trailer world Issue Two 2013

Issue Two 2013 11 Title The same evening, the goods are distributed in the hub in Haldersleben. For this, a fully auto- mated belt conveyor connects to the swap-body, which is fed constantly by the packing personnel. The boxes race on it through the hall like on a Scalectrix track. In between a scanner flashes, as the belt distributes the consignments automatically into large tubs for the 57 Hermes subsidiaries according to the routing key on the barcode. In addition to Haldensleben, for items up to 31 kilos, there are another five transshipment centres, which are distributed all over Germany and due to the close proximity to the customer, reduce the delivery times. “Cross border shopping in Europe is gaining increasingly in impor- tance,” so says HTL boss Rausch. The standardised EU consumer regulations, in place from next year onwards, support this trend. Added value with service “We see the organisation of inter- national supply chains as a holistic process”, explains Rausch. This means that today logistics is much more than just transport and storage. The competitors have a similar view of this. “Additional business can be generated through contract logistics,” thinks Sup- ply-Chain-Services expert Veres-Homm. Many companies are ex- panding this possibility with e-commerce. “This also includes production steps”, says Professor Kille. Ac- cordingly, telephone cards, for instance, are produced as blanks in China and the branding is carried out by a logistics firm in Bamberg. And white H&M shirts are made in Bangladesh and only dyed in the latest trend colours in Turkey. “The finishing of upstream products from the Far East is increasingly moved to Europe, often into the hands of logistics providers”, observed Professor Kille. “Never say never” - that also is a motto of the Hermes group. Twelve specialised firms supply all possible services along the com- mercial network. The task range grows continuously, especially with the orders from the internet. Hermes supports customers at home and abroad, for instance with building a web shop - including specially developed software for the shop. The firms of the Hermes Group also look after warehousing, payment solutions, customer care, distribution and returns management. This includes services such as connection of the delivered TV or the washing of jumpers from returns. “For this, we operate our own dry cleaners,” reports Heuing. We also have an internal department for the deletion of data from hard drives. “The future is not the transport service alone but the service that goes with it,” Rausch sums up. The complete package begins with the search for the supplier for the first product idea. “As we are part of the Otto Group, we do know about 14,000 local suppliers.” Close to the customer To be even closer to the customer, HTL reorganised itself. Within one year in Germany, eight new subsidi- aries were added to the logistics chain, thereby increasing the area network. New sites are also planned for Europe. Speed and flexibili- ty count to guarantee delivery within one day. The large online mer- chants also invest increasingly in the logistic infrastructure for the express deliveries: the industry giant Amazon tightens its logistics network more and more - the last site added was Brieselang in Brandenburg. The topic environment also pushes itself increasingly into the foreground. Some trading concerns are already participating in research for light carbon fibre composite materials for semi-trailers, others develop IT tools for the measurement of environmental efficiency. However, the manufacturer of consumer goods Procter & Gamble will practically save 20 % of the lor- ry kilometres by 2020. HTL strategy expert Heunig declares: “We support these kinds of aims as partners in our tour planning, also for intermodal traffic.” On the road, HTL places its emphasis increasingly on semi-trail- ers. Whilst in the past swap bodies were mostly used, like other logistics companies, the trailer fleet increased within a year from 200 to 300 semi-trailers. “The swap body is less popular with the drivers, as it is more difficult to handle.” says Schwilden. Semi-trail- ers can also be used across Europe. “Here every parcel service tra- ditionally uses swap bodies but elsewhere this is largely unknown.” As a result, the special ramps necessary for them are often miss- ing abroad. Furthermore a Europe-wide economic utilisation of the fleet is impossible with swap bodies. »Meanwhile, the online trade has turned into a centre point of our logistics.« Frank Rausch, Chairman of the HTL management. Tuesday 7.10 pm:

trailer world Issue Two 2013

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