Logistics location Hesse

Hessen lives to a large extent from transport - and with transport. Hesse is one of the most important logistics locations in Germany; Frankfurt Airport is Germany's largest workplace, the Frankfurt interchange is one of the busiest motorway junctions in Europe in Hesse and several ports on the Rhine and Main ensure uncomplicated connections on the inland waterways and to the Dutch seaports. In addition, there are several terminals in the state where swap bodies or containers can be loaded onto rail in combined transport - some are located in harbours, so that transhipment between road, rail and ship is possible.

Logistics is one of the most important sectors in Hessen: Around 225,000 people subject to social insurance contributions are employed in logistics in Hesse. In northern Hesse, the sector now employs more than one in ten people, and there is no higher density of logistics employees in Germany. "There is no way around Hessen" is the self-confident claim of our location campaign. But it also has its downside: while the national average of 20% of CO2 emissions comes from transport, the figure for Hesse is around 40%. Noise and NOX emissions are also generated.

At the same time, Hessen clearly provides transport services for Germany and Europe - in air, road and rail transport. The importance of Frankfurt Airport can be illustrated by one figure: 40% of the value of German exports is transported by air freight. Not least because of its 300 direct connections to destinations around the globe, many companies that distribute time-critical products - such as spare parts for printing machines, medical and transport technology or aircraft spare parts - have settled in its immediate vicinity. Whether urgent medicines, food, clothing or jewellery: there is hardly a commodity that is not handled at Frankfurt Airport.

This development would be inconceivable without road freight transport and its increasingly efficient design: the best possible utilisation of vehicles through encounter traffic, lift-and-spoke systems and efficient, environmentally friendly engines is standard today - and this is a good thing, because road freight transport bears the main burden of freight transport.

In the "traditional" haulage sector alone, there are around 1,300 logistics companies in Hesse - 1,000 of which are organised in the Fachverband Güterkraftverkehr und Logistik e.V. and employ around 19,000 people. A further 300 or so companies from Hesse are represented in Speditions- und Logistikverband Hessen/Rheinland-Pfalz e.V. - the two associations and their size are a good example of how important a vital SME sector is for the logistics industry.