DF Capital earmarks £30m for start-ups

DF Capital is designating £30m of inventory finance facilities for start-up and young businesses across its key industries in the UK this year.

The initiative will see credit made available for early-stage dealers and distributors in the agriculture, materials handling, industrial, lodges & holiday home, motorhome & caravan, motorcycle, marine, and transport sectors. It is designed to deliver extensive support for entrepreneurship across the UK and provide the assistance that businesses may have otherwise struggled to get through a traditional commercial loan.

Championing industry growth is DF Capital’s raison d’être. Since its inception in 2016 as a specialist bank, its goal has always been to help businesses across the UK achieve their ambitions. This is done by providing both SMEs and larger organisations with innovative and flexible finance solutions, allowing them to better manage their cashflow, inventory and achieve order book growth.

Furthermore, DF Capital says it ensures that it is easy to do business with by leveraging technology to deliver its services, resulting in nimble application, approval and onboarding processes and rapid access to capital.

Andy Stafferton, chief commercial officer at DF Capital, commented: “We want to make sure that these businesses, particularly the early stage ones, have the same access to the finance and support they need in order to grow and flourish. These businesses tend to face the biggest challenges – and more so during the last two years – because typically they do not fit into banks’ traditional credit models.

“We believe that earmarking such a significant amount of funding will enable the next generation of entrepreneurs to unlock their dreams and help their businesses survive at such a crucial juncture in their lifecycle.”

DF Capital is expecting high degrees of interest in the scheme and has set up a dedicated webpage for firms to find out more information. CLICK HERE to access it.

 

 

DIMOS opens branch office in Dubai

DIMOS Maschinenbau GmbH, a manufacturer of warehouse and industrial trucks as well as system supplier for the air cargo sector, is establishing a branch office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With this move, the family business based in Peterberg, Germany, is strengthening its local customer and project support and taking a big step towards internationalisation.

The connection between DIMOS and Dubai began in 1999, when the manufacturer delivered the first Pallet Mover to Dubai International Airport. Today, numerous other products from the Air Cargo portfolio are in use in the Arab region, in particular the X-Way Mover multifunctional vehicle. The team of Unitechnik Systems GmbH, based in Dubai, has supported DIMOS as a partner from the very beginning. Together with the specialist for automation solutions for internal logistics and production, DIMOS has implemented a large number of joint air cargo projects.

Out of this long-standing partnership, DIMOS is now establishing its own branch office in Dubai. As a result, from now on the Projects & Systems department of DIMOS will represent the business in the United Arab Emirates independently. The air cargo experts concentrate on the acquisition and handling of intelligent system solutions in the airport sector. The organisation and administration are controlled from Germany. The Dubai team, consisting of technicians, programmers and sales staff, continues to carry out, finalise and follow through orders and processes on site.

Building on experience

“We are enabling a new generation to emerge in Dubai, but we are relying on a team that is established in the market with a large number of project successes and a high level of customer trust in the United Arab Emirates,” emphasises Pascal Schütz, Sales Manager at DIMOS. “Our customers will retain their long-standing contact persons, who can now offer even more intensive support.”

DIMOS plans to further develop and strengthen the air cargo sector it has built up so far in Dubai, but at the same time is looking towards the material handling market: “In the medium term, we would like to position ourselves in the Dubai area as a contact for warehouse and industrial trucks for all industries and actively shape the market there, which is characterised by innovation and visionary thinking,” Schütz concludes.

 

 

Transporeon takes dock scheduling to the next level

Transporeon has expanded its Real Time Yard Management (RTYM) solution with a new smart re-planning feature, which enables warehouse workers and managers to instantly react to short-term changes on the day of delivery or pickup. Customers can now effectively re-plan scheduled appointments (time slot bookings) to another time and/or another location on any given day. The re-planning feature saves costs caused by waiting times and prevents poorly synchronised assets and ineffective dock planning.

According to a survey conducted by Transporeon and ARC Advisory Group, more than one in 10 loadings (11%) at warehouses need to be rescheduled throughout the day. The survey also reveals a considerable technology gap in yard operations: Nearly two-thirds of respondents handle their rescheduling completely manually. Furthermore, 16% of respondents don’t have a digital time slot management application in place at all. As a result, these logistics professionals cannot account for trucks arriving ahead of time (“early birds”) or behind schedule (“late runners”), making peaks and delays of arrivals unpredictable.

