DHL Global Forwarding has developed two novel transport solutions for the automotive industry. The collapsible C3SB transport box and the double car rack facilitate the loading of vehicles and increase efficiency in using transport capacity.
In addition, both systems offer protection against damage due to external factors during transport by air, sea and road, such as turbulences, heavy seas or poor roads. Both transport solutions have now been patented by the German Patent Office.
“The transport box and the car rack offer clients from the automotive sector top-end solutions in terms of safety and flexibility of transport. They again underscore our comprehensive competency with respect to logistics for one of the most important industry sectors worldwide,” said Hermann Ude, chief executive officer of DHL Global Forwarding, Freight.
DHL automotive experts based the C3SB box on the principle of the collapsible boxes used in many households. Their sides fold inward to rest on the bottom of the box. This represents a major improvement of efficiency compared to the previous C2SB model already successfully used. The movable walls and the cover of the so-called Customised Car Safety Box already provided sufficient space and the required flexibility needed when loading the vehicles and making them safe for transport.
The C3SB version with its collapsible walls now enables several empty boxes to be piled on top of each other, which therefore occupy only one space during transport.
When it comes to making the most of valuable transport capacity, the new car rack developed by DHL offers similar advantages as the C3SB box. Thanks to a movable intermediate level, the car rack can be used to store two sedan-sized vehicles on top of each other in a container. As a result, two cars also need only one space in the main cargo hold of a Boeing 747, for instance.
Both systems provide for higher transport efficiency and thus increased CO2 efficiency than conventional containers. The advantages of the transport concepts become evident particularly in multimodal transport. Cars no longer need to be unloaded and reloaded during combined road, sea and land transport, since the C3SB box and the car rack are equally suitable for all modes of transport.
