DHL Freight has held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new state-of-the-art freight hub in Hannover, Germany.
The modern freight center is being built on the 63,000m² (678,126ft²) site, which will handle freight for DHL Freight’s Europe-wide network, and test innovative technologies and solutions that could be utilized by the company in the future.
The transhipment terminal will be more than 8,300m² (89,340ft²) with over 80 loading bays. Around 260 employees will organize and consolidate freight for the Europe-wide Euroconnect groupage service and the Eurapid premium groupage service.
The location will also play an important role for DHL Freight’s Euronet full truckload (FTL) service. A team of Euronet experts will support customers at home and abroad with tailor-made logistics solutions ranging from on-site transport management to end-to-end design and optimization of incoming and outgoing commodity flows.
Thomas Vogel, COO at DHL Freight, said, “The new freight hub is an important investment in our existing European network and reflects our Freight 2020 corporate strategy. Here in Hannover, we will offer sustainable, efficient and customer-oriented road freight and logistics solutions with the highest service quality, bringing us a good deal closer to our goal of becoming the undisputed market leader in overland transport services.”
DHL Freight’s testing of new innovative solutions will include planning a control center at the new location, in which all information on shipments and live information from operations will be centrally recorded.
Among other things, data is to be supplied by intelligent forklifts that are equipped with cameras and sensors for scanning goods and guide the driver through the warehouse using the fastest route. A solution for measuring the volume of parcels using camera sensors is also to be used in the terminal.
The new site will be built according to state-of-the-art standards of sustainable construction.