Immproved collaboration, with specific focus on innovation and data sharing, are vital components of the cold chain.According to Eric Mauroux, who sits on the Cool Chain Association (CCA) board of directors, a global organisation, technology has introduced new opportunities for collaboration that will introduce significant efficiencies – such as touch points and duplications.Speaking to Freight News from Paris, he said members of the cool chain industry needed to work together more, learning from each other and contributing to better product integrity.“The lack of collaboration is a challenge for our sector and we need to work on it as a collective. We need more innovation, digitisation and data sharing,” he said.Acknowledging this was not an easy undertaking considering the large number of players involved in moving temperature-sensitive cargo, Mauroux said service delivery could improve if the industry collaborated more.“Not only would we reduce the number of touchpoints, but by facilitating the increased exchange of information we could mitigate the risk of temperature reduction or elevation so much better. Working together we can work so much better.”He said the CCA was playing a critical role in driving more industry collaboration.“Technology plays a large part in achieving this goal. While we have seen an increased use of smart technology in the cool supply chain and there is extensive use of technology, we now need to push for more access to information by different stakeholders.”Calling for more data sharing, Mauroux said this was the first step. “Instead of one player having access to information and using it, for example, just to monitor temperatures to ensure there is no elevation or reduction, it could be shared across the supply chain to fuel databases and links. This would add value so that artificial learning and machine learning can tap into it all, delivering operations that are smarter,” he said. “Tracking a shipment and knowing what the temperature is when it arrives at destination is nice, but disseminating that information and using it more broadly is vital. We are not there yet. I believe artificial intelligence is still the layer that is missing, but we are working towards it.”He said the process had been approached by many industry stakeholders cautiously. One of the big hiccups remains the ownership of data which many are shy to share.“It is difficult to understand the value creation of data sharing and the benefit of it, but unless we do it, as an industry we will stagnate.”