Logistics 4.0, location policy in Austria and …
“The Internet of Things brings more transparency and thus more opportunities for individual solutions. These are now to be developed together with our customers in industry and commerce for B2B and B2C. Our goal is to increase efficiency and offer new value-added services.” This was the key statement of Mag. Wolfram Senger-Weiss, President of the Austrian Association of Forwarding & Logistics (ZV), in a panel discussion on “Logistics 4.0 or how Old and New Economy can benefit from each other”. The event was the final highlight of the 2017 general assembly of the ZV, which took place on November 24, in the Styria Media Center of the Kleine Zeitung newspaper in Graz.
Wolfram Senger-Weiss still sees some challenges in the field of data protection and interfaces to big data. The issue of fair competition in the sense of strong market concentration, as in global online exchanges or e-commerce providers must be kept in mind.
Referring to the current coalition talks between the Austrian parties ÖVP and FPÖ, the ZV president called for a logistics chapter in the forthcoming government program: “The coming federal government should pay more attention to logistics. Our industry is growing and creating new jobs. A wise location policy promotes sustainable development of the local industry. Especially important to us are the topics of planning and creating logistics space, more flexible working hours, but also visionary objectives such as participation in the project of the New Silkroad and a broad gauge terminal in Austria”.
Meanwhile, the young talents competition of the haulage industry, the “2017 Young Forwarder”, was dominated by topics related to e-business solutions for simplifying and speeding up the freight forwarding process. The award ceremony took place on the eve of the general assembly at the Hotel Daniel in Graz.
The first prize was given to Mr. Raphael Kibler, Quehenberger Logistics GmbH, who presented an innovative solution for an online pallet account. The prize was endowed with EUR 3,000. The second prize was given to Evelyn Kreuzhuber, Fernfracht Gimmelsberger Int. Speditions- u. Transport GmbH. Her project is dedicated to digitization for groupage freight.
“In 2017 the competition took place for the seventh time, and is intended to promote and show appreciation of the young talents in our industry. The submitted projects are about outstanding innovative solutions and concepts of freight forwarders for the logistics industry,” says Mag. Oliver Wagner, Managing Director of the ZV.