19 April, 2023

Fortna Automates Swedish eCommerce Parcel Hub

Posted on 19 April, 20237 August, 2025 by David Priestman

FORTNA, a leading automation and software company for the full logistics value chain, has partnered with Budbee, a Sweden-based tech company, to develop a parcel hub with enhanced and seamless delivery experience for their customers. The automated parcel system includes a new sorting solution that improves speed and accuracy for their new terminal in Jönköping, Sweden.

At the end of 2022, Budbee joined forces with Instabox under a new parent company, Instabee, with the aim of continuing the transformation of eCommerce deliveries while challenging traditional players in Europe. The terminal in Jönköping will deliver parcels to customers from both Budbee and Instabox.

The new automated hub is based on a shoe sorter system with loop functionality designed to transport products, such as cardboard boxes and bagged items. The solution is designed to achieve a throughput of hundreds of thousands of parcels daily, with multiple outfeeds for Budbee and Instabox destinations. This future-proof solution can expand the system and reach higher throughput as demand increases.

“As a true partner, we use our capabilities and industry experience to make our customers competitive and relevant to their clients,” said Jonathan Kruisselbrink, Director of Sales at FORTNA. “The facility will contribute to an overall operational improvement of the customer’s parcel environment. We are very pleased to support Budbee in its mission.”

The new sorting solution is up and running to serve as many customers as efficiently and quickly as possible. “We are happy to be working with FORTNA and the operational advantages it will give us. This will help us to serve Budbee and Instabox customers even more efficiently,” said Fredrik Nyström, Nordic General Manager of Instabee.

FORTNA partners with the world’s leading brands to transform omnichannel and parcel distribution operations. Known world-wide for enabling companies to keep pace with digital disruption and growth objectives, we design and deliver solutions, powered by intelligent software, to optimize fast, accurate and cost-effective order fulfilment and last mile delivery. Our people, innovative approach and proprietary algorithms and tools ensure optimal operations design and material and information flow. We deliver exceptional value every day to our customers with comprehensive services and products including network strategy, distribution centre operational design and implementation, material handling automated equipment, robotics and a comprehensive suite of lifecycle services.

AI Video Telematics Innovation for Road Safety

Posted on 19 April, 20237 August, 2025 by David Priestman

VisionTrack (stand 5E80) is continuing to deliver ground-breaking road safety benefits with the launch of an AI detection camera at the Commercial Vehicle Show, Birmingham 2023. The VT650-AI will eliminate HGV blind spots around the vehicle and enable complete 360-degree visibility to better protect vulnerable road users (VRUs). It is part of the company’s growing range of AI-powered video telematics solutions that provides the most comprehensive risk detection and intervention (RDI) currently available.

“Traditional proximity sensors warn of a nearby road user, but typically alerts can be triggered by street furniture such as lamp posts, bollards, road signs and bins, which risks the driver becoming complacent and taking less notice of alarms,” explains Richard Kent, President of Global Sales at VisionTrack. “The best way to avoid this alert fatigue is to take advantage of intelligent and high precision AI cameras that keep the driver engaged with accurate and useful information.”

The intelligent and high-precision AI VRU detection camera is suitable for an HGV’s front, side or rear using deep learning technology to detect pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and people on scooters, while disregarding street furniture. With configurable safety zones, all angles can be covered, providing the precise location of nearby VRUs in relation to the vehicle. Footage is automatically displayed on an in-cab monitor, and supplemented with an audible, spoken warning.

“We are creating a unique AI-powered video telematics ecosystem – using the latest edge-and cloud-based innovations – to provide unrivalled, real-time driver engagement, alongside the most accurate, timely and insightful risk monitoring and analysis. This integrated technology offering is designed to mitigate the impact of road, driver and fleet risk,” adds Kent.

Earlier this year, VisionTrack launched NARA, an AI-powered post-analysis solution that is transforming how collisions, near misses and driving events are analysed, monitored and reviewed by automatically analysing footage without the need for human involvement. The device agnostic, cloud-based software is changing how vehicle camera footage is assessed and helping road transport operators to save time, costs and most importantly lives.

Beumer Group Opens New UK Office

Posted on 19 April, 202329 July, 2025 by David Priestman

BEUMER Group, a leading global supplier of intralogistics and materials handling systems and solutions, opened a new UK head office in Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, today.

The ribbon cutting event that will officially open the new office in Ivanhoe Business Park, will be attended by the mayor of Ashby, councillor John Deakin.

BEUMER Group has had an office near Heathrow Airport for a number of years and is opening the new facility to cement its relationship with the UK and act as a hub from which the company’s skilled sales, engineering and project experts can advise on, manage and maintain its material handling and airport baggage handling systems. The Heathrow premises will remain active as a satellite office.

