Paperless Logistics: How “Vilia” Uses Electronic Waybills

From Decision to Implementation

The impetus for implementation was a strategic vision: document flow in transportation should be faster, simpler, and more convenient for everyone involved in the process. Paper waybills required far too much manual labor. The document had to be prepared in multiple copies, passed between different parties, stored, bound, and retrieved from the archive. If lost, the entire process had to be restarted from scratch. Over the past four years, the company has issued nearly 100,000 e-waybills—and this is no longer an experiment, but daily practice. These figures show that for the company, the digitization of transportation has long since ceased to be an experiment and has become a routine part of daily operations. Yevgeniy Velychko, Deputy Head of the Finance Department for Digital Transformation, explains it simply: “The most significant benefit is the elimination of paper-based red tape...”

At “Vilia,” the implementation of e-TTNs was viewed from the very beginning as a tool for solving several practical challenges—simplifying paperwork, optimizing transit times, and reducing errors through digital oversight. When the TTN is immediately entered into the accounting system, the company can more quickly see which cargo is in transit, exactly where it is headed, and what stage the document is at. This is no longer just an archive, but a source of real-time information and analytics. Representatives of the freight transport department emphasize that the electronic waybill was a logical extension of other digital solutions in logistics: “We started with an electronic queue at the grain elevator, where the driver registers using a barcode and joins the queue without having to wait in person. The next step was the electronic waybill, where this barcode is generated automatically. As a result, we’ve sped up unloading, synchronized transportation with the grain elevator, and generally made the process more efficient.”

How It Works in Practice

Technically, the process of generating electronic waybills is built around the company’s internal accounting system and the modern electronic document management system Document.Online. The “Vilia” Group has been using this service since 2022 and, with each passing year, becomes increasingly convinced that this was the right choice. The choice of Document.Online became part of the digital transformation strategy being implemented by the finance department under the leadership of Volodymyr Sikirinsky.

The system includes workstations for employees who enter the data required to generate waybills: the contract, the counterparty, the cargo description, the route, and other necessary information. The document is then transferred to the electronic document management system, where it goes through all stages of the signing process.

Several parties are involved in the process: the person who creates the document, the driver, and the receiving party. Upon the cargo’s arrival, the document is updated with the actual acceptance data and finalized on-site. Another detail has proven particularly important for agricultural logistics: when shipping grain directly from the field, the actual weight is not always known immediately. The current guidelines from the Ministry of Development for agricultural transportation explicitly state that the e-waybill may record the weight declared by the customer, with the actual weight being verified at the elevator’s scales; the document form may also be supplemented with additional fields to account for the specific nature of the shipment.

It is precisely this flexibility that has worked well with the company’s processes. According to Yevhen Velychko, the electronic waybill made it possible not to disrupt the actual logistics workflow but, on the contrary, to adapt the document to it. If the exact weight is not available at the time of departure from the field, it can be recorded later, after weighing, with the corresponding confirmation in the system. Another key step was the improvement of mobile interaction. The company adapted the form so that some actions could be conveniently performed directly from a phone, even in the field.

What Has Changed for Transport and Drivers

The Department of Freight Transport emphasizes that for businesses, the electronic waybill is not just about “going paperless,” but first and foremost about boosting efficiency. Previously, drivers had to wait while paper waybills were filled out by hand. Now, a significant portion of these tasks is completed more quickly, and the document itself exists within a single digital ecosystem that connects transportation, grain elevators, and related departments. This allows us to handle a larger volume of shipments without proportionally expanding our staff.

“Every year, our fleet and the number of assignments grow, but thanks to electronic document management, we’re not expanding our staff—we’re optimizing our processes. The same number of people can handle a greater number of trips,” notes the freight transport department. For drivers, the benefits are even more tangible on a day-to-day basis. Less waiting, less running around with paperwork, and less dependence on where the office is located, who stamped the documents, or whether a copy got lost along the way.

“The biggest change is that there’s no need to wait. We’re standing in the field, and all the data is already in the dispatcher’s system. As soon as I pull out, I get a notification on my phone; I confirm it with an electronic key—and I’m good to go. It’s really convenient and saves a lot of time,” says driver Vadym Tsakovsky, who works directly with electronic waybills. According to him, it’s convenient to quickly find the necessary documents on his phone, view his trip history, and work without the typical delays associated with paper documents. Although field conditions sometimes present their own challenges—such as unstable connectivity—the team has already learned to find practical solutions for such situations.

It's not just about technology, but also about a new approach to work

At “Vilia,” they emphasize that the implementation of e-TTN was not just an IT project. It also involved a shift in established work models. Any innovation initially raises concerns—especially in environments where people have been working differently for years. At the outset, some employees were skeptical of the new format because paper documents seemed more understandable and “reliable” simply out of habit. But after a few seasons of operation, it became clear: when the system eliminates unnecessary manual labor, even those who were initially skeptical come to see its benefits.

Technical risks remain a separate challenge: the stability of the accounting system, the operation of external services, and network access. The company has experienced situations where the process was temporarily halted due to technical glitches or access issues. But even these incidents did not change the overall assessment: the digital format has significantly more advantages than the paper-based one.

Electronic waybills have already become standard practice at “Vilia.” Next up is scaling up: the driver’s electronic dashboard, trip tickets, and the digitization of specialized equipment. Starting in 2027, when e-waybills become mandatory, such solutions will no longer be a competitive advantage—they will become the standard for the entire market.