Putting the Physical Internet into practice - Current developments and application examples

The implementation of the Physical Internet cannot be realized without the widespread participation of industry. This paper aims to investigate application examples and current R&D projects supporting the real-world implementation of the PI. Examples to the subsequent characteristics (1-4) have been investigated - (1) Exploit Smart Networked Containers Embedding Smart Objects, (2) Activate and Exploit an Open Global Supply Web, (3) Stimulate Business Model Innovation and (4) Evolve from Point-to-point Hub-and-Spoke Transport to Distributed Multi-Segment Intermodal Transport. The paper presents elements, success factors, requirements and potentials likely to be useful or even necessary for realizing the selected PI-characteristics.