The meeting last week took us to the freight container station situated next to Kornwestheim, the small town close to Ludwigsburg where I often get off the train to walk the rest of my way home from work.
Kornwestheim itself is small with less than 35.000 inhabitants (compared to Ludwigsburg's 90.000). All the more surprising is the fact that the freight container terminal is one of the - maybe even THE - largest one in Germany. Some facts about the terminal can be found here in English.
I had not brought my camera with me; for one thing, I had come directly from work and did not want to have my camera with me all day. Also, I trusted someone would take pictures anyway, and share them with me. And I was right :-) One of the group members took the pictures you can see here, except for the first one - that one I nicked from the official website.
We had a very interesting tour of about 1,5 hours, walking up and down the (considerable) length of the place. Our guide was the kind you want for such a tour: Enthusiastic and knowledgeable about his work, not boring you with endless facts, but answering all sorts of questions coming from the group.
And yet with all the business going on all the time (24/7 really), it did not feel hectic. The containers, lorries, trains and machinery involved are so big and heavy, nothing here happens at high speed. You can not swing tons of goods around high above the ground and do it fast! Instead, everything is happening at a steady, efficient pace.
We were all glad for having been allowed a glimpse into a world none of us was familiar with.
Thank you for opening a little window into a world I knew so little about. It is so easy to take things for granted but of course the logistics behind container handling have been developed over many years. Apart from anything else there are big health and safety issues to keep on top of. I would have enjoyed that visit.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I find glimpses behind the scene so fascinating, too; we often take things for granted and have no idea (or at least do not often think about) how much work is involved to keep so many of us comfortably provided for all the time.
DeleteSo I can't stop thinking about the glass cabin where someone stays for 8 hours. What DO they do if nature calls? Climb down? What a lot of trouble to go to the loo! :)
ReplyDeleteWhen they need to go, they need to go! The cabin stops, the loading of containers from one point to the other stops, the man gets down on the ground, goes to the toilet, climbs back up and takes up work again :-)
DeleteOur guide told us that the men manning the cabins usually are able to time their breaks well enough, when there is a bit of a lull between big shipments. I still wouldn't want that job permanently - it must be VERY warm in the summer and rather cold in winter up there!
Not a place where I would even have thought of going for a guided tour. I guess the closest I come in my experience is having worked a few years back in my youth as secretary for companies constructing heavy industrial machinery (much of it no doubt transported in containers like that). I used to worry about the possibility of accidents being caused by, for example, the wrong preposition used in some document... ;)
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have thought of going there, either, but a member of the group suggested it originally, and I nearly always jump at the ideas coming from the group.
DeleteAccidents at this terminal happen very rarely, we were told, and so far, no person has ever come to harm. They take many precautions. For instance, the cranes do not operate when the wind is too strong - a heavily loaded container, swinging in the wind, becomes unstoppable and could easily throw over the entire crane.
Kornwestheim. A name from the past. I don't think I ever was there, but heard the name and saw it on road signs, perhaps. You look very nice in that photo of you. Interesting to arrange programs for such a group.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you've heard Kornwestheim in connection with the once famous Salamander shoe factory. They were the most important employer for the region for decades. Salamander still exists, but shoes are not produced in Germany anymore - it's all been moved to low-cost countries, like so many other producing companies.
DeleteThat is something LinkedIn could do, isn't it? It sounds very interesting, but your point about Salamander shoes (made in the comments above) is rather sad. I think it's starting to be time that companies got tax breaks for putting employees first rather than just going for the cheapest option or trying to cut people out as much as possible. It may sound as if it is not a cost effective thing to do but actually I think these days that a sense of rootlessness and lack of community could ultimately lead to social unrest.
ReplyDeleteSalamander out-sourced all productive departments and their design department to other countries, mostly Eastern European ones, 20 years ago. The huge area of buidlings - some of which have a protected status as industrial architectural heritage - has been split up among many different owners and tenants. It has given the area a new, different and much more varied lease of life, but the old ways have gone for good.
DeleteSalamander used to be run in the benevolent patriarch style that, for instance, Cadbury's was, with providing good housing for the workers, chess club, choir, sports facilities and so on.
I understand completely your observation that things happen in such places at a steady, efficient pace. I used to watch the containers being loaded on and off the boats at the port in Napier from the top of the adjacent hill and it was quite amazing just how everything moved around with such seeming ease.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been quite a sight to watch the containers being moved about from above and further away! It was pretty impressive close-up and from the ground, too.
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