Protostellar wins in the “Best Practice” category of the German mobility award
Digitisation as a lever for a faster and cheaper transport of containers
The Thales joint venture Protostellar, founded in December 2017, is receiving another accolade today and wins in the “Best Practice” category of the German mobility award.
With the German mobility award the initiative “Germany – country of ideas” and the Federal Ministry of Traffic and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) make flagship projects for intelligent mobility publicly visible and give momentum to innovative developments. The objective is to demonstrate the opportunities of digital solutions for tomorrow’s mobility. Since 2016, the Best Practice Competition honours ten outstanding innovative projects promoting the digital transformation of mobility in an exemplary manner.
“We are proud and delighted about this award”, commented the CEO of Protostellar, Yves Sterbak. “The motto “intelligent travel: data make mobile” of this year's competition fits like glove in hand for our business model, which is about automating and accelerating processes during international container handling”, Sterbak continued. “As a young start-up company, this award by a high level jury is both a confirmation and an incentive - it indicates to us that our idea is also reaching others and we are on the right path”, the COO of Protostellar Florian Tolksdorf added.
“As Thales Germany, it is our aim to further improve our country's infrastructure through innovations and to make a contribution to society. This is exactly where Protostellar comes in, digitizing the rail mode of transport and thereby enabling more goods to be transported in an environmentally friendly manner on the existing infrastructure. Security is always an essential part of our solutions. The "German Mobility Award" is a huge success and well-deserved reward for all those involved who passionately drive our innovations. "
Oliver Dörre, CEO & Country Director Thales Germany
Protostellar is a company which, as a joint venture between Thales Germany and Martin Tolksdorf Logistics, provides a digital platform for the safe handling of logistical processes in freight traffic. It automates and accelerates processes in international container handling by digitising freight documents and the corresponding manual activities, based on the Thales digital platform, a solution for the development of various applications (Apps).
By 2030, twice as many goods are to be transported by rail than today. New routes or longer trains can only be implemented with long lead times and significant investments. The Protostellar solution aims for a quick solution: through digitisation the access to containers is made easier and the use of infrastructure improved. To this end, data from various sources are combined, for example from railway operators, harbours etc., in a manner that customers obtain good transparency and can reduce manual activities. The basic model is free to customers. Optionally, premium features can be added. Customers have the opportunity of testing those free for a month and judge for themselves, whether they offer them added value. With its business model, Protostellar has unique selling point and meets the needs of the industry precisely, especially during the Corona Pandemic: During the first two month of this year alone the customer base could be increased by 400%.
Quotes
“Since its foundation I am Board Member of Protostellar. It is a pleasure to see how this solution is now prospering. This award is another corner stone for Protostellar, a real disruptive solution to digitise intermodal logistics.”
Dr. Yves Joannic, managing director of Thales in Germany and in this role responsible for the Transportation division
“Protostellar consists of a young, dynamic and highly committed team. It is impressive what they have already achieved, and this fantastic award confirms this great work yet again. It is exactly this culture of customer focus, close cooperation and agility, which we actively promote at Thales in Germany.”
Markus Fritz, VP, Main Line Signalling Domain Germany, Thales in Germany
The logistics branch is a huge area which is lagging behind here or there in its digitisation processes. Tons of freight documents change hands daily during container handling, and much is still done analogical. Based on existing and proven Thales technology we have developed a digital platform to automate those numerous processes.”
Yves Sterbak, CEO Protostellar
“With our digital platform “1Logistics” we are able to not only shorten processes to a few minutes but can provide to each stakeholder exactly the data in the format and at the time he needs them. We thereby significantly increase the efficiency of the entire process.”
Florian Tolksdorf, COO Protostellar
“Everything happens faster and easier for our customers. Processes which used to take several hours are now optimised digitally to take a few seconds. For this our customers pay a small amount per container movement. No basic fee, no subscription, no obligation – so far no customer has left us yet.”
Oliver Hassler, CFO Protostellar