BEUMER Group has served the UK with clever material handling solutions since the early 1980s. Its most recent projects have been the design and installation of the parcel processing technology for Royal Mail’s two new fully automated parcel super hubs in Daventry and Warrington, a sortation system for the new Evri eco-friendly hub in Barnsley, and the new baggage handling system for London Stansted Airport. Previously the company has supplied automated handling systems to a range of UK organisations including DHL, DPD, British Forces Postal Services, ASOS, New Look and Sainsbury’s, and upgraded the baggage handling system between London Heathrow’s T1 and T2 to smoothly process departure and transfer baggage for passengers in the Queen’s Terminal.

David McGarry, CEO, BEUMER Group UK, commented: “The opening of the new UK head office reinforces our strong partnership and commitment to our customers in the UK and Ireland, this will enable us to provide an even more seamless service to support them in their continued growth investing in local expertise in the long term.”

BEUMER Group is an international leader in the manufacture of intralogistics systems and solutions for conveying, loading, palletizing, packaging, sortation, and distribution. With 5,100 employees worldwide, BEUMER Group has annual sales of about EUR 1.1 billion. BEUMER Group and its group companies and sales agencies provide their customers with high-quality system solutions and an extensive customer support network around the globe and across a wide range of industries, including bulk materials and piece goods, food/non-food, construction, mail order, post, and airport baggage handling.

Bixolon Presents Dedicated Labelling Range

Posted on 19 April, 202329 July, 2025 by David Priestman

BIXOLON Europe GmbH, a subsidiary of the global manufacturer of advanced receipt, labelling and mobile printers, welcome visitors on stand 4/F80 at LogiMAT 2023 from the 25-27.04.2023, where it will be showcasing its advanced range of printing solutions for the intralogistics market.

Key exhibition product highlights will include:
• Hands on Shipping Demonstration – BIXOLON will be exhibiting its extremely reliable, eco-friendly and cost-efficient XL5-40 4-inch (114mm) linerless printer. Featuring the hands-on, weighing and scanning shipping application which uses XI software, the optional programming language that enables users to develop an application to fit their unique labelling requirements.
• RFID labelling – Presenting its comprehensive range of mobile, desktop and industrial RFID print and encode printers, BIXOLON will be demonstrating the feature-rich premium mobile RFID label printer XM7-40R 4-inch (112mm), plus the XD5-40tR 4-inch (118mm) RFID enabled thermal transfer desktop label printer. Alongside, the highly powerful, optimum performance XT5-40NR 4-inch (114mm) thermal transfer industrial RFID label printer.
• Best Seller Highlights – Offering high-performance labelling printing solutions of variable widths, the company will be presenting its logistics best seller range, including the cost-effective XT3-404-inch (114mm) industrial labelling line, the unique XQ-840 4-inch (118mm) and the slimline SLP-DX220 barcode label printer. Alongside, the highly reliable XD5-40 4-inch (118mm) and XD3-40 4-inch (118mm) desktop direct thermal and thermal transfer printer series, which offer additional features to suit different budget ranges. Last but not least, the outstanding XM7 series featuring the premium XM7-20 2-inch (58mm), XM7-30 3-inch (72mm) and XM7-40 4-inch (112mm) auto-ID mobile liner and linerless label printers, along with a range of suitable accessories.

“BIXOLON has been building upon its Auto-ID labelling portfolio over the past few years, incorporating the latest technologies to its printing solutions,” explains Jay Kim, Managing Director, BIXOLON Europe GmbH. “LogiMAT allows us to meet and discuss the latest industry trends while constantly looking to the market to find where we can develop our products depending on the evolution of our customer’s needs.”

BIXOLON is a leading global manufacturer of innovative, advanced printing technologies including point-of-sale receipt, label, Auto ID and mobile printers for a wide range of environments. Millions of BIXOLON printers are used today in retail, hospitality, healthcare, banking, ticketing, post/parcel, warehousing and other transaction-intensive industries. In 2022, for the ninth consecutive year BIXOLON was named global mobile receipt printer market leader by Japanese research company Chunichisha.

Robust, Fanless Panel Industrial PC

Posted on 19 April, 202329 July, 2025 by David Priestman

WEROCK Technologies GmbH, an innovative manufacturer of industrial computer technology, is expanding its industrial PC product portfolio with the Rocksmart RSC800 series.

The ultra-flat panel PCs have been specially designed for the harsh environments of production, warehousing and logistics and are therefore ideal for use as forklift terminals, logistics terminals or operating interfaces for machines. They can be extensively customized for the respective application. The panel PCs of the Rocksmart RSC800 series are flexibly configurable and available with 10.4″, 12.1″ and 15.6″ in three different sizes and brightness of up to 1,200 nits. All three models are available with glove-operated touchscreens, with a choice of capacitive multi-touch or pressure-sensitive single-touch. Despite the very compact dimensions of the aluminium housing, the devices are protected according to IP65 and are shock and vibration resistant for use in high-vibration environments.

