Austrian Post, in cooperation with the Technical University of Graz, has developed an innovative technology, called “the unloading carpet” which enables trucks to be unloaded automatically in less than 30 minutes thus accelerating and simplifying the unloading process considerably.
“This is an important achievement for the logistics and freight forwarding industry: the unloading time is reduced by more than half and the employees are relieved from the physical strain,” the postal operator said in a statement.
“The high-speed unloading system is unique worldwide and was developed by Dr. Andreas Wolfschluckner und Dr. Matthias Fritz, two former lecturers at the Technical University of Graz. They are specialised in developing and manufacturing technical equipment for companies with production sites and logistics/sorting centres.”
The system consists of a belt system which can be easily retrofitted for truck trailers and a stationary module which can be quickly coupled to the truck. With the belt, parcels are automatically pushed out of the trailer and then distributed across the existing conveyor system. A curtain at the docking station prevents the upper parcels from falling down or being damaged. This provides a simple "dock-and-go" solution which is fast, fully automated and economical with retrofitting being cost-effective for all truck types, Austrian Post explained.
Production of the unloading carpet is planned to start this year and be marketed in 2018.
“Having a product idea for the unloading carpet, a joint consortium consisting of the Institute for Technical Logistics (TU Graz), Austrian Post and TAGpilot GmbH launched the research project “EAGLE” in mid-2015.
“Based on the promising research results, the company PHS Logistiktechnik GmbH was created in February 2017 led by Wolfschluckner and Fritz, to implement the market launch of the unloading system. Austrian Post holds a 26% stake in PHS Logistiktechnik,” the statement added.
