About Us 
CCG Cool Chain Group Holding AG is committed to reduce CO2 emissions during the transporting of products, including the reduction within their own warehouses. Furthermore, CCG is also involved in the development of new technology systems, in order to reduce wastage within the said industry.
It is the aim of the CCG to concrete the waste reduction, particular CO2 and food wastage reduction with LKW fleet renewal, new cooling systems etc. CCG will generate an internal policy for the subsidiaries based on European Standards.
Cool Chain Group has set itself the goal of the monitoring and maintenance of cold chain by means of appropriate information technologies and optimization of logistics processes. CCG is one of the founding companies of the Cool Chain Association. This non-profit organization is holding two workshops annually to maintain and improve the cold supply chain of temperature sensitive perishable products.
Web: www.coolchain.org
Currently the CCG is partner in the project “Intelligent container “ Two institutes of the University Bremen, Germany (MCB and ComNets) cooperate with four industrial partners, being CCG with the subsidiary Rungis Express, Cargobull Telematics and Dole Fresh Fruit Europe, for the further development of the intelligent container.
A prototype for the 'intelligent container' has been developed within the collaborative research centre 637 "Autonomous cooperating logistic processes" of the University Bremen supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The aim of this transfer project is to adapt the system of the 'intelligent container' to requirements of transport companies. The main focus of interest is the transport of foods and especially fruits.
The major part of road transports is allotted to chilled foods. 'Deep frozen' and 'chilled / plus' transports have to be distinguished. The shelf life of fruits and vegetables has almost the same magnitude as the transport duration. A possible loss of quality has to be regarded by careful transport planning. The big distributors in the food chain have often strict delivery commitments. In case of a transport loss it is necessary to organise a replacement delivery in short time. The extra costs for short-term replacement directly depend on the remaining time-span. A system that not only monitors temperature but also supervises quality changes autonomously enables to detect risks as early as possible. Necessary reactions can be triggered automatically.
The assessment of detailed sensor data will be beyond the facilities of a human operator. Emerging risks could be overlooked or recognised to late. Autonomous supervision and data assessment avoids overwhelming the operator with redundant information. He only receives notifications about important state-changes of the freight items, but can request a complete sensor history if required.
The system inside the semi-trailer or container is robust against failures of the external communication by autonomous control. It could for example directly inform the driver, if the transport planning office cannot be contacted. Autonomous configuration of the supervision system replaces manual adjustments that are prone to errors.
Aim of the project is to show that the concept of the 'intelligent container' can be applied in the food chain. An original size prototype of the system will be constructed and tested. Technical challenges have to be identified and handled. The complete system that consists of wireless sensor network, RFID, external communication and local processing has to be adapted to the requirements of regular sea and road transports. Several test transports will be carried out and analysed together with industrial partners. Data about the communication link quality of the internal sensor network shall be collected additionally.
The reports of a detailed quality monitoring and complete sensor protocols cannot be transferred over mobile networks within the usual inclusive tariffs. A second goal of the project is to show that it is possible to reduce communication costs by combining 'expensive' mobile networks (GPRS, UMTS) and 'free' WLAN networks. Larger sensor data will be transferred delayed if a WLAN becomes available. But shorter warning or alarm messages can be sent over GPRS or UMTS.
Learn more about the partners:
Dole is the world's largest producer and marketer of high-quality fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and fresh-cut flowers. Dole Fresh Fruit Europe is strongly aware of its responsibility for product quality and safety at every stage of the journey made by the fruit from the plantation to the consumer. With their opportunities in ship transport Dole will enable the overseas field test for the intelligent container.
Web: www.dole.de
Schmitz Cargobull is the leading manufacturer of trailers and semi-trailers for commercial vehicles in Europe. The subsidiary Cargobull Telematics GmbH was founded in 2004 to develop telemetric systems for trucks and trailers. The company provides telemetric units and communication services for the field tests of the intelligent container.
Web: www.cargobull.com
RUNGIS express AG is one of the leading trading companies for luxury and exclusive food articles in Germany, a well known brand for over 25 years in the upper class gastronomic market. CCG is main shareholder. Actually approx. 220 employees are working for RUNGIS. A fleet of 55 own new trucks is delivering up to 6 times per week the ordered food and articles to the clients (restaurants, hotels, caterer) within Germany and Austria. Rungis offers a wide range of products with 5.000 daily available fresh- and dry-food articles, by advance order of clients this number is raised up to approx. 20.000 articles.
