Hamburg port launches slot-booking for container trucking
From 29 November, trucks will only be allowed to enter the Hamburg container terminals if they have booked a slot for their visit. The slot-booking process is part of the “Fuhre 4.0” initiative to develop digital solutions for intelligent container transport.
In recent years, the capacity of the container ships handled at the Port of Hamburg has continued to increase. The more containers a ship carries, the more truck visits have to be coordinated at the terminal. In order to plan the increased traffic in advance and avoid bottlenecks in the handling process, mandatory slot booking is being introduced for trucks.
The new slot-booking process is based on the pre-announcement of transport data via the TR02 data interface. This advance notification is already mandatory and includes information about the scheduled transport time. If sufficient capacities are available at the requested time, the truck visit can be booked.
Otherwise, the system automatically offers the next available time slot. This makes it possible to coordinate truck visits with the capacities at the terminals. The aim is to avoid congestion on the roads at the port and long waiting times at the terminals.
When a truck arrives at the terminal, the current time is compared with the booked slot. Each slot lasts for one full hour, e.g. from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. If the truck arrives punctually, the visit will be handled as scheduled. If it misses its slot, the load must be rebooked before the truck arrives. Otherwise there is no handling guarantee and the truck will only be dealt with as capacities permit.
If there is a significant deviation from the time window, the slot must be rebooked before the truck arrives. As the available parking spaces are needed to handle those trucks that are on schedule, as well as priority transports, trucks are not allowed to wait on the terminal site without already having booked or for booking a slot.
www.hafen-hamburg.de; www.hhla.de