9 March, 2022

Everysens joins Rail Freight Group

Posted on 9 March, 2022 by Keith McKinley

Everysens has become a new member of Rail Freight Group (RFG), the representative body for rail freight in the UK. Members include rail freight operators, logistics companies, ports, equipment suppliers, property developers and support services, as well as retailers, construction companies and other customers.

RFGs’ aim is to increase the volume of goods moved by rail. It works to promote rail freight in a variety of environments, highlight the benefits of using rail freight and to communicate the sector’s successes.

Youness Lemrabet, CEO of Everysens, says: “We at Everysens are delighted to be joining RFG. We are aware of the key role that rail freight has to play in creating an emission-free supply chain, and are therefore happy to join an association that shares our long-term view.”

Sabrina Meksaoui, Chief Revenue Officer at Everysens, stresses: “Trains emit up to nine times less CO2 and particulate matter emissions than road transport. Knowing this, we are excited to be collaborating with RFG, who are making sure that railway and Government policy supports the rail freight sector.”

In addition, as a new member of this group, Everysens will be presenting its concrete client results during the RFG meeting sponsored by Knorr Bremse. This event will take place on Thursday March 10th at the offices of Digital Catapult in London.

TEST CAMP INTRALOGISTICS: Sustainability as a principle

Posted on 9 March, 202225 July, 2025 by David Priestman

TEST CAMP INTRALOGISTICS is breaking new ground in the event business. When the testing event, which takes place from March 21 to 23 as part of the TEST DAYS of the IFOY AWARD at Messe Dortmund, opens its doors for the third time, it is no longer just about hands-on testing of the best intralogistics innovations. A highlight of TEST CAMP INTRALOGISTICS is likely to be a panel debate entitled Intralogistics 4.0, featuring top-drawer industry experts and moderated by Logistics Business’s News Editor Peter MacLeod.

The organiser has made sustainability a principle and taken a series of measures to effectively conserve resources. The focus is on reusability and recycling, the use of regenerative energies and, above all, the fundamental renunciation of equipment that is not absolutely necessary. The aim is to launch a new, sustainable event format in logistics.

“Everyone knows that the material battles of the past no longer fit the times,” emphasises Anita Würmser, Chairwoman of the IFOY AWARD jury, adding: “We don’t want to continue building for the bin, but create awareness that things can be done differently. That’s why we are consistently moving in the direction of environmental sustainability and want to add a new, sustainable format to the event landscape.

“The focus of TEST CAMP INTRALOGISTICS is on innovation, not decoration. I am convinced that with our focus on innovation and sustainability we are preaching to the logistics industry. Both visitors and the exhibiting companies and service providers will benefit from our measures: they will improve their own environmental balance sheet and that of their companies.”

In the area of reusability and recycling, the organiser relies, among other things, on a modular reusable booth concept. Individual booth construction is not permitted and only technically necessary equipment is located on the test areas. Only reusable aluminium trusses are used for the standardised company boxes. The modular booth system and its entire equipment, including LED lighting, company branding and rental furniture, is standardised and can be used as often as desired.

Sturdy grids are used to demarcate the driving areas, and reusable Chep pallets and containers are available for test drives. The event carpet is completely granulated after use and then reused as a secondary raw material. Trusses are also used on the main area in the congress area, and the trailer stage of the IFOY AWARD was planned on a trailer from the manufacturer Fliegl.

The organisation of event logistics from a single source ensures short distances and efficient transport, minimum water consumption and maximum conservation of resources. The central control of the material logistics for the assembly of the test areas and boxes shortens the assembly in the 10,000 sq m hall, which is fully booked, to one and a half days, and the dismantling is completed in only four hours.

The catering is also centrally organised. Exhibitors and guests use the hall restaurant for catering. Individual catering in the booth and disposable crockery are prohibited.

A big plus is the accessibility of the location. The official event hotel Mercure on the exhibition grounds is within walking distance of the hall, as is the Westfalenhallen underground station. The hotel also participates in the Planet 21 sustainability programme. Furthermore, 100 percent of the energy for the TEST CAMP comes from green electricity.

