DRYPORT: Emmen workshop, November 2009 [i]
Dryport delegates focus on IT and Security
An IT and Security Workshop hosted by Dryport partners Emmen and Coevorden, in the Netherlands, attracted some high-profile and prestigious speakers and generated some enthusiastic and well informed discussion.
The first day of the workshop was hosted by Stenden University, which offers a specialist degree in international logistics management; about 30 students attended that day’s sessions. The second day of the workshop took place at the Eden Hotel in Emmen.
Welcome and opening: Councillor Rob Bats, Deputy Governor, Province of Drenthe
The municipalities of Emmen and Coevorden, supported by the Province of Drenthe, want to fully exploit their economic opportunities and labour market by working together to develop the region as an intermodal transport hub, Councillor Rob Bats told delegates.
The ambition is to serve as a logistics centre for international container and freight handling – a sector that is growing in both cities.
“This ambition results from our strategic position; excellent cross-border accessibility through road and rail connecting the region to the sea ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, as well as to the sea ports of Northern Germany in Wilhelmshaven and Hamburg,” said Councillor Bats. In addition, the cities had a positive labour market and good incentives from government and business – and benefited from having no traffic congestion.
“Developing the function of the region as a logistics centre by establishing a Dryport fits perfectly within our strategic policy of promoting modal shift and economic growth by promoting sustainable international freight transport,” he said. “However, establishing a Dryport in this region may also support the goals of the Dutch government for improving the competitiveness of the Amsterdam and Rotterdam sea ports by setting up a national transportation and logistics network linking them with strategically located inland terminals.”
Emmen and Coevorden are strategically located on the international transport corridor linking the urban concentration in the western part of the Netherlands with North East Europe, on the border with Germany. Coevorden incorporates the Europark cross-border industrial site, with the Euroterminal accessible by road, rail and water.
Emmen – a Dryport opportunity: Johan Gille, Ecorys Research & Consulting
Many shippers are not aware what services are available and continue to use straight road transport because they have always done so, said Johan Gille. Rotterdam consultants Ecorys carried out a study into the potential for a dryport in the Emmen area and among the key recommendations for developing such a plan were: promotion; establishing a commitment from shippers; and developing a relationship with other dryports and sea ports.
Volumes had dropped as a result of the economic crisis but, in the long run, the problems sea ports had experienced in terms of capacity and space would return and increase in the future, said Mr Gille.
The Emmen dryport study was set up to: define what a dryport is; review available information; carry out a freight flow analysis; research stakeholder opinion; and complete a SWOT analysis, he told delegates. A dryport was essentially a port situated in the hinterland, with the same facilities as in a sea port, and multimodally connected to a seaport. It would provide intermodal transport and handling of goods, information handling, information exchange between transport chain partners, load unit handling, customs clearance and logistics services.
Ecory’s freight flow analysis looked at two levels – freight going to and from the region, and freight corridors passing the region, between the Netherlands and Germany, and countries beyond, including Poland and Scandinavia.
As to the question of what was needed, Mr Gille listed: sufficient volume to allow multimodal transport services; frequency and connectivity; coordination between regional transhipment centres; and convincing shippers.
The area offered good road accessibility and rail links into Central and Eastern Europe, although there were some bottlenecks. He highlighted the Bentheimer Eisenbahn rail border crossing, which offered the opportunity to join a direct rail link without needed to change systems across the border.
“This saves equipment change and time, so is a good choice for rail cargoes from Coevorden,” he said.
The conclusion was that the dryport concept was certainly relevant for the hinterland logistics region; most services were available already, and the region had potential volumes, the necessary infrastructure, and good links with sea ports.
Implications of Global Security / ISPS Code on Dryports: Berry Hanssen, DSV Solutions Nederland BV (Customs)
Under the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code, ships should be safe and sea ports should be safe, said Berry Hanssen.
But where did that leave dryports? “If goods are to travel from the ship directly into the dryport, you have to take care of customs and security,” he said.
Operating within the territory of an Authorised Economic Operator (AEO), a dryport would have to meet safety and customs handling requirements. “This means security levels must be very high. But irrespective of those security levels, we want to know what is being put in the cargo container.
“We still have hijacking of containers and we still have goods being put into containers that don’t belong there; and we still see people climbing out of containers that were properly sealed by customers at the outset of their journey.”
In the AEO situation, when operators see things going wrong they must act and notify the customs authorities, said Mr Hanssen. “Customs have systems to track what is going wrong – and [sometimes] they even know better than you!”
The only way that it is possible to keep containerised cargo safe from one point to another is by using a proper seal, said Mr Hanssen. Yet even here there could be problems – he mentioned a recent case of an inside job where the container was sealed and GPS tracked yet 25% of the contents were missing on arrival. The seal had been broken and stuck together with glue.
Port Community IT Systems – how can they be adapted for dryports? Alan Long, general manager, Maritime Cargo Processing (MCP)
Seventy-five per cent of UK maritime traffic is processed through the Destin8 port community system created and operated by Felixstowe-based Maritime Cargo Processing, Alan Long told delegates. MCP rolled out Destin8, a totally new and updated version of its community system, in 2007 and Mr Long gave an outline of the way it works, “sitting neatly” between the port and its customers.
MCP’s system is used by 700 companies, and 2,800 users, in 17 UK ports plus many inland clearance locations.
