The importance of the Port of Hamburg for logistics companies is undisputed. With 7,000 ship calls per year, around 300 berths for ocean-going vessels, four container terminals, three cruise terminals and a wide variety of handling facilities, the Port of Hamburg is one of the most efficient universal ports in the world.
This is why a Gruber Logistic office is located in Hamburg, almost as a matter of course, in order to benefit from the close connection to the Port of Hamburg, among other things. This Port of Hamburg has invited Holger Dechant, Director Business Unit Heavy & Special Transport at Gruber Logistics, to its regular “PORTtalk live” format to discuss the situation at the universal port of Hamburg with other guests.
Gruber Logistics XTL: The transport of 25 locomotives
Among other things, Holger Dechant discusses the transport of 25 locomotives, which were first shipped from the manufacturer in Kassel to the Port of Hamburg and then from there to New Jersey in the United States. This example clearly shows that such logistically demanding large and heavy transports can only be handled with the expertise of Gruber Logistics.
The weight of a single locomotive alone is 200 tonnes and the train combinations, which are 60 metres long, four metres wide and 4.55 metres high, could not simply be driven to the port of Hamburg by rail; Gruber Logistics had to transport them by road.
However, the speed of German approval procedures could be improved for road transport, and dilapidated bridges and a lack of reliability in completing the construction site also made transport conditions more difficult. In the end, Gruber Logistics nevertheless delivered the 25 locomotives reliably so that they could be safely loaded onto the ships in the port of Hamburg.
