Page 18 - Port Of Hamburg Magazine 01.2018

■ 50 YEARS OF CONTAINERS IN HAMBURG
‘Port Tours 4.0’ enhancing reliable truck handling
No handling at the terminal without a slot: A new procedure is transforming container transport in the Port of Hamburg. How are truckers and terminal op- eratives coping with the new software? Here’s an interim report.
For the fifteenth time today Samir Dedic, driver with a trucking company, has driven across the Köhlbrand Bridge in Hamburg. His job is to position containers. Several times per shift, the Bosnian, 32, thunders along aboard his tractor & trailer to one of the Port of Hamburg’s massive container terminals. On every tour he receives a container, takes it to the customer and waits for the big steel box to be emptied. “Then back to the terminal,” says Dedic. Beside him lies his co-driver: A cellphone. This buzzes busily on the pas-
The newest IT project being the Slot Booking Procedure
senger seat throughout the trip. Yet what he’s re- ceiving are not personal messages but job-relevant details fed to him by app. Which warehouse is the box’s destination? When can he pick up the next one? What time will the one after that be ready? In the Port of Hamburg, all
18 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | March 2018
the answers are meanwhile supplied digitally, the newest IT project being the Slot Booking Procedure (SBV).
SIMPLER PLANNING
HHLA’s ‘Fuhre 4.0’ port tours project was conceived in 2011 to make port container handling faster and more efficient and to enable truckers like Dedic to do as many tours as possible. Since November 2016, advance notification of a container transport run has been obligatory at all container terminals in Ham- burg. Since November 2017, only trucks allocated a valid slot have been handled. Under SBV, trucker and terminal agree in advance on a time window during which the container is delivered or collected. “Previ- ously the motto was ‘First truck there, first served’,”
© HHLA/Rätzke