With its time slot management (TSM) offer and real-time visibility (RTV) solutions, Transporeon supports customers to update loading and unloading sequences through automatic processes with instantaneous updates. On average, survey respondents were able to reduce their daily waiting times by more than one hour solely by using the TSM application. Additionally, RTYM users receive a continuously updated overview of incoming and outgoing transports, which contributes to more efficient planning in real-time.

Transporeon CEO Stephan Sieber explains: “Over the last few years, time slot management tools have been used to plan for loading and unloading. When the time slot is booked, that are usually hours, if not days, before the process happens, and in between, delays and changes can happen. When companies combine the planning aspect of time slot management with real-time visibility data, they can use the platform to update loading and unloading sequences to optimise these processes in real-time. This leads to benefits for all participants.”

Accordingly, the survey conducted by Transporeon and ARC Advisory Group identifies a “Lack of predictability and planning” to be the second biggest cause of wait times after “Peaks and throughs of arriving vehicles”. “Communication Problems”, which were a further issue identified by participants, could also be fixed by implementing RTYM. Furthermore, the solution proposed by Transporeon, a “Combination of time slots with real-time data”, was rated by respondents as the yard management technology with the highest potential in the future.

The full White Paper Leveraging Real-Time Data and the Network Effect for Next Level Time Slot Management 2022 with the survey results can be accessed here.

NX upgrades fleet with DAFs from Asset Alliance Group

Asset Alliance Group has strengthened its six-year relationship with The NX Group, supplying the distribution side of its business, NX Logistics, with 12 new DAF XF 530 tractor units.

Supplied on a two-year full-service contract hire basis, the vehicles join a 38-strong truck and trailer fleet – two thirds of which has been provided by Asset Alliance Group. Each new truck will distribute to NX Logistics’ wide range of customers in the B2B and B2C sectors across the UK, predominantly pulling box trailers.

Neil Powell, Managing Director at The NX Group, says: “A good relationship and excellent communication are really important to us when it comes to looking for a company that can provide vehicles for our fleet. We’ve worked with three different suppliers over the 12 years we have been in business and Asset Alliance Group prove time and time again they are the ones we can trust – both with the service they provide and with reliable, modern vehicles.

“They are a lot more proactive than their competitors in terms of ensuring our vehicles are fully and efficiently operational.”

The NX Group will benefit from Asset Alliance Group’s comprehensive full-service contract hire offering, including all safety inspections, maintenance, servicing and repairs, tyre cover, and full roadside assistance covered by a single monthly payment.

Five of the new DAFs are replacements for older models, and the remainder are new additions to the fleet in support of recent business growth. All are expected to clock-up between 80,000 and 100,000 kilometres annually.

Powell adds: “It’s not just me who has the last word on the vehicles we operate. The input of our transport manager and drivers play a huge part on the assets, spec and company we choose, and the newness of the DAFs is proving to be very popular. We always try to have the most up-to-date kit, as we want to keep our drivers happy and comfortable.”

Founded in 2010, The NX Group offers supply chain solutions for businesses across three divisions: distribution, warehousing and courier services. NX Logistics provides secure palletised delivery across the UK.

 

Redkik attracts investment of $3.3m

Redkik, a global software company with the mission to simplify and improve the marine cargo insurance industry with technology, has announced the closing of a $3.3m Seed funding round.

Co-led by Greenlight Re Innovations and MS&AD Ventures, with participation from Fintech Ventures Fund, Plug and Play, and existing investor North Karelia Growth Fund managed by Redstone, this funding round will accelerate Redkik’s growth and the value it offers in bringing per-shipment cargo insurance to the global market.

The value of bringing on strategic investors goes beyond additional working capital, adding further resources and (re)insurance expertise to revolutionise cargo insurance for the transportation and supply chain industry. Redkik plans to continue with cutting-edge research and development to firmly secure its position as a leader in per shipment cargo insurance.

“Insurance for shipping is still determined the same way as 30 years ago, with little to no automation, and outdated IT solutions.” said Chris Kalinski, Founder and CEO of Redkik. “This results in low efficiency, double-keying, high overhead costs, and complexity for every party within the supply chain. Our mission is to bring intelligence to insurance and make it simple to secure goods and loads.