The choice of the 2021 venue already paid off in terms of the IFOY organisation’s environmental goals. As early as 2006, the Westfalenhallen was certified as an environmentally friendly eco-profit company. They have also supported the sustainability code “fairpflichtet” of the German event industry since 2014.

Four exhibition halls, including Hall 3 used by the TEST CAMP, are equipped with a photovoltaic system. Eurosolar awarded the Westfallenhallen the “European Solar Award” in 2005 in the category “owner or operator of photovoltaic systems”.

In recent years, the Westfalenhallen group of companies has implemented numerous individual measures to use energy sparingly. These include: the installation of block-type thermal power stations, the installation and use of heat recovery systems, a roof renewal with thermal insulation as well as the conversion of the ventilation control in all halls to carbon dioxide sensor technology.

The TEST CAMP INTRALOGISTICS takes place as part of the IFOY TEST DAYS of the International Intralogistics and Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY) AWARD. It enables intralogistics decision-makers to experience innovations live and test them themselves. In addition to the 14 products and solutions of the IFOY finalists, a limited number of third-party exhibitors with innovations will be admitted for the first time. The exhibitors cover the entire spectrum of material handling – from forklifts to autonomous mobile robots (AMR) and software to holistic automation projects for high-performance warehouses.

New this year is a conference programme with panel discussions on the trend topics of innovation management, Intralogistics 4.0 and VDA 5050. A new edition of the live test of the VDA 5050 communication interface as part of the VDMA AGV Mesh-Up is also in preparation.

For the key note on the opening day, the organisers are able to welcome the internationally renowned logistics researcher Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael ten Hompel (Fraunhofer IML). National and international experts have agreed to take part in the daily panel discussions:

Panel Discussion on March 21: Without bankruptcies, bad luck and breakdowns: How companies successfully introduce intralogistics innovations. Participants: André Kranke

(Dachser), Prof. Dr. Thorsten Schmidt (TU Dresden, IFOY Innovation Check), Marco Prüglmeier (Noyes Technologies) and Dr. Jana Jost (Fraunhofer IML, moderator).

Panel Discussion on March 22: Intralogistics 4.0. Participants: Steffen Bersch (SSI Schäfer/VDMA), Jos de Vuyst (stow Group/FEM), Thomas Vortkamp (DB Schenker) Wolfgang Hillinger (DS Automotion) and Peter MacLeod (Logistics Business News Editor, IFOY juror, moderator).

VDMA Panel Discussion on March 23: VDA 5050 – status quo and future of the communication interface. Participants: Dr. Wolfgang Hackenberg (SYNAOS), Mathias Behounek, (SAFELOG), Alexander Balandin (Robert Bosch), Dr. Christian Reinema (Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles), Jan Drömer (ek robotics/VDMA, moderator).

FourKites unveils net zero initiative

Posted on 9 March, 202229 July, 2025 by David Priestman

Real-time supply chain visibility platform FourKites has announced a new Net Zero initiative to help the world’s leading companies achieve their organisational goals to reduce supply chain emissions. As part of this announcement, FourKites unveiled Sustainability Hub, a suite of analytics tools to provide better visibility into resource consumption and waste generation; a new Sustainability Advisory Board; and ongoing original research around sustainability.

Sustainability Hub is the latest phase of FourKites’ ongoing focus to help companies scale sustainability efforts through technology and collaboration. The platform will include new tools and capabilities that enable customers to:

Input their sustainability goals and more accurately track saved emissions
Benchmark progress against industry averages based on organisational goals and anonymised industry data
Drill down into additional load-level details to better pinpoint opportunities for optimisation
Track progress via a single summary dashboard
Use analytics and scenario modelling to surface new insights for emissions reductions

Sustainability Hub builds on the company’s industry-first Sustainability Dashboards, a free solution that allows companies to identify specific areas within their supply chains that are contributing high levels of greenhouse gas emissions so that they can develop more effective sustainability strategies.

