Once a year, the Bundesvereinigung Logistik e.V. (BVL) honors young scientists for their excellent theses in the fields of logistics and supply chain management with a strong practical focus. Being well in line with this year’s motto ‘Digitalization meets Reality’, our alumnus Florian Stehbeck received the BVL Thesis Award 2018 for his outstanding master thesis “Designing and Scheduling Cost-Efficient Tours by Using the Concept of Truck Platooning” at the 35th International Supply Chain Conference in Berlin (17th-19th October 2018).

Under the supervision of Szymon Albinski, Mr. Stehbeck demonstrated that remarkable personnel cost savings can be achieved when considering a certain ‘discount’ on mandatory driving time restrictions in the EU due to a reduced required alertness for following drivers in a digitally-connected platoon of trucks. Next to apparent fuel saving potentials from exploiting the slipstream effect, such additional considerations would be able to take the benefits of truck platooning to a whole new level. These insights are thus of great importance for fleet managers and politics at the same time and awakened a lot of interest at the logistics congress. Congratulations!

As Digital Innovation Manager of MAN Truck & Bus, Mr. Stehbeck continues to work on the digitization of the trucking business.