.svg)
There is talk of bottlenecks everywhere, whether road or rail. A new app from DUSS is now intended to provide more capacity in and at the KV terminals. And indeed, terminal operators, truckers and freight forwarders benefit equally. The logistics chain is working. Unfortunately also in a negative sense. The container ships have been traveling late for months. That is why boxes are piled up in seaports. Port hinterland traffic by rail is suffering as a result. The result: long waiting times for container truckers at the hinterland terminals.
These delays are not a new phenomenon. Even before the Corona crisis and the Ukraine war, container truckers had to wait at the combined transport (KV) terminals. The worsening disruptions in maritime chains and in the rail network have further aggravated the situation.
Michael Kleen is passionate about driving trucks. The managing director of MT-Transport GmbH in Neu-Ulm is at the terminal in Ulm almost every day. The company specializes in transporting maritime boxes. The fleet includes 70 trucks. Yes, waiting times at the terminals are stéren Kleen, but: “The 'futile' trips to the terminal are more annoying,” he says. In other words, when the truckers drive to the terminal but the containers aren't there because the train is delayed. Or there is a freeze in the terminal for export containers, but this information does not reach the truckers or arrives too late. These trips cost money, waste the valuable resource of driver time, strain the nerves of everyone involved and cause disputes between client and contractor over the assumption of costs. And in the terminal, these traffic jams make processing difficult.
You have to do something about that. This was also the case at DUSS (Deutsche Umschlaggesellschaft Schiene Strafe). DUSS operates Deutsche Bahn (DB) intermodal terminals in Germany. We meet Andreas Schulz, Chief Executive Officer of DUSS, at the Ulm terminal. There were Giuseppa Santospagnolo, head of the South-Central region at DUSS, Rene Schmohl, terminal manager in Ulm, Felix Paul Czerny and Markus Hartung, founders of the IT company Conroo, and Michael Kleen. The many containers that are not immediately picked up and are clogging up DUSS systems, which are already operating at 85 percent capacity, also contribute to the precarious situation in the terminals. “In order to remain able to act, we have no choice but to repeatedly make stops for the delivery of containers that do not continue on the day of delivery, but only in two days or later,” says Santospagnolo, but container truckers too often do not learn anything about this. In addition, the terminals have no information as to when which driver picks up or brings which container. “It's like a black box,” Schulz explains, and makes planning container storage within the terminal more difficult. “It was clear to us that we urgently need to improve the flow of information and thus the processes and make it smoother,” says Schulz. With the digitization of the delivery and collection of containers by container truckers, he has therefore taken on the role that DUSS has the greatest influence on. With Conroo, Schulz has not commissioned an established IT company, but a small start-up to digitize processing. , It was important to us that we digitize the processes as quickly as possible. A small start-up is faster and more flexible,” says Schulz, explaining the decision.
CONROO takes a step-by-step approach. First, the company designed an app for truck drivers, who can use it to book a container in the terminal for collection or delivery. In February 2021, Czerny and Hartung started development together with their team.” The first driver in Ulm booked with the app back in August*, says Czerny. Drivers therefore no longer have to report to the counter and present documents there. “The app is now available at ten DUSS locations. 15 percent of truckers there are already using it, says Czerny. Although certain applications such as dangerous goods or customs clearance are not yet possible and the percentage is therefore actually even higher.
DUSS is trying to make the app attractive. “Since July, we have been repaying two euros for every digital booking,” says Schulz. A booking through the agency costs four to five euros. The operator receives this refund because the terminal operator has no customer relationship with the freight forwarder.
“Unlike in seaports, we do not exercise coercion, but try to convince users of the system,” says Schulz. However, the system also includes a slot booking with the well-known green, yellow and red traffic light system. A process that truckers tend to view with skepticism in seaports. Kleen is also not a big fan of it. Because: “We want to go. There is always a red light there,” he says.
But he also shows understanding. And the traffic light is still pretty rarely red. “We also have a two-hour slot,” says terminal manager Rene Schmohi. This slot is very wide, so that it is usually also possible to handle the truckers in this slot.
Kleen is a man from the start. “I'm almost always faster than the colleagues who do the processing over the counter,” says the entrepreneur. “And when I pick up containers, I only log in via the app.” He gives an example: He recently succeeded in bringing seven containers from the terminal to the neighboring empty container depot from 6:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., seven containers in 3.5 hours: That is unbeatable and would not have been possible without the app.”
Czerny also has good figures: In August last year, they collected various data in Ulm, including the time required for a processing: Instead of 45 minutes, which a driver needs on average due to the long wait at the counter, when booking via app, it was just over two minutes and thus almost 33 minutes less. This means that DUSS has less work to do at the counter and freight forwarders save time when truck drivers are scarce resources.
Despite the benefits, Kleen still sees opportunities for improvement. “I would like to know whether the container is ready to be picked up,” he says. He estimates the proportion of trips in which the truck driver leaves the terminal without having achieved anything. This is because operators were not always informed that trains were delayed. “We are particularly affected now, when many trains are cancelled or delayed due to missing routes or train drivers.” The same applies to the acceptance freeze: This information would not always be updated either.
And he expresses another request: It should be possible to integrate the data from the app and the expected arrival times of the trains into the transport management system (TMS) of the freight forwarders. This is one of Conroo's next steps: developing a termina! -Management web app. We will create appropriate interfaces that will then be able to transfer the data,” says Czerny. The web app as well as the interfaces should be available in the coming weeks.
And what does the future look like in the intermodal terminal? The players are in agreement: A lot is about to change. We plan automated cranes just like in a seaport. The crane operator then no longer sits on top of the crane, but in the control center and operates one or two cranes, depending on the operating situation,” says Santospangnolo. There should be a corresponding crane runway in Ulm as early as 2026. “It would be strange if we had a paperwork at the acceptance desk,” says Schulz.
In other words, these switches are then a thing of the past. Replaced by video gates, appropriate access control systems (which already exist today, for example in the Munich DUSS terminal) and corresponding booking systems. Hartung assumes that the systems that still exist or have just been developed will then be connected to each other and that all players will know where a train, truck or ship with which units is currently located and arrives at the terminal.
It's a dream of the future. But the Conroo system has shown that it doesn't always have to be the comprehensive solution. With simple means, urgently needed, new capacities can be created. In view of the worsening shortage of truck drivers and bottlenecks in parking and crane capacities in terminals, such solutions are essential.
Check out our blogs
.svg){kind=icon}