The announcement coincides with FourKites’ 2022 Global Supply Chain Sustainability Summit that is bringing together more than 4,000 supply chain executives and sustainability thought leaders from organisations including Sony, AB InBev, DHL, Future Planet, Volvo Group and others, to discuss how to drive positive environmental impact through supply chain transformation.

According to Gartner*, “We cannot scale the sustainability agenda without technology. CSCOs expect the focus on digitalisation to increase. Seventy-two percent stated that enterprises will continue to digitise and integrate new technologies, meaning supply chains will have to continuously adapt.”

To that end, FourKites has continued to drive innovation in the industry and facilitate discussion among key stakeholders across the industry in order to help companies meet their long-term sustainability goals.

“We started using FourKites years ago because we knew it was important to have visibility in transit,” said Paul Avampato, Head of International Logistics for Laundry and Home Care at Henkel. “Now we’re using that data to drive efficiencies in our supply chain and help achieve our sustainability goals.”

Sustainability Hub is the latest component of FourKites’ multi-faceted strategy to help customers achieve their sustainability goals. Other programmes and solutions include:

Dynamic Yard, a new category of software that connects traditional, siloed yard management software with FourKites’ real-time supply chain data and predictive ETAs to provide insight into driver detention patterns, labour efficiency and more to reduce dwell and inform carbon reduction strategies. In the last quarter of 2021, customers who used Dynamic Yard emitted 20% fewer carbon emissions than non-Dynamic Yard users through reductions in truck idle times.
FourKites Sustainability Center of Excellence, a thought leadership council dedicated to promoting sustainability throughout the end-to-end supply chain via actionable, data-driven strategies.

“Sustainability is a core tenet of our philosophy at FourKites, and we are hyper-focused on enabling our Fortune 1000 customers to embed sustainability throughout every level of their supply chain,” said FourKites Founder and CEO Mathew Elenjickal. “I am incredibly proud of our team for driving the sustainability agenda for the industry and helping our customers make a meaningful impact on the environment.”

* Gartner, “CSCO Response to Environmental Sustainability Trends for Supply Chain in 2022,” Sarah Watt, Laura Rainier, Heather Wheatley, Simon Bailey, Andrew Stevens, Kristin Moyer. Published 24 January 2022.

GenieGrips adds Stik-It Pads to its range

Posted on 9 March, 202225 July, 2025 by David Priestman

GenieGrips Pty Ltd, the Melbourne, Australia-based maker of high quality, durable, forklift safety products, has added GenieGrips Stik-It Pads to its range of products.

GenieGrips Stik-It Pads are a slim, patterned anti-slip pad that protects products and minimises the risk of slipping loads. They are a self-adhesive solution to protecting product reducing risk of injury or damage. Sitting within the footprint of the forklift tyne, their low profile allows them into the smallest of openings.

GenieGrips Stik-It Pads are extremely easy to fit, with high performance acrylic adhesive tape to secure them to the forks. GenieGrips Stik-It Pads are available in one size and can be trimmed or joined together to accommodate different lengths and widths to fit most forktynes.

“Team is going well. It’s a good product. I would not have had to buy more until next year, but we had extra requirements not planned for,” said Simon Richards, IT/Traceability, West Gate Tunnel Project. “Even though they have 14t on them, all day long, they last a long time. Damage reduction means savings of thousands of dollars.”

GenieGrips Pty Ltd will be exhibiting at MODEX in Atlanta, Georgia, US Booth B8247 28th-31st March. This will provide the perfect opportunity for new and existing customers to see the range of innovative GenieGrips products.

Linde adds robotic trucks to automation portfolio

Posted on 9 March, 202225 July, 2025 by David Priestman

Autonomous transport vehicles open up great opportunities for even more efficient in-house logistics; with its Linde C-MATIC mobile robots, Linde Material Handling is expanding its extensive portfolio of automated solutions with three compact, agile and flexibly deployable logistics helpers for horizontal goods movements in warehouses and production.

