Page 28 - Hafen Hamburg | Port of Hamburg Magazine 4.2022

■ THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Shipboard transhipment in port – the right approach
With a new service for shipboard transhipment in port, available freight capacity on feeder ves- sels is being cleverly exploited to both relieve Hamburg’s road infrastructure and make move- ments more sustainable. The focus is on port tours for containers that arrive by ship at one ter- minal in Hamburg and will be reloaded at another terminal.
This joint project triggered by the Danish shipping com- pany Unifeeder with the Hamburg software house DA- KOSY and DIHLA DAKOSY – DIHLA being the Hamburg Liner Agents’ joint interest group, shows what can be achieved through practical cooperation in the Port of Hamburg. The newly created digital application can be used by all feeder carriers that want to use their spare slot capacity for port tours.
Florian Plein,
Area Director West and Central Europe at Unifeeder
Since 1 November 2022, containers that would normally be transported daily by truck between the Hamburg terminals can be transferred by feeder- ships within the port. “Every day we call at all of the usu- al Hamburg container terminals and we always have sufficient spare capacity to carry additional containers within the port,” underlines Florian Pein, Unifeeder’s Ar- ea Director West and Central Europe. With up to 85 ter-
minal calls per week in Hamburg, the biggest feeder car- rier in Northern Europe has a considerable quantity of free slots available.
These should be specifically used for transhipment tours, i.e. transhipping containers between ocean-go- ing vessels and feederships that will not be reloaded at the same terminal. Currently, the containers in question are moved by truck around the port. The en- vironment-friendly alternative is of special signifi- cance for Pein because of the sheer lack of qualified/ experienced truck drivers. “We are suffering from the effects of a long-term downturn in the number of newcomers to truck driving. This has led to a consid- erable lack of transhipment capacity and long waiting times in the Port of Hamburg,” stresses Pein.
The newly inaugurated service comprises container transhipment by feedership between HHLA’s Terminals: CTA, CTT and CTB, as well as Eurogate and shortly Süd- West Terminal, too. With this approach, in the medi- um-term, Unifeeder is striving to switch 50% of its tran- shipment tours from truck to feedership. DIHLA managing director Alexander Geisler is delighted: “By
© Unifeeder
28 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | December 2022
Feeders aiming to participate more in port transhipments
© Unifeeder