7th Logistics Day / Around 250 participants from all over Germany

Focus on digitalisation, automation and robotics

New record: More than 250 logistics experts from all over Germany attended the 7th Logistics Day on 9 June in the documenta-Halle in Kassel. This year's congress, organised by Regionalmanagement Nordhessen in cooperation with Deutsche Verkehrszeitung (DVZ) and opened by Hesse's Minister of Justice Eva Kühne-Hörmann, focused on digitalisation in logistics.

"As North Hesse is located in the centre of Germany, it has already profited more from the growth driver logistics than other regions," said regional manager Holger Schach. He went on to say that numerous investments had already been realised, creating many new jobs. The digitalisation was now also redefining the area of logistics; new business models were transforming the logistics landscape. "As this also changes the location factors, North Hesse's logistics industry must adjust to the new developments in good time to maintain its leading position in distribution logistics," Schach continued.
Minister of Justice Kühne-Hörmann opened the congress and reminded the participants that logistics and the transport of goods and commodities were hugely important for Hesse as the federal state in the centre of Germany, and that North Hesse had realised and acted on this very early on. "Technology and innovation unlock opportunities we did not have in the past," the minister said with regard to the issue of digitalisation - not without also pointing out the risks posed by cybercrime, which also leads to new challenges for the Ministry of Justice in the next few years.

Accordingly, the 7th Logistics Day focused on new developments and trends. "Highly innovative concepts or efficient and future-oriented warehousing and transport solutions, including examples, were presented there," said Dr. Astrid Szogs, the head of the Regionalmanagement department that focuses on transport. A perfect example for this is the MAN Truck & Bus AG platooning project: a vehicle system currently under development where at least two or several truck and trailer combinations follow each other nose-to-tail with the aid of driving assistance and steering systems and car-to-car communication. According to MAN, this "slipstreaming" can save up to ten per cent fuel, depending on the vehicle type and the convoy length. "Platooning is the next step towards full automation: combining driverless loading and unloading with automated driving on motorways with the drivers taking over only in city traffic and on country roads results in high flexibility, which creates true added value for logistics companies," explained Frank Tinschert from MAN AG.

The congress was accompanied by an exhibition by logistics companies such as General Logistics Systems (GLS), IDI Gazeley, Jungheinrich Vertrieb Deutschland AG & Co. KG, Lindig Fördertechnik GmbH and Mercedes Benz Nutzfahrzeugzentrum Kassel. The 7th Logistics Day was organised with the kind support of Hesse's co-operative banks, the Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken.

"I'm a container, I want to go to Antwerp, I'm looking for a ship"
In the documenta-Halle, participants were looking for ships, planes and trains – inspired by a Lufthansa Industry Solutions campaign: to encourage participants to engage in dialogue, cards were handed out that read, for example, "I'm a container, I want to go to Antwerp, I'm looking for a ship". The participants who successfully found their perfect partner were entered into a draw.