DB Schenker turns Road Insetting into a profitable, sellable product with SQUAKE
Context
DB Schenker had already started fueling parts of its road fleet with HVO, a renewable diesel alternative, but had no certified way to turn that investment into a business. Without SFC-compliant, shipment-level CO₂ certificates, customers had no reason to pay for the cleaner fuel, so the cost of HVO sat with DB Schenker as an expense rather than a service. A small internal team, limited sustainability expertise, and mounting pressure from key accounts to offer certified reduction claims meant the gap between "we use HVO" and "we can prove and sell it" kept widening.
“We knew our HVO investment could become a real product for our customers, not just a cost line. SQUAKE gave us the certified, shipment-level proof to finally sell it, and to do it across our whole network, not just one pilot lane.”
Goal
The goal was to make Road Insetting, covering HVO, LNG, and BEV, profitable within a year: SFC-compliant CO₂ certificates issued at shipment level, usable across both owned and subcontracted trucks, integrated with HVO suppliers and subcontractors, resellable to shippers' own B2B customers, and fully compliant with ISO14064, ISO27001, and GDPR, all without growing the internal team.
Our Solution
A Book & Claim system built for DB Schenker's network
SQUAKE implemented a dedicated Book & Claim system for DB Schenker's Road Insetting program, covering HVO, LNG, and BEV in one place. SQUAKE ran the full rollout end to end: implementation, booking and transaction management, and external verification, so DB Schenker's team could offer certified fuel-switch credits without building any of that capability in-house. The system integrates directly into DB Schenker's existing transport management system (TMS), keeping certificate issuance part of the normal shipment workflow rather than a separate manual step.
Certified once, sellable everywhere
Because certificates are SFC-compliant and generated at shipment level, DB Schenker can apply them across its own fleet and its subcontractors' trucks alike, and pass them on to its shippers' own B2B customers. That single certified layer is what turned HVO from a cost DB Schenker absorbed into a credit its customers actively buy.
Outcome
From pilot to profitable, in under a year
DB Schenker went live in under two months. HVO sales grew 9x in year one and 36x in year two, turning the Road Insetting program from a cost center into a profitable offering. The system scaled across Europe without delays or added headcount, opened upsell conversations with key accounts and new business alike, and has issued more than 400,000 certificates to date.