The highlights at a glance
- Fleet of trucks for flexible use Container chassis/coil trough semi-trailers/open semi-trailers
- Flexible deployment to meet changing daily requirements at short notice
- Drivers trained for both transport sectors
- Extra training of drivers by HSL for unloading/loading at HSL terminals
- Truckers support processes in the port terminal
- Synergy effects through central disposition planning
The truck dispatching department of Haeger & Schmidt Logistics (HSL) has found a way to link container and steel logistics. “We can flexibly deploy our fleet of trucks with container chassis, coil semi-trailers or open semi-trailers,” reports Jörg Thielen, responsible for the development of new business areas at HSL. Currently, 25 of these vehicles are already permanently scheduled in the Duisburg area within a radius of about 150 km. Thielen on the advantages: “We can react even faster and more flexibly to the daily changing requirements. If necessary, we simply exchange a container chassis for a coil semi-trailer and can thus deliver a required coil at short notice, for example. For the industry, expensive waiting times are avoided. “
Truck drivers play a special role in the combination of these transports. They must be trained in handling containers as well as steel. Especially in the latter area, the trucker is actively involved in handling and securing the load. According to Thielen, HSL provides support here: “We train the drivers to load and unload independently at the terminal. This has a positive effect on handling times, so that the goods reach the customer faster. We also achieve higher productivity of the port staff deployed, who can concentrate on their core tasks.”
HSL has established the dispatching of conventional truck transports in 2019. It complements the business area of intermodal truck transports. The focus of the activity is on the “first or last mile”. The complementary service makes it possible to cover an end-to-end door-to-door service under HSL management.
Photo in the background: Bernd Feldmann