b'4American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comPort of Hamburg tackles congestionPort of Hamburg resorted to using feeder ships, instead of trucks, to transfer containers between terminals to reduce congestion.By Manik Mehta, AJOT would also help reduce carbon emissions.Besides reducing congestion caused by the jug-gernaut trucksthe problem is exacerbated by a shortage oftruckdrivers-Hamburg port officials, appealing to the growing public environmen-talconsciousness,empha-sizethattheuseoffeeders fortransshipmentwillalso reduce carbon emissions. FlorianPein,asenior executive at Unifeeder, main-tained that some 50% of the transshipment traffic will be operatedbyfeeders,instead of trucks, in the future.Pein Hamburg Hafen Container Terminal highlightedthefactthat EuropeanportsfacingcontainersovertheroadsbeingNorthernEuropes acutecontainercongestionbetween terminals, was actu- largestfeederoperatorwith pressures are resorting to newallylaunchedonNovember(TACKLEScontinued on and creative ways to reduce1,2022;theuseoffeederspage 6) HHLA Chairperson Angela Titzraththis paralyzing factor that is alsoplaguingotherportsof the world. German logistics experts have been raising alarm in the past over the container traffic congestioncausedbylarge trucksbeforetheterminals. Thisproblemwassevereat Hamburgport,theGerman sea hub that is often touted as Germanysgatewaytothe world.The port has taken anumberofmeasuresto reducethetruckcongestion by transferring the containers per feeder ships Inner-port transportation by water,insteadofbytrucks, wasmadepossibleunder anagreementbetweenthe softwarehouseDakosyand theDakosyInteressengemein-schaft Hamburger Linienagenten (DIHLA),thedatacommu-nication systemforthePort of Hamburg, and the Danish Unifeedershippingline;the latter which operates in Ham-burg with smaller ships, will now not only transport con-tainerstotheportbutalso within the port itself. T acklingT ruckc ongesTionThe Port of Hamburg has beenstrivingtoreducethe truckcongestionforsome time;thisproblembecame acute because a fourth of all containersarenotimmedi-atelytransportedfromthe container terminal where they arethenloadedonanother ship.Thisso-calledtrans-shipmentprocess(transfers ofcontainersbetweenlarge containershipsandfeeder vessels)involvessome3.3 millioncontainersperyear; however, a significant part of transshipmentisstilltrans-ported by road from one ter-minal to another. (Feeder)transshipments can take several thousand con-tainers off the road each year, DIHLAmanagingdirector Alexander Geisler said.Theprojectinvolving feedershipstomovecon-tainers,insteadoftrucking'