MAIN-KINZIG-KREIS – Whether it’s the bread roll from the bakery, the milk from the farm dairy, the asparagus from the asparagus farm, the newspaper for the breakfast table – every day products have to find their way to buyers and customers in small delivery quantities. At the same time, countless vehicles are on the road in the region that have one thing in common: free loading areas.
This is precisely where the federal model project „CargoSurfer“ comes in. In a kind of „real laboratory“, SPESSARTregional, Regionalverkehr Main-Kinzig GmbH and Behinderten-Werk Main-Kinzig e.V. (BWMK) are launching this project in a nationwide network.
„Creating affordable logistics for the region is a topic that has been on our minds for a long time,“ explains First District Commissioner Susanne Simmler. „All the better that we can now take a step into the future in exemplary cooperation.“
Logistics platform being developed
With the „CargoSurfer“, vehicles that are on the road every day and their loading areas are to be made „visible“ and made accessible for regional logistics. This is because most vehicles are not fully utilised. These include the vehicles of regional producers, traders and service providers, but also the journeys of buses and regional trains outside the rush hours. A logistics platform is to be developed to bring together the dispatch of goods with free transport space.
Martin Berg, Chairman of the Board of the Behinderten-Werk Main-Kinzig, confirms that there is great potential here in the region. „We cover several thousand kilometres every day to transport our employees to the various facilities. We would have room for transport boxes in the vehicles.“ The same applies to bus transport. „We practically invented micro-logistics,“ adds Oliver Habekost, Managing Director of Kreiswerke and Regionalverkehr Main-Kinzig GmbH, with a wink. For many years, for example, medicines have been brought to Spielberger Platte by bus. „Therefore, the transport of goods by bus is a promising approach that we would like to expand,“ said Habekost.
„The logistics platform is a Herculean digital task that we could not have shouldered alone,“ emphasises Mayor Rainer Schreiber, Chairman of SPESSARTregional. Although the development of the online platform and the mobile app is based on the previous „Concept for Micrologistics and Microhubs“, which was developed by SPESSARTregional as part of LEADER, it needs an interdisciplinary team and the backing of the region to tackle the task.
Under the leadership of LaLog Landlogistik GmbH, which had already developed the concept for micrologistics, competent partners were found in Kühne Logistc University (KLU), Trapeze Group Deutschland, cantus mbH Verkehrsgesellschaft and the association „Gutes aus Waldhessen“.
As a result, three variants of transport – rail transport, bus transport and transport via third-party providers – can be represented in the model project. Together with its regional partners, SPESSARTregional functions as a real laboratory. The region provides the necessary practical knowledge for the digitalisation of processes in bus and vehicle transport. The Waldhessen region, as the second real laboratory, underpins the rail transport project. After development, comprehensive testing of the logistics platform will take place in both regions in two test phases. Numerous companies and organisations can be involved in the trial operation.
The project will also be technically supported by the Kreisgesellschaft Main-Kinzig mbh and the Amt 70 of the Main-Kinzig district, where the interfaces to the eco-model region and the climate protection concept and future management are located. The „CargoSurfer“ project is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV) as part of the „mFUND“ innovation initiative with a total of around 1.8 million euros for three years. (pm)
Source:
Kinzig News, Monday, 11.04.2022