“Most annual policies are based upon 12-month forecasts and the policyholder has to pay the premium upfront. Redkik’s technology coupled with our strategic partners’ insurance placement offering facilitates change to the old structure and we are excited to present this groundbreaking, collaborative solution to the transportation industry.”

“Redkik is transforming how cargo insurance policies are structured and distributed,” said Brian O’Reilly, Head of Innovations at Greenlight Re Innovations. “We believe the future of cargo insurance is in embedded, point-of-sale solutions and, therefore, we are excited to welcome Redkik to our growing portfolio of Insurtech companies.”

“Redkik is upgrading the cargo insurance space,” said Tiffine Wang, Partner at MS&AD Ventures. “Their solution uses data analytics and artificial intelligence to better serve customers through personalisation, empowering brokers and carriers and increasing revenue streams for freight forwarders. We love investing in companies that create a more seamless experience for users.”

Redkik will be building on its partner base across the USA, Canada, Latin America, SE Asia and Europe, and says it would be delighted to hear from freight forwarders, transport intermediaries, technology integration partners, and insurance partners.

 

Girteka doubles intermodal rail freight

Girteka Logistics, the largest asset-based transportation company in Europe, has announced the results of its intermodal rail freight division, which carried double the number of Full Truckloads (FTL) compared to 2020, saving over 14.4 million kilograms of CO2 emissions throughout 2021.

Girteka Logistics continued growing its operational intermodal capabilities through the year, beginning to use new freight lanes throughout Europe, starting with the newly-opened Kaunas Intermodal Terminal, which connected Lithuania with Tilburg, the Netherlands in July 2021. The lane also connected the Netherlands with the city of Rzepin in western Poland.

The road freight company also began using two additional lanes in its EU network: one in Germany in an industrial area, going towards the southern tip of France, with another freight route connecting northern Italy with northern France.

Overall, the company doubled the amount of FTLs it carried compared to 2020, with over 16,100 fully-loaded trailers traveling on rail tracks, saving the environment of more than 14.4 million kilograms of CO2 emissions, as the FTLs travelled for more than 15.2m km throughout the EU.

In addition to the saved emissions, the company has also calculated that carrying FTLs on the back of trains across Europe reduced the number of tires that Girteka Logistics needed throughout the year by at least 900, as well as avoided at least 61 accidents on the road, based on the average numbers in the industry. The company says this further showcases a commitment to sustainability and road safety as the obvious first choice for its communities.

Furthermore, Girteka Logistics‘ customers have access to its fleet of trucks that are powered by the latest Euro 6 standard diesel engines, as well as the option to complete first- and/or last-mile deliveries by using Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) or HVO100 fuel, further reducing the CO2 emissions of the whole process, as HVO can reduce the environmental impact to up to 90% compared to regular diesel.

“The impressive growth of Girteka Logistics’ intermodal operations, which now have doubled in terms of our capacity and our CO2 emissions savings for two years in a row, is no coincidence,” stated Pavel Kveten, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Girteka Logistics European Business Unit. “It is the result of the hard work of our colleagues, who have put their best effort in to not only make sure that we had a ready product presented to our customers but to also assure our clients that our intermodal offering will satisfy their need to become truly sustainable, as evident by the number of emissions that we prevented from entering the environment.”

The logistics provider noted that growth, in particular, intermodal rail freight services to and from the UK will be one of the main priorities going forward in 2022. Overall, Girteka Logistics plans to grow the number of FTLs carried by intermodal rail transport by 50% in the coming year.

“I also wanted to highlight the work of our partners who have ensured that our intermodal services were of the highest quality and allowing us to deliver trailers reliably throughout the year,” added the COO, noting that “even in the worst-case scenario, our fully asset-based fleet enables us to react and alleviate any kind of issues on a very short notice, which is a key advantage of our intermodal offering.”

CargoBeamer raises capital and appoints new CEO

The Supervisory Board of CargoBeamer, a European pioneer in decarbonising freight traffic, has appointed Nicolas Albrecht (33) as the Company’s new CEO. Albrecht joined the Executive Board in January 2020 as Chief Business Development Officer. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Weidemann (59), co-founder and former CEO, continues to oversee the Company’s patented technology development as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Dr. Markus Fischer (47), Executive Board member since June 2016, continues as CFO.

