Hutchison Ports, which includes the Port of Felixstowe and Harwich International Port, has launched a new web-based tool offering road hauliers an opportunity to reduce costs and emissions.

Boxreload enables haulage companies to share information on cargo movements, so helping to avoid trucks running empty on the return leg of their journeys.

Andy Barker, general manager of Boxreload, said: “The beauty of Boxreload is that it allows both trucking companies to protect revenues and cut costs. The advantage increases the more trucking companies get involved as more and more opportunities to reduce costs can be identified.”

And he added: “It is not just about reducing cost. Boxreload allows better utilisation of equipment, trucks and drivers, reduces road miles, minimises the environmental impact of transport and can help cut congestion.”

Hutchison Ports is a member of the EADT/EDP Top 100 listing of the 100 largest companies in Suffolk and Norfolk. Boxreload has been developed by the company’s PARIS Optimal Transport Planning division, which delivers multimodal optimisation solutions for clients including some of the world’s largest shipping lines, with support from Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

It is a “neutral” platform which any trucking company can join and its secure structure ensures that each firm’s sensitive customer information is kept private, with users only able to cooperate if they are connected as “friends” within the Boxreload system.

It has been co-financed by the European Union’s Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) programme and is also supported by the Dutch ministry for infrastructure and the environment. It will initially be launched in the Benelux area, following a successful trial with a number of Rotterdam-based trucking companies.

“We are now launching the project with 12 companies,” added Mr Barker. “We expect many more trucking companies to join boxreload.com in the coming months. Based on the pilot and feedback so far, Boxreload will cut costs and carbon emissions on 5,000 additional reloads in the first year.”

Larissa van der Lugt, researcher in port economics and port management of Erasmus School of Economics, said: “The Boxreload project allows us to combine our research skills with the transport planning and optimisation experience of Hutchison Ports.

“As such it strengthens our joint knowledge base. I am confident that the combination will deliver real life cost savings to transport operators as well as that it adds to sustainability goals. It stands to be a win-win-win solution.”

Rob Zuidwijk, professor of ports in global networks at Rotterdam School of Management, added: “Boxreload has the potential to realise significant economic and environmental savings in container logistics.

“It also proposes new business models and new business network developments, and this feeds academic thought on how business may work together in bringing value to society in an innovative way.”