Sebastian Theuerkauf
The research project on cooperative logistics concepts under the consortium leadership of DAKO GmbH scored particularly well with its approach to solving ecological and economic challenges. The project is exemplary for product development at DAKO, which combines sustainability, economic efficiency and practicality.
On behalf of the entire team, Dr Harald Hempel, Head of Innovation & Research at DAKO GmbH, accepted the much-coveted industry award at a gala on the evening of 18 November 2022 in Munich. Every two years, a jury consisting of representatives from HUSS publishing house, academia, industry associations and insurers honour companies that effectively integrate the principles of sustainability and social responsibility into economically viable business models and products.
The award-winning research project SMART MULTI-USE LOGISTIK (SML) is dedicated to precisely these demands. SML aims to develop a digital platform solution for the concentration of transports through cooperative logistics schemes. The consortium led by DAKO consists of CEP service providers, media and pharmaceutical logistics companies and two universities.
The digital connection between the partners helps to establish effective transportation networks. Within these, each company can play to its specific strengths and hand over uneconomical routes to partners or exchange consignments with other partners. In this way, the overall number of journeys can be reduced while also utilising more electric vehicles – especially on the famous „last mile“. Hence, digital cooperation in route planning helps to mitigate CO₂ emissions and costs simultaneously. During the whole duration of the project, the partners are testing the collectively developed technologies and processes in the live operation of their day-to-day business. Their experiences thus contribute directly to the optimisation of the overall logistics concept.
The project is thus exemplary for the principles and working methods generally used at DAKO to develop seminal software products, says Dr Harald Hempel.
“Together with our customers, we take up the pressing issues of our time and try to translate them into marketable, application-oriented and sustainable solutions for the future. In this way, we at DAKO are also preparing our core business areas of compliance and transportation management for the cooperative logistics models of tomorrow.”
Today, our complex online platform TachoWeb already helps to make the best use of individual fleet capacities and avoid trips without enough cargo through automated route planning, exception management and live dispatch data. Combining these software applications with the digital support for cooperative logistics approaches provides an ideal background for working both resource-efficiently and economically.
Dr. Harald Hempel emphasises that DAKO sees the European Transportation Prize for Sustainability award as a confirmation of our corporate strategy. This means that we at DAKO approach the challenges of economic pressures, ecological questions and social responsibility as a unity and try to overcome them through integrated digitalisation and close cooperation with its users.
SMART MULTI-USE LOGISTIK is part of the federal research programme „ICT for Electric Mobility“ funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