CargoBeamer is introducing zero carbon freight transport in Europe on a major scale. It has developed a proprietary system that allows all types of semi-trailers to be transported by train in a fully automated, fast, and cost-effective manner. Transport by rail is 100% electric and reduces CO2 emissions by 80% compared to road transport by diesel trucks. At the same time, it helps reducing traffic congestion on roads and highways. The technically proven CargoBeamer System is gaining significant traction in the marketplace and will be introduced to all important transport corridors in Europe over the next five years.

Robert A. Osterrieth, Chairman of the company’s Supervisory Board: “The appointment of Nicolas Albrecht as CEO is a generational change in the leadership of CargoBeamer. Hans-Jürgen Weidemann developed the leading technology to shift freight transport from road to rail and successfully introduced it to the market with our Kaldenkirchen – Domodossola route and the opening of the first CargoBeamer-terminal in Calais. The responsibility of Nicolas Albrecht will be to rapidly scale the proven business model into an international high-capacity transport network covering the important North-South and East-West transport corridors in Europe.”

Dr. Hans-Jürgen Weidemann, Co-founder and CTO of CargoBeamer: “My vision was and is to introduce a technology for automated, fast, environmentally friendly and cost-efficient rail transport of all types of semi-trailers. We have realised this vision from paper sketches to market maturity with the unique CargoBeamer system – and reduce CO2 emissions of tens of thousands of annual transports by about 80% compared to road transport.”

New CEO Nicolas Albrecht says: “CargoBeamer has the potential to make a massive difference in saving CO2 emissions by scaling its proprietary system and becoming the European market leader in road-rail combined transport. We benefit from the megatrends of climate change, road congestion and increasing freight volumes. CargoBeamer aims to generate annual revenues of up to €5bn in about 10 years, an aggressive and at the same time realistic objective.”

€33.5m Financing Round

To accelerate its growth, CargoBeamer plans significant capital expenditures in rolling stock and terminals. It raised €33.5m in its latest financing round at a post-money valuation of €245m. New investors included mostly private investors and family offices from Switzerland and the US that were attracted by the company’s long-term growth potential and environmental benefits. Already in 2021, Duisport invested in the company and became a strategic partner.

Dr. Markus Fischer said: “We are grateful to our existing and new investors for their support. The new capital will help us execute our ambitious growth plan. The confidence placed in CargoBeamer by new international investors is encouraging and motivating.”

Matthias Ederer, private investor from New York: “CargoBeamer ticks many boxes of a very promising company: massive growth potential, proprietary and proven technology, a wide competitive moat and tail winds from two important megatrends, climate change and road congestion. Making an impact towards a better environment also attracted me.”

European Network

The new capital will be used to double the Company’s rolling stock to almost 600 CargoBeamer Railcars and develop new CargoBeamer Terminals. In the next ten years, CargoBeamer wants to build a dense network of more than 50 routes connecting over 30 terminals along the main transportation corridors in its core European market.

The first terminal in Calais was opened in July 2021. Construction of the next two CargoBeamer Terminals in Domodossola (Northern Italy) and Kaldenkirchen (German-Dutch border) is expected to start this year. These new terminals will enable CargoBeamer to operate its important routes between France, Germany, and Italy entirely with its own proprietary CargoBeamer transshipment system to load and unload semi-trailers on and off trains in a fully automated, fast, and cost-effective way.

Additional investments will be made to add new features to CargoBeamer eLogistics, a cloud-based software application that allows CargoBeamer to manage its entire transport chain, including customer information, booking, dispatch, track & trace, reporting, administration, and accounting all in one entirely digital process.

 

IAA TRANSPORTATION to take place in Hanover

Under the motto “People and Goods on the move”, IAA TRANSPORTATION will take place from September 20th to 25th 2022 at the Deutsche Messe AG exhibition centre in Hanover.

In addition to the presentation of new vehicles, the focus will be on logistics, transport and the digitalisation of commercial vehicle transport on the way to climate neutrality.

