Digitization is constantly pushing the limits of intermodal freight transport and changing how it can operate. From 17 to 21 July 2023, Prof. Elbert, Johannes Rentschler and Felix Roeper gave insights into two of our recent research projects on this topic at the 16th World Conference on Transport Research (WCTR) in Montréal, Canada.

The transport chains of the future need to be flexible and resilient to respond quickly to shortages and disturbances. Johannes Rentschler had the chance to give insights into our current research on exactly this topic together with Prof. Elbert at the International Scientific Symposium on Logistics (ISSL) in Dresden, Germany.

Combined road/rail freight transport (CT) has the potential to be an environmentally friendly alternative to road freight transport. It combines the advantages of both modes of transport and shifts delivery traffic from road to rail. Unfortunately, CT still poses some challenges today: With many individual players involved in the transport chain, communication and even order processing are not always easy. In the end, availability and timing have to fit perfectly.

Zukunftsperspektiven in Deutschland: LKW-freie Autobahnen und Gütertransporte auf der Schiene – genau das ermöglicht der Kombinierte Schienengüterverkehr (KV). Auf der Suche nach innovativen Ideen für die erfolgreiche Verkehrsverlagerung sind wir der Einladung von Jörg Hensel und Rainer Wilke von der Eisenbahn- und Verkehrsgewerkschaft (EVG) ins westfälische Hamm gefolgt.

Together with DB Cargo and Aylin Altun, we are looking into the future of rail freight transport: modular and multifunctional freight car concepts that enable industry- or even customer-specific adaptation and increased flexibility. We are starting a new research project together:

Science and research know no borders – and, as is well known, live from exchange. Therefore, we were very happy to welcome Prof. Wolrad Rommel from the German-Kazakh University in Almaty for an international exchange at TU Darmstadt.

Innovating the transport sector one step at a time: At the 6th Interdisciplinary Conference on Production, Logistics and Traffic (ICPLT) at Technical University Dortmund, Prof. Elbert and Research Associate Hongjun Wu were thrilled to share insights into the Chair’s research on a dynamic container routing problem on a rail-based hub-and-spoke network.

The transfer of our research results in the Combined Transport Innovation Lab at the House of Logistics and Mobility, Frankfurt am Main, thrives on exchange – including and sometimes especially with our students, who had the opportunity to get to know the showroom and HOLM together with Prof. Elbert on 1 February 2023.

Today we would like to present the AiF IFL project “roboKOM”, which we successfully completed last year together with Prof. Elbert, Julia Wenzel as well as Giorgi Tadumadze and Dr. Weidinger from the Chair of Management Science/Operations Research. The project dealt with the application areas of mobile picking robots and was consequently dedicated to a current and relevant topic.

Combined transport not only drives our research, but also our teaching! During our Logistics Live! excursion this winter semester, our students were given a tangible and practical insight into the design of combined transport (CT) transport chains. They learned first-hand about the potentials and benefits associated with the use of CT and the difficulties and problems CT actors face. In order to get to know the interfaces of the two transport modes rail and road in more detail, 28 students together with the team of the Chair were allowed to visit first the Railport Darmstadt of DB Cargo AG and then the KTL Kombi-Terminal Ludwigshafen last Friday. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Jan Bellinger, who guided the students around the Railport site, vividly demonstrating the challenges that have been overcome in recent years and how new concepts for the Railport have been developed and implemented. The impressions gained at Railport were greatly complemented by a presentation at KTL by Harald Schlegel and a bus tour of the KTL site, during which the students learned more about the handling of intermodal transports in one of Europe's leading transshipment terminals. The students followed the path of a loading unit and experienced live which steps it goes through during cargo handling as well as upstream and downstream and which administrative measures are necessary in the background. The team of the Chair and especially Prof. Elbert, Anne Friedrich and Felix Roeper are very grateful for and happy about the exciting insights and the hospitality of the practice partners, which made the successful organization of the excursion possible!