September 2021

InPost forms partnership with Tesco

Posted on 30 September, 202129 July, 2025 by David Priestman

Leading out-of-home and eCommerce delivery company InPost formed a new partnership with Tesco Plc, the UK’s largest supermarket chain.

The deal will see InPost’s automated parcel machines (APMs) deployed across Tesco’s entire large-format store estate in the UK, potentially up to 500 sites, by the end of November 2021.

This new partnership adds InPost’s lockers to Tesco’s concession offering, increasing the range of services and facilities Tesco has to offer its customers at stores and further maximising the value of its commercial real estate.

With Christmas fast approaching, the new parcel machines will bring extra convenience and much needed postal services to existing community hubs, providing shoppers with a fast, convenient and greener way to collect their online orders or send parcels.

They will also be able to drop off returns in seconds thanks to InPost’s market-leading paperless Instant Returns service, whilst 24/7 accessibility provides a vital service to key and shift workers in the community.

Importantly, this partnership allows Tesco customers to ‘trip-twin’ and save time by combining these errands with their regular grocery shop, instead of waiting in for online deliveries at home or making a special journey to post goods or send returns to retailers.

The deal continues InPost’s rapid growth in the UK, bringing the total number of InPost lockers in the country to approximately 2,500. InPost aims to have the largest automated parcel machine networks in the UK, with ambitions for around 3,000 APMs by the end of 2021 and over 10,000 by 2024.

Jason Tavaria, CEO at InPost UK, said: “We’re incredibly proud to provide Tesco shoppers across the country with the most convenient way to collect parcels and make returns. Very soon they’ll also be able to enjoy our enhanced service for posting items, making it even easier to skip the queues and send parcels using lockers.

“People are always looking for new ways to access essential amenities and convenient services that fit in around their busy lives, saving them time and effort. Our lockers do just that. And by reducing the number of deliveries needed, the new lockers will reduce local traffic, helping create more sustainable, greener communities.”

Louise Goodland, Head of Strategic Retail Partnerships at Tesco, said, “We’re delighted to be improving the range of services in our stores by partnering with InPost. The new partnership will enable customers to collect and send parcels alongside their weekly shop. We know our customers are always looking for ways to make their lives easier, and to save time and effort. The new lockers will help them do just that.”

In a clear sign of Tesco’s commitment to the new partnership, more than 200 lockers are already installed, with the supermarket chain opting to go straight to a national rollout of these, rather than a pilot scheme.

Once the InPost APM network is fully operational across all of the planned Tesco locations, it has the potential to eliminate 250,000 last mile deliveries, reducing carbon emissions by up to 70% per parcel versus home delivery. This will help reduce congestion in local areas by reducing the number of deliveries needed, and create healthier and greener local communities. It also supports Tesco’s ambition to become a zero-carbon business by 2050.

InPost forms partnership with Tesco

Posted on 30 September, 202129 July, 2025 by David Priestman

Leading out-of-home and eCommerce delivery company InPost formed a new partnership with Tesco Plc, the UK’s largest supermarket chain.

The deal will see InPost’s automated parcel machines (APMs) deployed across Tesco’s entire large-format store estate in the UK, potentially up to 500 sites, by the end of November 2021.

Stromag clamps help build autobahn bridge

Posted on 30 September, 2021 by Keith McKinley

The replacement A40 Neuenkamp Duisburg Bridge, currently under construction in Germany, will support the future prosperity of the industrial Ruhr region by widening this crucial highway over the Rhine. The landmark project is being supported in part by Stromag, which supplied retractable rail clamps to fit the KM Kümsan overhead cranes lifting the large prefabricated bridge sections into position.

The original A40 Neuenkamp Duisburg Bridge was completed in 1971. Designed to carry 30,000 vehicles a day from the A40 autobahn, in recent times the bridge has had to cope with up to 110,000 a day, including a large quantity of trucks . With this increased usage, and following multiple structural repairs, Germany’s motorway authority has embarked on a €340m project to replace the aging bridge with a new eight lane 802m-long cable stayed bridge. When complete, it will be the longest in the country. The 71m-high structure will offer the capacity to carry up to 150,000 vehicles a day with a design life of up to a century, helping to support future economic growth in the area.

The need for cranes

An innovative construction method has been employed to minimise disturbance to road and river traffic. The first span of the new bridge will be built alongside the original, with prefabricated sections moved into position across the river. The original bridge will then be dismantled and replaced with a second span. Finally, the first span will then be ‘slid’ sideways to sit closely to the second span. This allows road traffic to continue to cross the river during the project.

This construction process relies on the use of large prefabricated steel sections which are assembled and lifted into position by overhead cranes running on rails. Leading crane manufacturer KM Kümsan Cranes, together with project developer OVM Engineering GmbH, was ordered to provide four 50t, 32m span capacity gantry cranes to support the bridge building production process. To ensure that the cranes stayed in position on the rails during operation and parking, the OEM contacted Stromag to provide retractable rail clamps for reliable braking performance.

