Young Winners in Austria Present Digital Projects

The Young Forwarders Competition 2024 of the Central Association of Freight Forwarding & Logistics brought forth three impressive winners: 1st place was awarded to Laura Hunner (26, Gebrüder Weiss) with the concept for a “SkillNet” app for digitized apprenticeship training. The well-placed Anna Schinninger (23, Gebrüder Weiss) impressed with digitalization proposals to facilitate the daily operations of freight forwarding. 3rd place went to Milica Radojkovicova (27, Austrian Post) with the project WANT for further internationalization of online shipping.

(Wien Central Association President Alexander Friesz: “The creativity and problem-solving skills of our young colleagues have once again impressed the entire jury this year. With such innovative young talent, we can be confident that the logistics location Austria will maintain its global leading position in the future.”)

1st Place: Digital Learning Tool Offers Clear Benefits for All Training Participants

Laura Hunner aims to digitize apprenticeship training with her platform “SkillNet,” which still largely relies on paper-based materials and allows little exchange between school and company: Data sources are often located in different places, and the production, storage, and revision of textbooks is usually expensive and leads to partially outdated information. Preparation for the final apprenticeship exam takes place in book form, and employers have little insight into the apprentice’s progress.

“SkillNet” provides apprentices, teachers, employers, and parents with a central digital access to all relevant information: from digitized learning and training materials, including a library, to exam simulations and online exams, as well as the submission of work via common digital tools. Accompanying communication also takes place through networks. This allows schools and companies to collaborate and incorporate examples from everyday work into theory. Employers have an overview of the apprentices’ performance at all times, weaknesses can be identified, and apprentices can be supported more effectively. Apprentices can store and manage their data and communicate via chat with teachers, parents, school representatives, and freight forwarders.

2nd Place: Automation and “Power-App” Facilitate Daily Operations

Anna Schinninger impressed the jury with proposals for the digitalization and automation of daily processes in the freight forwarding industry. She illustrates this, for example, with a simpler task distribution in the control/operations department: through her “Power-App,” a dispatcher could send an order to the tablet of a yard driver, be immediately informed of its completion, and then initiate further steps. If issues arise, such as a blocked gate or an untraceable or damaged swap body bridge, the dispatcher and fleet department are promptly notified and can initiate problem resolution. Following the same principle, the entire process can be handled via the “Power-App” until complete unloading, confirmation of the loading document, notification of the shipper, and automatic archiving of documents. This not only simplifies and speeds up the work of all parties involved but also reduces the error rate compared to traditional, non-digital processes.

3rd Place: Online Retail as a Wish Concert

With the online service WANT conceived by Milica Radojkovicova, consumers could also obtain products from internet retailers that do not otherwise deliver to Austria. Interested parties receive an additional German delivery address after successful registration on the WANT website, which is identical to the address of a logistics partner at the German-Austrian border. Once the ordered shipment has arrived there, it is labeled with the Austrian delivery address. Upon assignment of the shipment, the system triggers an email with a payment request to the user and initiates all further steps. Registration for WANT is intended to be free, and payment per shipment will be made with a flat rate that is independent of weight and size or through a subscription model. Since existing logistics infrastructures can be utilized for WANT, the expenses remain manageable.

Photo: © Central Association of Freight Forwarding & Logistics / Image Caption (l.t.r.): Alexander Friesz, President of the Central Association of Freight Forwarding & Logistics, with the winners of the Young Forwarders Competition 2024 (l.t.r.): Anna Schinninger (2nd place), Milica Radojkovicova (3rd place), Laura Hunner (1st place)