Stadtwerke Heilbronn GmbH offers comprehensive services in the areas of water, gas and electricity supply, industrial and harbour railways as well as the provision of parking space and leisure activities. With around 350 employees, the company ensures that customers receive sustainable and service-oriented offers.
In 2014, Stadtwerke Heilbronn GmbH took over the industrial and harbour railway. For example, up to 15 freight trains loaded with coal, steel, scrap or building materials run daily on the railway tracks in the Heilbronn inland port and adjacent industrial area.
The situation and challenge
Since the takeover, Stadtwerke Heilbronn GmbH has implemented a whole series of measures to realize the integration of the port and light rail company into the company and to create economic structures and processes within this area. In the first step, the charging zones were first summarized. In addition, consideration was needed as to how entrances and exits as well as service life of freight trains can be accurately registered in order to gain full control over this and to be able to provide invoices precisely on the basis of real data. To do this, a video system had to be installed, which is coupled with software that collects, evaluates and transmits the data of the hardware into the accounting system.
“As a rather small company in the field of inland port management, we needed a system for video recognition and data processing adapted to our needs. In addition to the cooperation partner for the hardware, dbh Logistics IT AG impressed with its flexible, individually tailored solution for logistics and billing management.”
Uwe Kunath, Head of Infrastructure and Control Technology at Stadtwerke Heilbronn GmbH
Task
The task of dbh Logistics IT AG was to connect software to the video hardware for entry and exit control in the inland port area in Heilbronn, which collects, evaluates and provides all necessary information of the incoming and outgoing freight trains as well as service life.
Solution
The Portos Videogate software collects the raw data recorded by the video hardware about the incoming and outgoing freight trains: for example, the identification numbers of locomotives and wagons, the number of axles per wagon and the service life. The data is stored separately by train as well as entry and exit in the database and evaluated via the dbh solution. In addition, the railway undertakings (EVU) for their part notify in advance the journeys, which are recorded directly in Porto’s videogate. These pre-registrations are matched using the software with the journeys registered via video capture. All information relevant for the settlements is provided in the dbh tool via a so-called invoice system, on the basis of which the bookings can then be made in the system of the Stadtwerke Heilbronn. Ultimately, the RUs receive a fee and performance statement based on actual values.
Industry:
Utilities
Project:
Installation of a video system with connection of a software for logistics invoice management for rail freight transport
Products used:
Porto’s Videogate
Value:
Portos Videogate is the interface between the video hardware for the automatic detection of locomotives, wagons and their load carriers and the accounting system of Stadtwerke Heilbronn GmbH. Thanks to the IT solution, the company was able to significantly simplify billing processes, reduce the error rate and save human and time resources. At the same time, the company is given security over the real processes in the inland port and can create realistic invoices with the concretely recorded service life and other information. In addition, the system identifies irregularities such as unreported entrances and exits.