Modular Rollerbed System Named as Finalist for Product Innovation Award

Joloda Hydraroll is delighted to announce that we have been named a finalist for the Air Cargo News Awards 2022 Innovation Award – Product. Our Modular Rollerbed System (MRS) is innovative and flexible and its tailorable design has and will continue to revolutionise the way air cargo handlers process ULD and PMC pallets.

The Perfect Storm
After a perfect storm of problems over the last two years has forced the industry to get creative. The air cargo industry has seen a significant increase in air freight volumes which has been exacerbated by ground handling staff shortages.

Overstretched capacity in existing facilities has meant air cargo handlers have turned to ‘random’ roadside warehouses located around the airports to quickly increase capacity for further handling and breakdown of airfreight. However, these warehouses often didn’t have the appropriate facilities, loading equipment or warehouse solutions to handle ULDs or PMC pallets safely or efficiently between the truck and the warehouse.

Air cargo is shuttled from airports to these, ‘second-line’ warehouses for further handling and breakdown. The big disadvantage and problem that arrived from this solution were that these warehouses infrequently didn’t have the appropriate facilities or loading equipment to handle ULDs safely and efficiently.

Find out more about ULDs on our Truck Loading page.

The Problem
Traditional ULD handling equipment, such as dollies or slave masters, isn’t designed to be used outside airports, as the heights that they conform to would create unpractical situations or require large-scale civil works that aren’t feasible in rented warehouses.

The Solution
Whilst listening to the air cargo handling industry’s pain points and problems, we set about coming up with a solution to quickly and easily convert any warehouse into a ULD handling warehouse.

With almost 45 years of experience in the road transport of the air cargo industry, we understood the industry’s newly found challenges businesses are facing, we instantaneously accepted the challenge. With our company’s innovative character, we reviewed our existing product range and looked at what specific beneficial characteristics could be used in warehouse applications.

Our existing Modular Rollerbed System (MRS) formed the basis for the air freight industry’s ULD handling in warehouses problem. The very low (80mm height) ‘rise and fall’ roller bed platforms easily can be mounted on top of any warehouse floor, whilst its modular and configurable properties meant the system could easily be adapted from truck applications to warehouse applications. Due to the nature of the platform’s low height design and by raising the height of the trailer slightly, businesses didn’t need to utilise traditional scissor lift installations, either. This meant that the building could remain untouched. ULDs effortlessly get rolled out of the trailer straight into the warehouse.

The versatile system makes it possible to configure the system in a variety of layouts. So, depending on space available, the required ULD capacity and the exact activity the business requires, the MRS can be tailored to the business’s precise requirements.

During the design process, we developed additional features to improve and aid the safety of the system. A few examples of this were forklift protection and reinforcement strips, electric winches to pull stuck ULDs out of the truck and safety stoppers, which include emergency release buttons to instantly lower the rollers.

In practice, the ‘raise and fall’ roller concept, in combination with the low 80mm platform height, proved to be very effective and beneficial for warehouse staff. ULDs can be broken down whilst on the MRS with the rollers in the down position. This creates a completely flat surface which makes it safe for workers to walk on.

MRS modules are pre-assembled and arrive on site ready to be installed. So, depending on the system configuration, it can take as little as two days to install and doesn’t disrupt daily operations.

Air Cargo New Awards 2022
The prestigious Air Cargo News Awards is dubbed as ‘the Oscars of the airfreight industry’ – are back for 2022.  The awards were launched in 1983 by leading trade publication Air Cargo News and recognise innovation and excellence in supply chains. Winning an award is a sign of being a market leader and recognition is given to the hard work of team members who help to inspire future performance.

The Air Cargo News Awards 2022 ceremony is taking place on 16th September at The Runnymede on Thames Hotel, near Heathrow Airport.

Joloda Hydraroll Help Air Cargo Operators Maximise Handling Efficiencies
Joloda Hydraroll has been busy helping air cargo logistics operator, Georgi Handling maximise their handling efficiencies in their new hub, based at Leipzig/Halle Airport with complete warehouse solutions.

Learn how we’ve been able to apply our proven rise and fall rollerbed technology into a new setting and see a business maximise their business efficiencies, whilst also improving the level of safety in the warehouse.

Read our full case study, Joloda Hydraroll Help Air Cargo Operators Maximise Handling Efficiencies here. 

Watch our Modular Rollerbed System in Action
See our Modular Rollerbed System for Warehouses (MRS) in action, in this short video that explains how easy the modular platform is to set up and become operational.