A rail clamp expert

Rail clamps, also known as storm brakes, generate holding force at the crane rails to prevent uncontrolled movement of the crane due to gusts of wind. It is imperative that rail clamps offer reliability, a stable brake friction coefficient and can operate in a wide variety of conditions.

Stromag, a leading brand of Altra Industrial Motion Corp., is a global provider of power transmission solutions to the crane sector, with a specialty in heavy-duty braking technology. The business provides a range of storm brakes to meet varying overhead crane requirements, offering the capability to provide bespoke designs to meet specific needs.

Ünver Ünlü, Business Development Manager at Stromag, adds: “We recommended oversized RRBS retractable rail clamps with in-built Hydraulic Power Packs (HPUs) to KM Kümsan for use on the cranes. To adhere to the bridge construction schedule, it was important that we could provide the multitude of clamps within a tight schedule. We were able to deliver the customised units to KM Kümsan ahead of time and exactly to specification, ensuring that construction work could begin smoothly.

“Our rail clamps offer high power density in operation, with forces ranging from 100kN to 1200kN. Frictions pads are designed and arranged to provide a stable brake friction coefficient across a range of temperatures, which ensures consistent performance in varied environments.”

Tailored designs

“Rail clamp designs are tailored to offer up to 50mm vertical and horizontal float to meet the needs of curved rails, which means an optimum solution for each application,” Ünver continues.

“For retrofit projects, we even can dial in float to accommodate rails that have become squashed and ‘mushroomed’ over prolonged use. We also have the ability to manufacture rail clamps with special bolt patterns to fit crane OEM designs. This flexibility to provide designs that are specialised to maximise performance means our rail clamps offer the utmost reliability across varying operating conditions.”

Stromag provides proof of performance for all its rail clamps thanks to extensive in-house testing of designs. The rail profile of each project is replicated in brake tests, ensuring accurate results. This ensures rail clamps will operate exactly as intended once installed.

With construction work on the A40 Neuenkamp Duisburg Bridge expected to be completed by 2026, soon cars and trucks will be able to cross the Rhine easier than ever before, helping to safeguard the future economic growth of the Ruhr industrial zone.

Stromag clamps help build autobahn bridge

Posted on 30 September, 2021 by David Priestman

The need for cranes

A rail clamp expert

Tailored designs

“Rail clamp designs are tailored to offer up to 50mm vertical and horizontal float to meet the needs of curved rails, which means an optimum solution for each application,” Ünver continues.

ELOKON invests in autonomous transport start-up

Posted on 30 September, 202125 July, 2025 by David Priestman

ELOKON has invested in the Munich-based start-up Filics, which has developed an innovative autonomous transport robot. The Filics concept is based on two mechanically unconnected skid units which drive independently into Europallets to lift and transport the load directly to wherever it is needed in a safe and digitally controllable manner.

The system will transform existing handling procedures and enable the creation of completely new ones – from classic load transportation to efficient and fully automated floor storage. The first practical field tests are scheduled to start this autumn with companies in the automotive, freight forwarding and food logistics sectors.

The seeding round was headed up by the venture capital company 10x, together with the participation of ELOKON Ventures GmbH, Robotics Ventures, the Initiative for Industrial Innovators, as well as Dr Klaus Dieter Rosenbach, former Chief Technology Officer of Jungheinrich AG.

“We were particularly impressed by the very professional fundraising process conducted by the young, dynamic and focused Filics team,” said Alexander Glasmacher, Managing Director of ELOKON. “We believe that there is strong potential for the patented Filics solution for applications across diverse industry sectors and also recognise a synergistic bond between Filics and ELOKON.

“We are looking forward to supporting Filics as a partner in the further development, marketing and sales activities for this smart new transport robot. As a next step we are planning a so-called TechChallenge, whereby ELOKON’s technical engineering team will put the Filics solution under close scrutiny to foster further product development. We have also extended an invitation to Filics to exhibit their product at ELOKON’s stand at the LogiMAT 2022 trade fair in Stuttgart.”

ELOKON Ventures focuses on early-stage investment in promising start-ups in the intralogistics sector. In addition to providing funding, it supports them by offering them access to its existing customer, marketing and supplier networks. It also enables the pooling of knowledge and experience with its R&D department for optimum product development as well as coaching start-ups in their international sales activities.

ELOKON invests in autonomous transport start-up

Posted on 30 September, 2021 by David Priestman

Industry-first visibility of entire order lifecycle

Posted on 30 September, 202129 July, 2025 by David Priestman

FourKites, a leading real-time supply chain visibility platform, has introduced its Order Intelligence Hub, a new single-pane-of-glass view of the entire lifecycle of every order. By integrating order data, load information across modes, yard shipments, inventory visibility and other critical third-party systems, such as warehouse management systems and order management systems, shippers and their supply chain partners now have a powerful new tool to eliminate inefficiencies, manage exceptions, reduce expenses and increase customer satisfaction at every step of an order’s journey.

