Duisburger Hafen AG and Leipzig-based rail technology company CargoBeamer AG have entered into a long-term cooperation for more growth in the combined transportation (rail/road) segment. The objective of this collaboration is a massive increase in freight transport by rail. Innovative logistics products form the basis for this initiative.
Three elements will be used to promote a climate-friendly transportation transformation: Automated handling for tractor trailers from road to rail, robotized cargo centers and the electromobility-based distribution of goods to industrial centers and urban metropolitan areas. This will lead to the emergence of a powerful European network out of North Rhine-Westphalia.
“Approximately three quarters of the freight on European roads is transported by tractor trailers, which have been unable to use rail for technical reasons. Duisburger Hafen AG, which is the European leader in trimodal goods handling (road/rail/ship), is expanding its services into this large market segment. Now we offer our customers efficient and excellent climate-compatible logistics chains from ramp to ramp on the basis of their existing vehicle fleet,” says Erich Staake, CEO Duisburger Hafen AG.
The CargoBeamer technology was developed for exactly this market. The transportation transformation in the freight segment can only be achieved with automation, parallelisation and digitisation, and by addressing the huge market for tarp, reefer, silo and mega trailers of all types with innovative rail logistics products, emphasises Hans-Jürgen Weidemann, CEO and co-founder of CargoBeamer AG.
The CargoBeamer technology is based on the entirely automated and high-throughput loading and unloading of tractor trailers of all types. A CargoBeamer transshipment track can unload and load an entire train in 15 minutes, and within 20 minutes on ‘half-long’ tracks. The CargoBeamer rail car technology is fully compatible with existing cranes and reach stackers.
The network of innovative arrival and departure train stations for tractor trailers is just one pillar in the partners’ vision for the future. In addition to the handling centers and automated cargo centers, the duisport Group will also implement digital platforms for processing LTL and LCL shipments for its freight forwarder and logistics customers.
This method is even supposed to work all the way to China, as the partners are relying on another innovation: the “CBoXX” – a high-volume rail container that can be loaded and unloaded by robots. The ubiquitous sea container, which dominates the market and the transcontinental movement of goods, is optimised for maritime vessels and not for automated continental rail logistics.
The “CBoXX” will allow the environmentally-friendly but hitherto not very flexible freight trains to connect to modern cargo centers and offer competitive unit costs especially in the flexible market for less-than-full-load shipments. “The land route using rail is not only faster but also connects many urban metropolitan areas in China, Central Asia, Russia and Europe,” says Erich Staake.
As a first step, the partners will shortly launch transports using the first CargoBeamer rail car park for all types of tractor trailers, with Duisburg as the starting point and destination. In this way, the container terminals in Duisburg can also be utilised. Today, the rail cars of the Leipzig-based company are traveling solely on one of the first Alpine-crossing routes to Milan/Domodossola.