The previous IAA Commercial Vehicles is thus expanding the breadth of topics and exhibitors and, with a new name as IAA TRANSPORTATION, is becoming the leading international platform for logistics, commercial vehicles, buses and the transport sector. With its expanded event concept, it networks the relevant manufacturers and suppliers from the commercial vehicles, buses and logistics sectors with leading tech providers.

An important goal of the new concept is to focus more on the climate-neutral and technological transformation of the entire transport sector as an international platform.

IAA TRANSPORTATION is the leading trade show for transport, commercial vehicles and logistics,” says Jürgen Mindel, VDA Managing Director. “Our successful concept for a corona-proof staging of IAA MOBILITY 2021 will also be used at IAA TRANSPORTATION in Hanover: The current registration status makes it clear that the concept expansion has been positively received by the industry.

“There are already exhibitor registrations from more than forty countries. The high level of registrations is gratifying and also underlines the exhibitors’ desire to once again offer customers a live experience with the new products.”

The new concept of IAA TRANSPORTATION also implements a combination of new product presentation, trade audience and expert exchange within the framework of the IAA Conference 2022. To give exhibitors and visitors the best possible exposure to their target audience, the IAA Conference will focus on different key topics over four days.

  • FUTURE LOGISTICS, with the topics of supply chains, trucks, rail & shipping integration, e-mobility and hydrogen technology in heavy-duty transport and heavy and light commercial vehicles, as well as technological and digital innovations for the logistics chain;
  • TRADE & LOGISTICS, with the topics last mile, inner city logistics, van, transporter, cargo bikes, delivery robots, digitalization as well as innovative solutions for retail, e-commerce;
  • INFRASTRUCTURE, with the topics charging infrastructure electricity and hydrogen, expansion of data networks, data management, long-distance bus transport, rail transport connection;
  • INNOVATIONS IN PUBLIC TRANSPORT, with the topics of bus, electrification, hydrogen, ride-sharing, ride-hailing, MaaS, digital networking of existing services.

Interested companies and associations can contact the organiser and contribute their concepts via email to info@iaa.de .

With the Last Mile Experience Area, the IAA TRANSPORTATION presents an innovative new hall concept. For the first time at a trade fair, a complete city backdrop will be set up indoors, within which the latest last mile solutions will be presented in application. On display will be the use of parcel drones, delivery robots, e-transporters, e-cargo bikes as well as innovations from the Internet-of-Things, data networks and cloud technologies, SaaS platforms and decentralised hubs.

“With the new format, we want to bring together urban planners, technology providers, food retailers and delivery services with logistics industry players, mayors and local politicians. Because only with intelligent, innovative and socially accepted solutions will we be able to create the growing demand for inner-city logistics and move toward climate neutrality,” says Mindel.

Presentation of prestigious industry awards at IAA TRANSPORTATION Prizes will also be awarded at IAA TRANSPORTATION in various branches of the mobility industry. The winners of the prestigious “Bus of the Year”, “Coach of the Year” and, for the first time, “Cargo Bike of the Year” competitions will be presented and honoured.

“We are in good talks with “Truck of Year”,” Trailer Innovation Award” and the “Van of the Year” and I am optimistic that in 2022 we will be able to present all of these awards in Hannover and thus give them the greatest possible attention. We are particularly pleased to welcome the “Cargo Bike of the Year” to the IAA. This clearly shows how multi-layered our portfolio is,” says Jürgen Mindel.

IAG Cargo boosts Latin American service

IAG Cargo, the cargo division of International Airlines Group (IAG), has increased services to Colombia and Argentina from Madrid, whilst offering daily capacity between Sao Paolo and Buenos Aires. The business now services 17 destinations in Latin America from Madrid, London and Barcelona.

IAG Cargo has particularly increased services to Colombia, with 14 flights per week now operating between Madrid and Bogota (up on the previous 10), while the three flights per week schedule into Cali is maintained. It has also increased services between Madrid-Buenos Aires from 8 to 10 flights per week, and services between London-Heathrow and Mexico City increase to 7 per week (up from the previous 5).

IAG Cargo’s new service between Sao Paolo and Buenos Aires will enable the flow of goods between the two cities and the opportunity to fly freight across its network onto busy transatlantic trade lanes. All services utilise the Group’s wide-body aircraft.

