical processes are not shaped simply by the roadmap of one vendor, one platform or one national mandate. Control truly means ensuring our digital infrastructures have the ability to evolve with the needs of the market, regulations, and society as a whole. This is where standards and open source become more than technical preference. Now, they can become governance tools too.
Standards as a shared language
Open standards allow independent systems to speak to each other and work together. Without open standards, each connection becomes a case on its own where every interface requires negotiation, adaptation and maintenance. That may be possible between a small number of partners but simply does not scale across an industry.
With open source, we add a much-needed additional dimension that creates transparency. It allows different actors to contribute to common solutions. It reduces dependency on individual providers. It lets us approach industry problems from a collaborative-first position. In logistics, this truly matters because many of the challenges we all face are not competitive differentiators, but actually common foundations.
No company gains leverage when a freight document cannot be exchanged. None of us gain an edge when a border process is digitally incompatible. None of our customers benefit from duplicated integrations that solve the same problems in a myriad of different ways. These are areas where collaboration doesn’t weaken competition but, in fact, strengthens the inherent ability of the whole sector to operate better.
That is why, as an industry (and this goes far beyond just the logistics industry), we simply must strive across companies and competitors to adapt to regulation and enable trust between partners. Open source approaches are one of the most valuable ways to make this work at scale.
The Open Logistics Foundation is an important example of this logic in action. Its goal is not to create homogeneity among companies, but to create common building blocks where shared problems exist. In areas such as electronic freight documentation, for example, the industry needs solutions that are open, usable, and trusted by many participants. So, openness is not an abstract ideal but a common understanding that shared problems require shared foundations.
This is also a matter of digital resilience. Resilience is often connected to security, redundancy or crisis response. While those elements are essential, they aren’t enough. A resilient digital ecosystem takes an evolutionary leap in time with its ability to adapt. If a regulation changes, if a partner changes provider, if a market in one country develops differently, the system should not fall under the weight of manual workarounds.
In that way, digital resilience and digital sovereignty go hand in hand. Both depend on the same underlying principle: organizations must remain able to act. They must be able to connect, change, improve and respond without existing in a bubble with no external influence.
Infrastructure before innovation
For CIOs, this requires a balanced mindset. We have to become masters of the basics as well as the buzzwords (and understand the difference). The basics are the secure, reliable and high-quality IT foundations that keep our operations running. The buzzwords are not irrelevant. Tech such as AI, automation and advanced analytics will surely shape the future of logistics. Yet they only create value when the foundations are strong enough to support them.
That is why open collaboration should not be seen as something separate from innovation. It is one of the conditions that allows innovation to become useful in a complex industry. If we want predictive logistics, we need trusted data flows. If we want automation across partners, we need common interfaces. If we want AI-supported decision-making, we need data quality, transparency and governance.
The next phase of digital logistics will therefore not only be about who develops the best standalone application. It will be about who helps build the most reliable system.
Start with the problem, not the platform
This is where Europe has a wonderful opportunity. The European debate on digital sovereignty can sometimes sound as though sovereignty was mainly about reducing dependency. True, that is part of the story, but sovereignty should also be understood as the ability to shape the digital systems that matter for our economy and respective industries.
In the case of logistics, which means creating the best infrastructure to reflect our European needs: cross-border compatibility, legal reliability, operational robustness, data protection, openness and long-term adaptability. These are not small ambitions. But they also are not abstract. They are exactly the questions that appear when digital processes have to work in real supply chains.
The practical advice I would give based on our own experience at Rhenus is to start with the widespread problem, not the technology. Ask where fragmentation creates real costs, risk or dependency. Ask which parts of the process should not be owned by one actor alone. Consider whether openness would increase control rather than reduce it. And, most importantly, ask whether a solution can still work when it moves beyond first implementation and enters the complexity of the real market.
Logistics particularly teaches humility in this respect. Sure, it is easy to design digital concepts in controlled environments. It is much more difficult to make them work across borders, companies and operational realities. But that is exactly why our sector can make a valuable contribution to Europe’s open source debate and ambitions.
Digital sovereignty ultimately becomes tangible through implementation and the moment when it has to perform under true operational pressure. In logistics, that implementation and performance test is already underway. The more digital our processes become, the clearer the lesson is: sovereignty is not created through isolation. It is created through open, controllable and well-governed digital infrastructure that we can all trust and use.
About the Author
Markus Sandbrink is Group CIO at Rhenus Group, where he leads a team of over 1,000 IT experts driving digital transformation across global logistics. With a passion for technology sparked by early programming on a Commodore 64, Markus has built his career at the intersection of IT and business, holding leadership roles at IBM, DHL Express, Panalpina/DSV, and now Rhenus. His mission: to make IT the heartbeat of every supply chain, enabling innovation, resilience, and sustainable growth.