Bulk Distributor Jan/Feb20 | Page 8

8 Tank Containers B ULK D ISTRIBUTOR Hoyer, Dupré start US JV W ith around 50 sites worldwide, representative offices in 115 countries and partners around the world, Germany- based Hoyer Group has access to a steadily growing global network. The Hamburg logistics group joint ventures with strong partners are another key component in its consistent expansion strategy. Most recently, Hoyer has teamed up with Dupré Logistics to consolidate its market position on the North American continent. Hoyer holds 49 percent of the shares in the joint venture under the name Hoyer Bulk LLC, while US transport company Dupré owns 51 percent. Dupré is headquartered in Houston, Texas. As family-run businesses, both Hoyer and Dupré place great value on reliability, safety, security and know-how in handling dangerous goods. Although primarily operating road transport in Europe, Hoyer has at its disposal a sophisticated international network for intermodal traffic linked to its own business area for overseas traffic. Dupré specialises in transport operations within the USA. Together, the joint venture combines the specialisations of the two companies, thus enabling seamless order processing and high transparency. Initial transport movements in the USA began in January. Ortwin Nast, Hoyer’s CEO, said of the joint venture: “Partnership with Dupré is a logical expansion of our internationally aligned overseas activities by providing transport services in the Hoyer will hold 49 percent and Dupré owns 51 percent in the joint venture Hoyer Bulk LLC USA. We are thus enlarging our portfolio of services to meet the growing demand for transport capacities in the American market.” For Dupré Logistics, company president Mike Weindel added: “It is important to us to know we have at our side a partner that also represents customised logistics and technology solutions. We also give the highest priority to transparency and dependability in our operations. Hoyer has the same understanding, as we immediately noticed.” Sustainability Late last year, Hoyer published its sustainability report covering activities in 2018. The report states that as part of the internal corporate target to reduce CO2 emissions by 25 percent per ton-kilometre, Hoyer achieved a 4 percent reduction of pollutant emissions compared with 2017. This represented an improvement of more than 20 percent within scarcely a decade. Ortwin Nast stated: “This puts Hoyer well on the way to achieving the environmental targets that we have set.” The improved environmental performance has been achieved due to several factors, one of which is to move the maximum possible volume of goods by intermodal transport, using the company’s fleet of over 40,000 tank containers. Hoyer has constantly expanded its fleet for this January/February 2020 purpose. Its Smart tanks enable more efficient resource planning, decreasing the number of empty runs, as well as reducing costs. Fitting tanks with sensors provides discrepancy alarms and considerably improves transport security. Investments in vehicles with Euro-6 engines also have a positive effect on performance. Almost 100 percent of Hoyer’s trucks in Europe are scheduled to be equipped with this drive technology by this year. The logistics specialist is also trialling the use of LNG and CNG trucks with significantly lower emission engines. The intensification of staff training to prevent accidents, together with correct behaviour in emergencies led to a reduced rate of serious incidents. Training time of drivers was increased to 30 hours per person in 2018, almost double from 2017. Hoyer sees great potential in further digitalisation, especially investments in intelligent logistics solutions which will be a main focus to increase efficiency and quality, and to improve customer service and environmental performance. Among other things, the company intends to maximise payloads even further, reduce empty runs and improve fuel consumption by using larger interrelated volumes of data. www.hoyer-group.com ITCO donates to Chinese university T he International Tank Container Organisation (ITCO) has donated a 20ft ISO tank container to Shanghai Maritime University, China’s leading academic institution for the shipping, ports and logistics industry. The tank will be used by the University for training and education purposes as part of a programme that includes six one-day training days, together with access by students to ITCO’s on-line Tank Container E-learning Course. The donation ceremony took place at Shanghai Maritime University in November 2019, when the ITCO/SMU co-operative and donation agreements were formally signed by SMU’s vice-president Shi Xin and ITCO’s president Reginald Lee. The tank was provided by ITCO member Exsif Worldwide, with the fittings supplied by Fort Vale Engineering. The tank’s manufacturer CIMC The tank will be used by the Shanghai Maritime University for training and education prepared the tank for the University and built the access ladder and walkway. Technical expertise and logistics were supplied by Stolt Tank Depots. www.itco.org Shi Xin, vice-president of Shanghai Maritime University (right) and Reginald Lee, president of ITCO sign the co-operation and donation agreement