IAG Cargo now offers capacity to nearly every destination in Latin America which it operated pre-pandemic with over 250 weekly services in total and all utilising wide-body aircraft. This service has proved particularly valuable to the automotive and manufacturing industries which utilise air freight between the regions, and to the medical sector.

The extra capacity also benefits perishable exporters seeking to transport fresh produce into Europe and the UK, an important period in the run-up to Valentine’s Day.

Rodrigo Casal, Regional Commercial Manager for Latin America at IAG Cargo, said: “These additional flights will provide a welcome boost to businesses trading between Europe, UK and Latin America. Additionally, we are delighted to be able to offer regular wide-body capacity between Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires, on flights that feed into London and Madrid.

“Our global network allows customers a gateway to the world, connecting automotive freight to assembly plants in Europe, or perishables onto the supermarket shelves in the UK.”

The news of IAG Cargo’s expanded offer in the region follows strong performance in 2021, when a new route from Heathrow to Guayaquil, Ecuador was announced and increased flights to Sao Paolo, Brazil and Mexico City. Regular flights to San Juan, Puerto Rico and from Heathrow to Rio de Janiero were also re-started in 2021.

Eligible customers seeking to book their freight with IAG Cargo can benefit from its loyalty programme – FORWARD.REWARDS and FORWARD.PLATINUM.

Digital trucking platform driveMybox expands

Hamburg-based startup driveMybox more than doubled its sales in 2021 compared to the previous year and is on a strong expansion course. The online platform has succeeded in expanding container transport to the Northern and Western ports as well as the German hinterland hubs.

Through the expansion of the digital platform and thanks to the high commitment of the employees in the daily operations, the team of driveMybox was able to ensure the high demand for container transport and satisfaction for customers and service providers.

Aaron Spandehra, CBDO, points out: “June to December 2021 was more than satisfactory for us. In addition to strong organic growth, we made important strategic progress and were thus able to establish further interesting partnerships. Moreover, the number of registrations, bookings and tours grew rapidly on the customer and service provider side. Through our existing and new customers, we were able to further expand the business and significantly increase revenue.”

The intuitive and user-friendly digital platform was launched in Germany in 2020. It offers an all-in-one solution for containerised transport: the entire transport process from price request to scheduling to invoicing is digitised – in just a few clicks, any company that wants to have a container transported by truck can book a transport via the platform.

The registered service providers, on the other hand, are getting the optimised transport orders directly on their smartphones via push notifications, so that they can accept trips flexibly and on their own responsibility.

The process is fast, simple and similar to booking a flight. Live tracking, automatic payment processing, direct communication and digital documents are just some of the advantages.

driveMybox handles the transport on its own responsibility and is thus a fixed contractual partner for both sides. Moreover, driveMybox provides more flexibility and transparency in container trucking and that even free of charge.

A recent customer survey proved that driveMybox is seen as a strong and reliable partner that can react flexibly to requests, even in times of strong fluctuations and disruptions in the supply chains.

“In recent months, we have primarily worked on developing value-added services for our customers and service providers and prepared the digital platform for international expansions,” says co-founder and CTO Dr. Leonard Heilig. “An important focus for 2022 is to enable sustainable container transports and to be able to react flexibly to changes in operational processes in an automated and intelligent way based on our AI. With new innovations, we want to enable, among other things, CO2-optimised or even zero-emission transport and create further added value, for example for customs clearance and equipment rental through cooperation with strong partners.”

In the meantime, driveMybox is not only on the road nationally, but also internationally. In addition to the Northern ports and inland hubs, this also includes the Western ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. The customer base includes shipping companies, intermodal companies, shippers and forwarders.

Heilig and Spandehra anticipate significant revenue growth in fiscal 2022 based on expected macroeconomic and industry-specific conditions. Focusing on the seven building blocks – market penetration, growth, expansion, innovation, operational efficiency, strong corporate values and sustainability – driveMybox aims to further expand the logistics tech company by early 2023.

To achieve the strategic goals, investments will be made especially in the further development of the platform as well as in the expansion itself. In addition, the focus will be placed on the sustainability of the platform and cooperation in the form of collaborations and partnerships will be intensified.

 

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