With the goal of breaking down silos across systems, this solution was developed in close collaboration with major consumer packaged goods (CPG) customers and driven by insights from some of the largest companies in the Consumer Brand Association, which champions more than 1,700 leading CPG brands.

As part of the recently announced Supply Chain Health and Performance Task Force, the mission of which is to increase visibility and ease supply chain pressures across the CPG industry, FourKites worked closely with Consumer Brands and 15 of its members to identify common pain points and create a solution that would address those challenges by breaking down silos between teams and systems, and leveraging the scale of the FourKites network to provide unprecedented visibility into the CPG supply chain ecosystem.

Through shared dashboards, participating members can take advantage of a real-time view of facilities, lanes and interchanges causing the most inefficiencies for CPG companies. With Order Intelligence Hub, users can drill down into the line-item level impacts of bottlenecks, and can then collaborate across teams to resolve those inefficiencies.

“Collaboration is essential for building modern, resilient supply chains,” said Tom Madrecki, vice president of supply chain and logistics at Consumer Brands. “The Supply Chain Health and Performance Task Force — in partnership with FourKites — is bringing more visibility, agility and data sharing to our supply chain, allowing the CPG industry to better navigate future challenges and ensure the reliable delivery of essential goods.”

By eliminating silos and integrating disparate systems, FourKites’ Order Intelligence Hub enables collaboration and insight throughout the lifecycle of every order. Teams can much more effectively manage exceptions by identifying issues and their root causes in real time, anywhere. Customisable, persona-based dashboards provide every stakeholder group — from supply planning through to customer service and facilities management — with the data and metrics that matter most to them.

The entire community benefits from FourKites‘ market-leading network data set, collected via working with more of the world’s leading brands than any other visibility provider, including 18 of the top-20 F&B brands and nine of the top-10 CPG companies.

“The Order Intelligence Hub is a big milestone as we execute on our vision to connect the physical and digital worlds of warehouses, stores and transportation with real-time data and machine learning,” said Mathew Elenjickal, founder and CEO of FourKites. “Collaborating with our customers and other industry leaders, like Consumer Brands, in product development has enabled us to bring to market some of the most innovative solutions that address the industry’s most critical pain points.”

With the Order Intelligence Hub, FourKites builds on its long history of industry-first innovations, including multimodal purchase order tracking, which provides line-item level shipment detail using PO numbers, and Dynamic Yard, which gives enterprises the ability to proactively manage all of their facilities based on real-time, in-yard freight data and analytics.

FourKites and its largest customers, which ship some of the world’s leading brands to locations around the world, have integrated previously siloed systems across customer service, transportation planning, supply/demand planning and warehouse management to enable internal stakeholder communication and insights throughout the lifecycle of every order.

Industry-first visibility of entire order lifecycle

Posted on 30 September, 2021 by David Priestman

Waitrose expands Milton Keynes warehouse

Posted on 30 September, 2021 by David Priestman

The renowned supermarket chain brand Waitrose & Partners has increased its storage capacity with the extension of its facilities in Magna Park (Milton Keynes, UK) to consolidate its position as a leader in its sector in the British market. To do so, it has relied on AR Racking, a European benchmark in storage systems.

The new extension consists of an intralogistics solution with AR Racking’s adjustable pallet racking that achieved an added storage capacity for 13,604 UK pallets. It is a storage system that will provide the warehouse with great agility in loading and unloading operations, with direct and immediate access to the goods. A solution perfectly adapted to the increase in demand for consumer goods and the demand on delivery times.

Waitrose is owned by the John Lewis Partnership retail group, the largest example of an employee-owned business in the UK with over 80,000 members. “Our aim is for Waitrose to remain the supermarket chain most valued by the British people and to do that we need a logistics infrastructure that allows us to hold more stock of products that can be delivered in less time. We knew that AR Racking would meet their promises on this strategic extension”, explains Lawrence Ireson, Project Manager of the John Lewis Partnership.

“This is a project that is tailored to the client’s needs and characteristics. The racks have a paint finish in Waitrose’s corporate green colour,” says Mike Smyth, UK Key Account Manager at AR Racking. “We have strictly adhered to the delivery and installation schedules agreed with Waitrose, whose standards are exacting,” adds Jim Albans, AR Racking’s UK Project Manager.

AR Racking, based in Maidenhead, has a well-established presence in the UK thanks to a service tailored to customers’ needs and the ability to deliver large projects to tight deadlines.

Waitrose expands Milton Keynes warehouse

Posted on 30 September, 2021 by Keith McKinley

AR Racking, based in Maidenhead, has a well-established presence in the UK thanks to a service tailored to customers’ needs and the ability to deliver large projects to tight deadlines.

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