Industrial robots that autonomously lift and move loads and navigate using QR codes have been in use for over a decade. But it is only now that many companies are discovering the benefits of these compact vehicles for their in-house material flow.

“Strong online commerce, on-going staff shortages, increasing goods movement in warehouses and production, and growing safety requirements to prevent personal injury and property damage have businesses looking for smart solutions to these challenges. Here the growing range of automated and autonomous systems comes in very handy for many companies,” says Philipp Stephan, Product Manager Automation & Intralogistics Solutions.

The new, compact and highly manoeuvrable Linde C-MATIC transport robots can handle maximum loads of 600, 1,000 and 1,500 kilograms even faster and with more agility. The “platforms on wheels”, which are around one meter long and just under one meter wide, can both turn on the spot and rotate the picked-up load. This means they require little space for driving or turning manoeuvres and are suitable for cramped warehouse layouts.

“The vehicles can be used in an extremely wide range of applications: They transport automotive components to modern production lines, they move building materials, spare parts, paper or clothing on pallets or in wire mesh crates through the warehouse, or bring ‘goods to people’, thus following a picking concept practiced primarily in online retailing,” says product expert Stephan, describing the situation.

Load pickup via table or pallet

The autonomous platform vehicles can pick up loads in two different ways: First, via a transport table that they can drive underneath, on which the goods, a pallet or a wire mesh crate are placed. Positioned underneath the table centre, a QR code ensures that the transported goods are not only picked up centrally and aligned correctly but can also be clearly identified. This means that the goods and their path through the facility can be tracked. Secondly, the transport robot can pick up the pallet directly or via a permanently mounted adapter plate from a transfer station or roller conveyor.

Goods handling is fully automatic: The Linde C-MATIC moves to a defined transfer point and places the surface of the load handling device centrally underneath the transport table or under the pallet positioned in a transfer rack. The cart then lifts the load and brings it to the designated staging area at a speed of up to 7.2km/h.

Navigation through the surrounding area is also accomplished via QR codes placed in a grid pattern on the floor and read by the QR camera installed on the vehicle. The transport robots receive information about the destination located at a short to medium distance from the warehouse management system, e.g. the “Linde Warehouse Navigator”. The vehicle’s software determines the optimal route through the building for each individual transport job.

A laser scanner ensures the reliable detection of moving or stationary obstacles. Thanks to real-time information processing, the Linde C-MATIC adapts its speed to the respective situation and remains stationary until people and vehicles have left the monitored zone. The vehicle automatically avoids fixed obstacles. It also issues visual and acoustic warning signals. Separate emergency stop switches on all four sides allow manual intervention. The mechanical shock absorbers fitted all around protect the vehicle from collision damage.

Wide variety of applications

The most common application is line transport between two points. But the transport robots can also interact with other autonomous or automated vehicles such as narrow-aisle trucks, reach trucks or pallet stackers by setting down or picking up goods at defined transfer points.

Charging of the lithium-ion battery is software-controlled: If the charge falls below a defined level or if there is currently no driving job to be carried out, the C-MATIC moves to the self-charging station and waits there for the next job.

Cooperative Logistics Network now offering e-learning

Posted on 9 March, 202231 July, 2025 by David Priestman

The Cooperative Logistics Network – an international alliance of more than 320 hand-picked freight forwarders – has launched its Online Logistics Academy. To this end, the E-Learning Platform has been inaugurated with two courses specialised in international logistics and freight forwarding and a SOC Masterclass focused on Shipper Owned Containers.

The programmes will allow members to learn and execute complicated supply chain processes, enhance their knowledge of logistics tools, and prepare themselves to effectively deal with the present challenges in the industry.

In order to offer the best quality education, The Cooperative has established a partnership with The Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association- an organisation with over six decades of experience in education. Additionally, The Coop has also cooperated with Container xChange – a neutral platform connecting hundreds of logistics companies – that provides a broad range of online educational course materials to help freight forwarders get a better knowledge of container leasing.