Mr Long told delegates about the Haven Gateway’s work to identify the right location for a dryport in the area. A key part of this was an Origin and Destination Study – “we are trying to find out where things are going”.
MCP holds a large amount of information in its system and could collect that information in real time, he explained. By sifting through manifests and picking out postcodes, the supply chain could be better understood.
“MCP is already a trusted independent body of the shipping lines,” said Mr Long. “We can start looking at what the flows might be – and, of course, use that information anonymously.”
The last UK Origin and Destination Study for freight was carried out in 1991 by the Department for Transport, delegates heard.
Track and trace: Paul Swaak, Portbase
Reducing a supply chain’s carbon footprint and reducing congestion doesn’t have to be about modal shift, insisted Paul Swaak. “It can also be done by clever logistics – for example, driving at night, or connecting with a dryport.”
Inland and dryports are essentially part of the Portbase port community system network, he said. “Our role in the future will include [further] collaboration/linking with important hinterland hubs.”
The six-year-old Portbase port community system was developed within the Port of Rotterdam and merged with the Amsterdam port system in March 2009.
Mr Swaak described it as “like a spider web but with no spider in between”.
“We try to be the spider in the web and relay all the messages. The essence is to re-use data as much as possible – to make sure the port’s clients enter their data just once.”
Portbase is used by 1,400 companies, and 5,000 users, and generates 3 million messages a month. This will triple in the next four years, Mr Swaak predicted, with one catalyst being the introduction of the new European export control system in January 2010.
He said Portbase’s role was “to improve the competitiveness of the Dutch ports and associated business companies and hinterland connections”.
Accessibility and capacity remained key issues in port logistics, together with multimodality, the need for more real time information, and ongoing national and European legislation regarding customs requirements, he said.
At present Portbase is focusing strongly on further development of its B2B services, and increasingly on hinterland operations, including barge, road and rail planning.
Fast and efficient handling of container barges travelling between sea terminals and inland terminals was vital, said Mr Swaak. Good collaboration, pre-notification and exchange of status information were all essential ingredients.
But beyond that, Portbase has ambitions to have connections into all Dutch ports in the next three years. And, said Mr Swaak, “our former mission was just ports; now it includes logistics and the international supply chain.”
However, he added: “We don’t believe in a European system but the need to collaborate to create a European network of systems.”
Portbase will spend €10 million over the next few years to rebuild its system based on a new IT platform.
Shared Intermodal Container Information System (SICIS) – Integrity project: Dr Albert Veenstra, Erasmus University Rotterdam
The aim of the EU project Integrity is to achieve visibility in the supply chain, Albert Veenstra told delegates.
In the years after 9/11, everyone was very focused on security measures, he said, but companies did not react only on the basis of security. “They want to work on efficiency; security isn’t the single priority any more. It is very much dual purpose; any system must help companies to become more efficient and security will follow as well.”
Integrity is based on the concept of collecting data as far back as the factory in China – who put the container seal on, and where? Who drove the truck and where and when? When did the container arrive at the port and when was it loaded on to a vessel? As the container moves through the chain, the Integrity project obtains more and more information, said Dr Veenstra.
“We want to know who the people are in the chain and are they trustworthy. We want to know if the container is late or has been tampered with.”
Integrity, which began container trials in autumn 2009, involves partners from the ports, logistics and distribution sectors.
Hinterland logistics planning is often hampered by a lack of pre-arrival information and on-carriage insight, with the chain involving a high number of parties – cargo owner, freight forwarder, road and barge operators and terminal operators, said Dr Veenstra. The benefits of this type of detailed tracking were many, quite apart from improved security.
Information would be available to transport and hinterland destinations; terminal operators could make use of predicted dwell times in their own storage planning; and administrative errors could be reduced thanks to less re-keying. Higher information quality would help with stock planning and reduction, and above all would reduce unnecessary customs inspections.
“We can use SICIS for de-risking containers. This fits very much with how customs would like to work over the next 5-10 years,” said Dr Veenstra.
By extending supply chain visibility right back to the production site, a risk-based approach could be used in the supply chain, with customs and government authorities “piggybacking” on this highly visible data.
RFID applications for railways – A system for the future: Mats Åkerfeldt, Bankervet (Swedish Railways)
Mats Åkerfeldt outlined an RFID system piloted by Bankervet on key routes in Sweden which allows for proactive wagon maintenance and delivers other benefits.
Based on trackside detectors, the system could reduce maintenance costs, ensure less disruption of traffic, allow more efficient shunting and ensure correct train assembly, he said.
The main pilot is on the 130 km stretch of road between the sea port of Gothenburg and the dryport at Falköping.
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification is a technology for wireless communication between a reader (in this case trackside) and a transponder/tag (on the railway wagon). It could be used for tracking and tracing wagons and freight across the whole of Europe, said Mr Åkerfeldt.
This could deliver a better use of resources, lower freight costs, reduced environmental impact and correct charging.
Other pilot projects by Banverket have been completed on SSAB’s steel billet trains between Luleå and Borlänge; SCA’s paper wagons between Munksund and Holmsund; Stockholm commuter trains; and the post train from Stockholm to Gothenburg.
The vision was to build an infrastructure of 700 RFID readers along the Swedish Rail Authority’s track, focusing on major junctions/stations and shunting yards, he said.
[i] Presentation summaries for website coverage of workshop: Felicity Landon