News

These are the four theme days of the IAA

Berlin, February 01, 2022

Megatrends in logistics

The logistics industry is in the midst of change. Globalization, digitalization and Internet trade are advancing. At the same time, new technologies and future-proof concepts are being developed to cope with the increasing volume of goods worldwide and to reduce emissions in the transport sector. The theme days at the IAA TRANSPORTATION from September 20 to 23, 2022, will address the megatrends in logistics and shed light on key future fields.

Theme Day 1 with a focus on FUTURE LOGISTICS on the topics of supply chains, trucks, rail & shipping integration, e-mobility and hydrogen technologies for commercial vehicles, and digital innovations for the logistics chain.

The ongoing Corona pandemic, climate disasters or the Ukraine conflict affect international trade. They highlight how crisis-prone global supply chains are and how important diversified supply chains by land, sea and air are. Combined transport efficiently interlocks different modes of transport, creates more resilience and also contributes to the decarbonization of freight transport. Heavy and light commercial vehicles form the backbone of global goods traffic. They transport the most goods - their share of international goods traffic is over 70 percent. However, fossil fuels are still the dominant energy source in heavy goods transport. The commercial vehicle industry is therefore working at full speed on emission-free alternatives - from electric drives to fuel cells with hydrogen and fuels from sustainable sources. The new drive technologies will gradually replace the diesel engine, which has been developed over decades and proven millions of times over.

At the same time, trucks are becoming increasingly intelligent. Algorithms, software and electronic systems are taking over more and more of the driver's tasks and ensuring more economical operation of truck fleets. At the same time, new forms of use and business models are emerging. Cloud technologies and real-time data exchange make the work of fleet managers easier, upgrades can be transferred to the vehicle "over-the-air," and innovative features enable proactive maintenance and repair management at the push of a button. The new generation trucks also feature an increasing number of assistance systems in the cockpit, which are steadily increasing safety and comfort and moving freight transport on the road ever further in the direction of automated driving.

Theme Day 2 with a focus on TRADE on the topics of last mile, inner city logistics, vans, cargo bikes, delivery robots, digitization, and innovative solutions for retail and e-commerce.

E-commerce is booming. And the more that ends up in the shopping carts of online stores large and small, the more packages are traveling. A global flood of parcels that is steadily rising. However, the booming online trade is threatened by an analogous limit - the "last mile," the final kilometers of a package to the customer's front door. The rapid increase in delivery traffic within metropolitan areas poses enormous challenges for logistics: Continuous traffic jams, the threat of driving bans, environmental zones and the desire of local residents for less traffic noise require alternative logistics approaches. New concepts and systems for urban logistics are needed to be able to efficiently manage the flow of goods within cities in the future. Vehicle manufacturers, suppliers and start-ups are forging innovative paths to revolutionize the delivery of goods from A to B.

New forms such as parcel drones, delivery robots or cargo bikes in combination with light commercial vehicles can deliver goods shipments with an unprecedented degree of flexibility and significantly increase efficiency. In particular, urban districts with a high density of recipients and suitable shipments are predestined for the approach. However, it is not only innovative technologies that are in demand. Mobility and transport companies, urban planners and transport researchers must develop concepts for inner-city goods transport such as microdepots or night logistics.

Theme Day 3 with a focus on INFRASTRUCTURE on the topics of charging infrastructure electricity and hydrogen, expansion of data networks, data management, long-distance bus transport and rail transport connections.

Large trucks weighing up to 40 tons bear the brunt of modern logistics. However, they are also a major cause of the increase in CO2 emissions in the transport sector. Electrified trucks are expected to make a significant contribution to lower CO2 emissions in the transport sector in the future. For the breakthrough of the technology, a broad charging infrastructure is needed along the main transit routes and at logistics hubs. Emission-free long-distance bus transport would also benefit from this. And for fuel cell trucks, a nationwide filling station network is needed. An intelligent infrastructure for the traffic turnaround in transportation also paves the way for automated and connected driving such as platooning.

Here, a modern truck communicates constantly with its immediate surroundings and other road users. In the future, autonomous trucks will provide a solution to one of the biggest challenges facing the transport industry: the acute shortage of drivers. 5G plays a central role in data transmission and processing for automated driving. The latest mobile communications standard enables a higher degree of digitalization of the supply chain. The positioning and localization of goods within warehouses, intermediate depots and on the route can thus be tracked in real time. Reasons enough for the commercial vehicle industry to put the development of suitable infrastructure at the top of the agenda together with cities and municipalities.

Theme Day 4 with a focus on COMMUNAL TRANSPORT on the topics of buses, electrification, hydrogen, ride-hailing, MaaS and digital networking.

More and more people around the world are living in cities. There, they are attracted by attractive jobs, a wide range of leisure opportunities and a large mobility offering to get from A to B. At the same time, urban centers are becoming more crowded and congested, and traffic volumes are increasing significantly. Sustainable mobility solutions are therefore a core topic of future urban development. The limited public space must be reallocated for this purpose. And municipalities want to encourage more people to take the bus and train. Public transport is increasingly relying on locally emission-free bus fleets, which are the most flexible and important vehicle for transporting people in cities.

Seamless mobility and a smooth transition to the next mode of transport will be of central importance for the municipal transportation of the future. To this end, the various mobility services such as trains, buses, streetcars, e-scooters or ride-hailing will be more closely interconnected via app. The approach of Mobility as a Service, or MaaS for short, is based on multimodal, environmentally friendly, and individual mobility that also includes sparsely populated areas such as suburbs and rural regions.

Get involved!

Interested companies and associations can contact the organizer and contribute their concepts. Simply send an email to info@iaa.de and the IAA team will get back to you.