Rocksmart RSC800 combines state-of-the-art processor performance in a passive housing, which thanks to sophisticated cooling technology, does not require a fan. They are available with up to 32 GB RAM and efficient Intel® Celeron J6142 4-core processor (“Elkhart Lake” series) for all standard processes or Core i5-1245U 10-core processor (“Alder Lake” series) for all demanding tasks. USB 3 ports as well as 2.5 Gbit Ethernet ports and a RS232 port are available for high integration capability. Designed for industrial needs, all components are selected for long-term availability.
Special highlights include the integrated Wi-Fi 6 WLAN solution, which ensures particularly good reception with two integrated high-performance antennas, ideal for use in difficult radio environments (e.g., in warehouses on industrial trucks), but also the particularly wide input voltage range of 6 to 60 volts, which enables especially flexible integration. Optionally, the devices are also available with an integrated uninterruptible power supply to ensure high data and process security.

“With the Rocksmart RSC800 series, we are expanding our portfolio of stationary computers with three particularly robust models up to 15.6 inch display diagonal for extremely demanding environments. Despite all the robustness, we were able to realize a particularly slim design for all models,” explains Markus Nicoleit, Managing Director at WEROCK Technologies GmbH. “Our focus during development was to create a very high-quality and durable product. The selection and fine-tuning of the highest quality components ensures optimal usability of the touchscreens, maximum performance with the latest technology, reliability and maximum connectivity. We are confident that with the Rocksmart RSC800 series we have created an attractive product for the industrial environment,” Nicoleit continues.

Rocksmart RSC800 will be officially introduced and presented at the start of LogiMAT 2023. Interested visitors can get to know the models at the trade show in hall 8 at booth 8G33. The first models of the series can be ordered now. In the course of the year, the series will be expanded to include additional display sizes up to 32 inches. Also presented at LogiMAT is the Scoria P160 – a 6″ Android handheld mobile computer for logistics and retail with high-end 2D barcode scanner and 5G connectivity.

Smartphone App to Empower Driver Safety

Posted on 19 April, 202329 July, 2025 by David Priestman

CameraMatics, a leading global driver safety provider, has announced the launch of MySafeDrive – a first-of-its-kind app complete with a fleet management dashboard which enables companies to track and report their ESG transport emissions, monitor driver behaviour and improve safety through employees’ smartphones, with no need for additional hardware.

Based on eco-safe driving principles – a combination of safe, defensive and anticipatory driving – the ground-breaking app from CameraMatics combines advanced data science and AI with vehicle manufacturer standards to calculate corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and provide drivers with the most effective actions they can currently take to care for our planet and communities.

Organisations, as well as their supply chains, can use the app to track both direct and indirect emissions and implement carbon reduction policies. The app can be used as a tool to educate drivers to use their vehicles in the most environmentally efficient, safe, and economical way, and the data can also be used to consider alternative transport methods, supply chain providers, and to optimise routing.

This ties in perfectly with CamaraMatics’ desire to Innovate2Zero, revolutionising fleet management and using cutting-edge technologies to help companies to work towards net zero ambitions. MySafeDrive is another tool from CameraMatics that can help to support businesses in discovering inefficiencies, setting and monitoring targets, and using actionable data insights to pinpoint practical steps to proactively manage their carbon footprint.

There are huge benefits for organisations using MySafeDrive when it comes to emissions, with the ability to track grey fleet and scope 1 and 3 transport emissions. Scope 3 emissions from suppliers and other parts of the value chain have previously proved particularly difficult to measure accurately yet can account for up to 90% of a large corporation’s total transport emissions.

The new app uses AI technology to analyse the information and model a driver’s typical driving style. It can then demonstrate how small changes to specific driving habits can contribute to big reductions in emissions – both for drivers and businesses and their supply chains as a whole – with the app playing a significant role in CameraMatics’ goal to help businesses and industry move towards a more sustainable future of mobility.

Mervyn O’ Callaghan, CEO and Founder at CameraMatics, explains: “We’re very excited to introduce MySafeDrive – our new solution to easily help fleet managers improve efficiency and driver safety throughout their fleets. Poorly maintained and badly driven vehicles have a disproportionate carbon footprint and with MySafeDrive, fleet managers will be able to extend the life of a vehicle and lower insurance costs, all while increasing road safety.

“This new all-in-one sustainable driving app requires no hardware other than a mobile phone to gather comprehensive data about driving styles, habits and driving incidents, which in turn provides valuable data to fleet managers. Our ultimate aim with the app is to change poor driver habits and reduce carbon emissions through education.”

Using AI, the app splits driving styles into five key classifications, from conservative to aggressive, awarding scores for journeys based on multiple categories. Additionally, summary scores out of 100 are used to indicate more granular information about driver performance that can be used for driver coaching.

MySafeDrive gathers data and calculates the energy and CO2 emissions for the driver’s journeys. This information is influenced by the driver’s performance and behaviour. Emissions are compared with vehicle manufacturer’s expected values, which can be used to set appropriate targets and check interventions to achieve net zero.

Companies can also expect to save on fuel or increase EV battery range, increase the life of the engine and reduce the need to change tyres and brake components as frequently. This makes MySafeDrive a particularly useful tool when it comes to meeting and reporting ESG goal compliance, with the ability to calculate and compare average emissions and CO2 usage against targets, making it easier for companies to identify areas for improvement.

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