KlimaFleet

A B2B SaaS tool to automate COâ‚‚ emissions reporting for logistics companies.

1. Opportunity Analysis

  • Product Concept: KlimaFleet is a B2B SaaS tool designed to automate COâ‚‚ emissions reporting for small-to-medium-sized logistics companies in Germany. It saves administrative time, ensures compliance with client demands, and provides actionable insights for cost and emissions savings.
  • Target User Persona:
    • Name: Herr Schmidt
    • Role: Fleet Manager / Owner of a medium-sized logistics company in Germany.
    • Company Profile: Manages a fleet of 15-50 trucks. Does not have a dedicated sustainability department.
  • Market Drivers & User Pains: The core pain points for Herr Schmidt are majorly driven by two external forces:
    • 1. Commercial Pressure (The "Scope 3" Effect):
      • Mechanism: Large corporate clients (e.g., in manufacturing, automotive, retail) are now mandated to report on their entire value chain's carbon footprint, known as "Scope 3" emissions. Logistics and transport are a major part of their Scope 3 footprint.
      • Impact on User: To create their reports, these large clients must demand emissions data from their suppliers. This translates into direct pressure on Herr Schmidt through mandatory supplier questionnaires, sustainability clauses in contracts, and a competitive disadvantage if he cannot provide the data while his competitors can.
    • 2. Regulatory Pressure (The CSRD "Trickle-Down" Effect):
      • Mechanism: While the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) does not directly target small businesses, it legally requires their large clients to report on sustainability impacts across their supply chain.
      • Impact on User: This creates a clear "trickle-down" effect. The large, in-scope client must gather data from its suppliers to comply with the law. This results in formal data requests being passed down to Herr Schmidt, turning a regulatory requirement for his client into a significant administrative and commercial challenge for him.
  • Problem Statement: Small and medium-sized German logistics companies are caught in a "compliance gap" created by the top-down pressures of their clients' commercial and regulatory needs. They are increasingly required to report their carbon footprint but lack the simple tools to do so efficiently. This creates a significant, non-optional administrative burden that directly impacts their ability to retain key contracts.
  • Data Sources:
    • Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA): To fetch official vehicle data, including model-specific COâ‚‚ emissions per kilometer.
    • Umweltbundesamt (UBA): To use standardized emission factors for different fuel types.
    • User Input: List of vehicles and total distance driven for the reporting period.

2. Product Vision

For German logistics managers like Herr Schmidt, who struggle with the time-consuming and complex task of reporting fleet emissions for their corporate clients, KlimaFleet provides an automated and authoritative reporting solution by leveraging official government vehicle and emissions data.

3. MVP Definition

The MVP is focused on solving one job perfectly: Generate a single, client-ready COâ‚‚ report for a specific time period with minimal manual effort. It prioritizes automation and credibility over feature breadth.

Core Features:

  1. Simple Fleet Upload: A straightforward interface for the user to upload their fleet list. The only required input per vehicle is its official license plate.
  2. Automated Vehicle Data Enrichment: This is the magic of the MVP. The backend takes the license plate, queries the KBA database, and automatically fetches the specific vehicle model and its official COâ‚‚ g/km emission rate. This eliminates the need for any manual data lookup by the user.
  3. Report Creation Flow: A simple, step-by-step process:
    • Select vehicles from the saved fleet list.
    • Enter the total kilometers driven for each selected vehicle during the reporting period.
    • Click "Generate Report."
  4. Professional PDF Report Export: The output is not just a number on a screen, but a clean, professional-looking PDF document. This report is designed to be sent directly to a client and includes:
    • Total COâ‚‚ emissions in tonnes.
    • A list of all vehicles included in the calculation.
    • A clear reference to the data sources (KBA, UBA) to establish authority and credibility.
  5. Basic User Account Management: Simple sign-up, login, and the ability to save and manage a single fleet list. This is essential for retaining users and allowing them to run reports repeatedly without re-uploading their fleet.

4. Product Roadmap

The development of KlimaFleet begins by solving the user's most urgent compliance problem (V1), then expands to provide direct cost-saving and efficiency insights (V2), and finally positions the product as an indispensable strategic partner for long-term financial and environmental planning (V3). This roadmap is designed to show a clear, strategic evolution:

Phase Theme Key Features Measurable Outcome
V1: MVP The Compliance Tool
  • Automated COâ‚‚ Report Generation
  • KBA Data Integration
  • Professional PDF Export
 Reduce time spent on client emissions reporting by >90%. Enable successful compliance with client data requests.
V2 The Efficiency Optimizer
  • Fuel Cost Tracking (user input)
  • Fleet Performance Dashboard (e.g., €/km, COâ‚‚/km per truck)
  • Replacement Simulator ("What if I replace this diesel truck with an EV?")
 Identify the top 10% least efficient vehicles in the fleet. Provide data to inform fleet replacement decisions and reduce operational costs.
V3 The Strategic Partner
  • Anonymized Benchmarking ("How does my fleet's efficiency compare to others?")
  • Predictive Maintenance Alerts (based on mileage)
  • Integration with Accounting Software
 Provide competitive fleet efficiency benchmarks to drive strategic investment. Integrate emissions data into financial planning workflows.

5. Technical Breakdown

This section outlines the proposed technical architecture for the MVP. The approach prioritizes scalability, low operational cost, and speed.

  • High-Level Architecture:
    • Frontend: A responsive, single-page application (SPA) built with a modern framework like React or Vue.js.
    • Backend: A lightweight API server built with Python (using a framework like FastAPI or Flask) to handle business logic, user authentication, and report generation.
    • Database: A PostgreSQL database to store user data, fleet information, and the cached KBA vehicle data.
    • Hosting: The entire application can be hosted on a cloud platform like AWS, Google Cloud, or a German provider like Hetzner for data sovereignty.
  • Data Source Integration & Maintenance:
    • KBA Data (Vehicle Types & Emissions): As there is no direct, free public API for third-party vehicle lookups, we will build a local database.
      • Initial Setup: Download the publicly available vehicle type datasets from the KBA (containing HSN/TSN and COâ‚‚ values) and populate a dedicated table in our database.
      • User Workflow (MVP): The user will input the HSN/TSN from their vehicle registration document. The application performs an instant query against its own database.
      • Maintenance: An automated script will run periodically (e.g., quarterly) to check the KBA website for new data files, download them, and update our vehicle database to ensure it remains current.
    • UBA Data (Standard Emission Factors): The UBA data (e.g., kg COâ‚‚ per liter of diesel) is highly static.
      • Initial Setup: These values will be sourced from the latest UBA publications and stored in a simple configuration file or database table.
      • Maintenance: This data will be reviewed manually on a yearly basis to check for any updates to national emission standards.
  • PDF Report Generation: The backend will use a standard library (e.g., ReportLab for Python) to dynamically generate the professional PDF reports with the calculated data and required source attributions.