Groundbreaking ceremony held for DHL’s freight hub in Langenhagen
DHL Freight has recently held its ground breaking ceremony for its state-of-the-art freight hub in Hanover - Langenhagen, Germany. A modern freight centre is being built on the 63,000 square metre site, which not only will handle freight for DHL Freight’s Europe-wide network, but also will test innovative technologies
July 03, 2018: DHL Freight has recently held its ground breaking ceremony for its state-of-the-art freight hub in Hanover - Langenhagen, Germany. A modern freight centre is being built on the 63,000 square metre site, which not only will handle freight for DHL Freight’s Europe-wide network, but also will test innovative technologies and solutions for the terminal of the future. The commissioning of the site on Münchner Strasse is planned for mid-2019.
The ceremonial start of construction was attended by Ulf-Birger Franz, head of the department of economic affairs, transport and education, Hanover Region, Mirko Heuer, mayor of the city of Langenhagen, Thomas Vogel, COO, DHL Freight, Bernhard Wirth, CEO, DHL Freight Germany & Austria, Gero Schiffelmann, member of the management board DHL Freight Germany and responsible for Euronet and Hartmut Köhler, branch manager Hanover, DHL Freight.
“The new freight hub is an important investment in our existing European network and reflects our FREIGHT 2020 corporate strategy. Here in Hanover - Langenhagen, 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,” explained Vogel.
In the transhipment terminal, which is more than 8,300 square metre in size with over 80 loading bays, around 260 employees will in future organize and consolidate freight for the Euroconnect Europe-wide all-in-one groupage service and the Eurapid premium day-definite groupage service.
The location will also play an important role for DHL Freight’s Euronet full truck load (FTL) service. A team of Euronet experts will support customers at home and abroad with tailor-made logistics solutions – ranging from onsite transport management to end-to-end design and optimisation of incoming and outgoing commodity flows.
The locations at Stelingerstrasse and Büttnerstrasse in Hanover will be consolidated into the new DHL Freight branch and will at the same time significantly increase the capacities of the existing network.
As a part of deploying new technologies, DHL Freight is planning a control center at the new location, in which all information on announced shipments as well as 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. Thanks to the digitized volume measurement, dimensions, volume and weight are recorded up to six times faster than by hand. In addition, ring and glove scanners are to be used in the future to make it easier for terminal staff to consolidate freight.
The tested solutions and the experience gained are then to be combined with other piloted technologies to form a lighthouse project that will represent DHL Freight’s vision of the freight terminal of the future.
The new site will be built according to the state-of-the-art standards of sustainable construction. A photovoltaic system, heat exchange pumps and LED lighting will save energy and reduce operational CO2 emissions. The location aims to achieve the gold certificate from the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB). At the same time, DHL Freight is contributing to the Group-wide goal of reducing all logistics-related emissions to zero by 2050.