“The future of the freight forwarding sector is constantly evolving. In this age of digitisation, it is crucial for small and mid-sized logistics companies to work towards upskilling and expanding their knowledge base. By offering these specially formulated courses, The Cooperative gives its members an additional service for them to be more competitive, enhance their productivity and boost their earning potential,” states Antonio Torres, President and Founder of The Cooperative Logistics Network.

The courses are both meant for professionals working in the field of transportation and logistics who want to broaden their industry knowledge and sharpen their skills and newcomers who want the perfect start to their journey in this industry.

The Cooperative agents will get to attend two levels of freight forwarding courses provided by CIFFA and designed by the Schulich Executive Education Centre (SEEC). The first course, International Transportation and Trade, is meant for those agents who want to master the foundations of global freight forwarding, risk management, quotations, and freight costs. The second course, Essentials of Freight Forwarding, will train members on basic topics such as packaging, documentation, cargo insurance or cargo security.

These training programmes can be completed at the students’ suitable pace. within three months CIFFA will provide with interactive classes, audio, video lessons, and a downloadable e-book.

In addition to these courses, The Cooperative Logistics Network offers the SOC Container Masterclass offered by xChange which is an all-inclusive training regarding the handling of Shipper Owned Containers. The Cooperative members who register for one of the above-mentioned logistics courses by CIFFA will get free access to this Masterclass.

Transaid project in Madagascar leaves lasting legacy

Posted on 9 March, 2022 by Keith McKinley

More than 100,000 emergency transfers were made to rural health facilities over a five-year period in Madagascar, according to data compiled from one of Transaid’s longest-running access to healthcare initiatives, focused on maternal and child health.

Publication of the figures follows the conclusion of a USAID-funded project, known locally as MAHEFA Miaraka, led by JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc., and in partnership with others including Transaid, local NGOs and in close collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health.

Working in areas of the country where the availability of transport is often low, and where difficult terrain and seasonal rainfall often limit access by motorised vehicles, Transaid supported communities to integrate locally available modes of transport to connect themselves to primary healthcare facilities or referral hospitals.

This work contributed to 106,851 transfers to health facilities taking place during the project, utilising taxi cooperatives with minibuses and motorised three-wheelers, ox carts, rickshaws, bicycle ambulances, stretchers and even canoe ambulances, amongst other forms of emergency evacuation.

Caroline Barber, Chief Executive of Transaid, says: “Delays in seeking access to quality care are a key contributor to maternal and under-five mortality, with inadequate access to transport being a major cause. This project set out to address that, working in some of the hardest to reach parts of Madagascar, where we saw the number of patients accessing the scheme grow consistently year-on-year.”

Forty-four per cent of the communities Transaid helped were inaccessible by car or truck for at least four months of the year, and 20% for almost half of the year. This made it an incredibly complex project to manage, requiring a blend of community-managed forms of transport, taxi drivers trained in emergency transport systems, plus evacuation plans developed with communities and village leaders.

Barber adds: “The communities we were supporting have spoken highly of the improved access to healthcare in emergencies, especially the means to travel at night, when there are generally far fewer transport options available.”

Transaid’s role within the project also included the setting up of several ‘enterprise box’ (eBox) initiatives, which aimed to improve community health volunteer mobility and increase motivation and retention through the provision of bicycles and income generation which also contributed financially to local health insurance schemes.

Five eBoxes were established, each becoming a bicycle sale and repair micro-enterprise managed by registered cooperatives to help meet some of the transportation needs of the local population. At the end of the project, four of the eBoxes were considered independently operational, leaving a lasting enterprise which can continue supporting the local community.

The completion of the project, Transaid’s second in Madagascar in succession, draws to a close a decade of work within the country – and one of the organisation’s longest running and most successful projects to-date.

Load pickup via table or pallet

Wide variety of applications

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