Hong@BeM: TelliBox: Intelligent MegaSwapBoxes for Advanced intermodal Freight Transport

TelliBox: Intelligent MegaSwapBoxes for Advanced intermodal Freight Transport

HONG, Seock-Jin, Professor at BEM(Bordeaux Management School)

The standardized containers, designed by Keith Tantlinger and Malcolm Maclean in 1956, have been revolutionised the way we manufacture, trade and consume goods. However, if you compare a container from then with one now, you would be hard found the difference. There exist newly designed container such as Smart container developed by US department of Defense and folding composite container by Cargoshell. The Smart container is capable of knowing and communicating containers’ location, content and condition. The composite folding container is a more eco-friendly, and make lower the costs with reduced volume to 1/4^th of that of a traditional steel container. The evaluation of usability of existing means of transport utilised in the intermodal transport for newly proposed MegaSwapBox. With changing times and circumstances, containers are used to not improving the disadvantages. With this in mind, European Commission funded to develop “Intelligent Box” that is easier to load, can hold much more than a standard container and can still be transported via current infrastructure. Basically this project tries to adapt changing situation for production, consumption, and globalization.

The €3.1 million grant from European Commission meant that the 10 partner organizations (including Aachen University and European Intermodal Association) could significantly collaborate in the design and evaluation stages of the project from April 2008 to March 2011. The project basically took the elements of design from an easily loadable articulated truck and applied them to a container that can be switched between road, rail and inland maritime transport methods. It should result in considerable efficiency savings for potential future owners.

The new design of the Tellibox takes elements of various current technologies and combines them to give a 100m³ container that can be loaded from three sides, has a top-handable lid and is compatible with the current intermodal transport system. In comparison to a standard 65m³ container, it now means it should be possible to stack pallets three high as opposed to two. Tellibox is designed by using advantages of existing container, swap-boy (non-stackable) and trailer. It means the box can handle large cargo like as mega-trailer, easy shift mode like as swap-body, stackable and theft-proof like as container.

A truck loaded with regular-sized pallets can normally only be filled up to 98% of its capacity. That means just 2% is wasted, but if you add up that 2% over thousands of trips, it can have a huge economic impact. TelliBox loading units can increase the load factor by as much as 25%, compared to 40-foot-high cube type freight containers. The project completed in 2011 with the final design being extensively tested and certified. Successful test runs across Poland, Germany, The Netherlands and the UK helped prove its performance under realistic European transport conditions. The main distinctive characteristics of the MegaSwapBox are: Stackability, Inside height of 3 metres, Length of 45', Loading capacity of 100³ (Table 1). The external height can extend to 4 metres when use only for road, and flatform height to load is 1.175 metres. 33 euro palettes can loan with 3 x 11 allowing 1 to 2 cetimetres space for each palettes.

Table 1 Specification of MegaSwapBox

	Internal		External
Length	Max.	13,650 mm	13,716 mm
	Min.	13,620 mm
Width	Max.	2,480 mm	2,550 mm
	Min.	2,450 mm
Height	3,000 mm		3,200 mm

Research, innovation and the creation of a seamless oriented transport concept are crucial for the further development of intermodal transport systems. Modal shift and intermodal transport are encouraged, within the actual Framework Programme of the European Commission, through: the improvement of the efficiency of interfaces between modes, the maximisation of cargo capacity, the optimisation of logistics services, transportation flows, terminal and infrastructure capacity within European and global supply chains. TelliBox is going to give a concrete answer to all those issues through a custom-oriented intermodal transport approach and by encouraging dialogue between industrial and scientific partners, gathered on a neutral European intermodal platform.