What trends could determine the future of mobility and aviation? On Monday, January 22, 2024, we were excited to welcome Sascha Barthel on campus for a guest lecture on Innovation in Aviation and Future. As Head of Innovation at the House of Logistics and Mobility (HOLM) GmbH, he gave valuable insight to our students complementing our lecture “Airport Management.”

Road freight transport companies navigate a landscape of challenges, marked by intense competition and constantly increasing CO2 prices. In this dynamic environment, the imperative is clear: embrace technologies that are both cost-effective and environmentally friendly. So how can we actively contribute to enhancing the cost-effectiveness and CO2-friendliness of road freight transport?

We are excited to have presented innovative research at the Winter Simulation Conference 2023 in San Antonio, Texas, where the spotlight was on “Simulation for Resilient Systems.”

What if dynamic forecasts of the ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) could also be used reliably in combined road/rail freight transport (CT)? Our analyses show that accurate ETAs offer an enormous advantage.

How can intermodal freight transport in Germany contribute to achieving the EU's climate targets? In search of answers, our students traveled to the Mainz-Bischofsheim shunting yard and experienced one of the oldest shunting yards in Germany up close as part of our “Logistics Live!” excursion.

Terminals are a central point in combined road/rail transport (CT). In our search for optimization, we asked ourselves which processes could be made more efficient. Setareh Behzadi from the Chair of Management Science/Operations Research and Julia Wenzel from our Chair of Corporate Management and Logistics have found some answers to this question as part of the joint HOLM project “SpotIn”.

On October 16, 2023, Jan Tränkner successfully defended his doctoral thesis on the topic of “Horizontal Business Cooperation under Uncertainty” – a big thumbs up and “hats off” from the whole team!

What will the ports of the future have to look like to keep up with the increasing growth in freight traffic? Together with the German-Kazakh University, we are embarking on a new research project to get to the bottom of this question.

Combined road/rail freight transport (CT) is becoming increasingly important, because only a combination of transport modes can sustainably handle the constantly growing volume of goods. Artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven planning cannot be missing from this development, of course. Prof. Ralf Elbert and our research associate Yuerui Tang explain in an article in the latest issue of International Transport how AI and loading optimization can support CT and thus the achievement of climate targets.

Let's face it: German freight traffic will grow in the future. That's also what the forecast of the Federal Minister of Transport says. But where to put it? Neither road nor rail can manage the volume of traffic, at least not on their own. Combined Transport (CT) offers a real opportunity.