Full report (pdf, 730Kb)

Presentations:

• Introduction to Straightsol project - Dr. J. Andersen (TOI and Straightsol co-ordinator) (2.8Mb)
• Operations, goals and perspectives of Kuehne+Nagel - Mr. D. Papadopoulos (Director of IT, Kuehne+Nagel)
• Rail tracking and warehouse management - Mr. D. Drakopoulos (Contract logistics information systems supervisor, Kuehne+Nagel) (2.2Mb)
• Can rail tracking provide efficient interconnection between long and short distance transport? - Prof. P. H. Ketikidis (CITY COLLEGE Vice principal: Research, Innovation and External Relations - Honorary member of the Exporters' Association of Northern Greece Management Board) (1.7Mb)
• Benefits and implications of freight tracking with GPS on railways - Mr. A. Lois (IT consultant, TRAINOSE) (4.4Mb)
• Real time notification on urban and interurban shipments from the logistics manager's point of view - Mr. N. Pechlivanis (Logistics manager, MAMA Products) (718Kb)

Workshop report - Introduction

The workshop on Intelligent systems for the interconnection of urban - interurban freight transport was organised by the Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT) of Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), in collaboration with Kuehne+Nagel S.A. Hellas. The workshop was organized within the framework of the STRAIGHTSOL FP7 research project and took place on Thursday, September 13, 2012.

The workshop aimed at:

• Introducing Kuehne+Nagel's demonstration and the situational context of rail transport in Greece.
• Presenting the demonstration preliminary results concerning the application of GPS technologies into rail freight transport in terms of economy, time and energy savings, optimized next leg fleet scheduling, more efficient interconnections and environmental impacts.
• Providing solutions to the issues raised above, regarding the application of ICT onto freight transport for optimized cargo tracking and tracing. In parallel, provision of some interesting results from the pre-demonstration phase regarding interoperability issues between international rail operators that could hamper (or boost) demonstration progress, technical and cost issues of devices (e.g. reusable/disposable and how many needed on each wagon), data privacy, security handling and planning of transport legs.
• Discussing and transferring knowledge on good practice and on "what to avoid", among interested stakeholders from the research, industry and trade communities and on pitfalls that may occur in similar cases or in future phases of the specific demonstration.
• Exploring opportunities for adopting future freight policies at a wider level by policy-makers and logistics providers. Transferability of this concept should be analyzed in two directions: adopted by a different industrial player and applied to a different country context. Transferability channels may be structured through in-depth discussions and exchange of opinions.
• Discussing the evaluation framework for assessing the demonstrations through representing its structural indicators that are about to be quantified.
• Strengthening cooperation between involved stakeholders, policy-makers, local authorities and logistics industry players (shippers, LSPs, receivers) by stating their views on importance of ICT use in urban-interurban freight transportation.

The workshop was organized in two morning sessions, held at the Vergina amphitheatre of CERTH administration building, 6th km of Harilaou - Thermi street, followed by a technical visit at Kuehne+Nagel premises, in Sindos, Thessaloniki. The workshop moderator, Dr. Eftihia Nathanail (CERTH/HIT), welcomed the participants from various stakeholder groups (e.g. rail operators, transport and logistics industry, port services, engineering, ICT, research) and provided a brief introduction to the workshop. Then, Mr. Dimitris Dakos, a member of the Northern Greece Hellenic Society of Logistics Board of Directors, declared the importance of the seamless interconnection of freight transport legs through the provision of real time information concerning cargo location tracking and estimated arrival times. The Straightsol project co-ordinator, Jardar Andersen (TOI) described the project's aims and activities, and gave a brief presentation of the other six demonstrations in the Straightsol project.

Further details of the workshop are available in the full report