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Hafenlogik

Port & Logistics Consulting

Four practice areas. Four ways to find the same lost hour.

A container waits at the berth, at the gate, at the desk of a customs clerk, or on a siding waiting for a locomotive. We work on all four and we quote each of them at a fixed price.

What we actually do

Container terminal quay at blue hour with a moored vessel and two gantry cranes working
Container terminal quay at blue hour with a moored vessel and two gantry cranes working

01 / 4

Terminal operations

Berth windows, quay crane productivity, yard density and the gate curve — measured on your own TOS data, not on a benchmark.

Scope of work

  • Berth window adherence: planned window against actual all-fast and last-line, per call, per service loop
  • Quay crane moves per hour by crane, shift and hatch cover cycle, with idle-time causes coded
  • Yard density by block and by dwell-time cohort, including the reshuffle rate you are paying for
  • Gate curve by hour: truck arrivals, truck turnaround time, and where the queue starts on a peak Tuesday
  • Straddle carrier or terminal tractor cycle times against the equipment plan

What you receive

  • A bottleneck model showing which constraint binds first at your current volume, and which binds next
  • A ranked intervention list, each quantified in minutes and in euros per year
  • A peak-week stress test, so no recommendation depends on an average day
  • A measurement plan and a 90-day review appointment

Call us when: Your crane productivity looks fine, your customers complain anyway, and nobody can say where the time goes.

Terminal truck gate lanes at dusk with container lorries queuing under a lit canopy
Terminal truck gate lanes at dusk with container lorries queuing under a lit canopy

02 / 4

Customs & compliance

Declaration quality, ATLAS message flow, transit procedures and the internal controls an AEO authorisation genuinely requires.

Scope of work

  • End-to-end map of the declaration process from booking confirmation to release, with waiting time attributed at each step
  • ATLAS message flow analysis: rejections, corrections, and the rework loop they create
  • Transit procedure review (T1/T2), guarantee usage, and office-of-destination discharge discipline
  • AEO gap review against the self-assessment questionnaire, with evidence you can actually produce
  • Classification and valuation spot check on a sample of live declarations

What you receive

  • A redesigned declaration process with responsibilities, cut-off times and a single owner per step
  • A rework register: which error types cost the most hours, ranked
  • An AEO evidence file structure your auditor can follow without a guided tour
  • Written work instructions in German, ready to adopt

Call us when: Shipments are cleared late, your team says it is the customs office, and the customs office says it is the data.

Rows of refrigerated containers in a terminal reefer yard at night with power cables plugged in
Rows of refrigerated containers in a terminal reefer yard at night with power cables plugged in

03 / 4

Cold chain & reefer

Reefer plug capacity against arrival peaks, temperature integrity at each handover, and a risk map that names the three points most likely to break.

Scope of work

  • Reefer plug occupancy modelled against the arrival peak, not the monthly average
  • Pre-trip inspection discipline and the failure rate you are carrying into the chain
  • Temperature excursion analysis from data logger exports, grouped by handover point
  • Genset and power redundancy review for yard, road leg and cold store
  • Handover protocol review: quay to yard, yard to truck, truck to cold store

What you receive

  • A cold-chain risk map: every handover scored for likelihood and consequence, with the three critical points named
  • A plug capacity plan for the peak week, with the shortfall stated in units and hours
  • Revised handover protocols and a temperature evidence chain that survives a claim
  • A short training brief for the people who actually plug the units in

Call us when: You have had two excursions this year, both at a handover, and neither investigation reached a cause.

Rail terminal beside a container port at blue hour with container wagons under a rail-mounted gantry crane
Rail terminal beside a container port at blue hour with container wagons under a rail-mounted gantry crane

04 / 4

Rail-port interface

Where the terminal's yard plan and the rail operator's slot plan disagree — and what the disagreement costs per train.

Scope of work

  • Train handling time by service, split into arrival, shunting, loading and departure
  • Wagon supply reliability and the buffer you are holding to cover it
  • Slot plan against yard plan: where the rail-mounted gantry and the straddle fleet fight for the same block
  • Hinterland shuttle round-trip times to your terminal's main inland hubs
  • Last-mile shunting: the time nobody counts because it belongs to neither party

What you receive

  • A train-by-train handling time model with the loss attributed to a party and a cause
  • A revised block and slot allocation proposal, tested against your peak week
  • A joint operating protocol draft you can put in front of the rail operator
  • The measurement both sides can agree on, which is usually the hard part

Call us when: Every train leaves late and both parties have a spreadsheet proving it is the other one's fault.

Engagements & fees

Fixed price where we can, day rate where we must.

Three standard engagements have a fixed price covering the full sequence — data room, site visit, model, report and the 90-day review. Travel outside Hamburg is billed at cost and stated in the proposal. All prices are net of VAT.

  • Terminal throughput audit

    €14,000

    Duration: 5–6 weeks

    The full terminal picture: berth windows, crane productivity, yard density and the gate curve, with a bottleneck model and a ranked intervention list. Our largest engagement and the one most clients start with when the complaint is vague but persistent.

    Includes

    • Data room and raw TOS analysis
    • Three to four days on site, night shift included
    • Bottleneck model and peak-week stress test
    • Written report, ranked interventions, measurement plan
    • 90-day review on site

  • Customs process redesign

    €8,900

    Duration: 4 weeks

    Declaration process mapped end to end, ATLAS message flow analysed, rework quantified, and the process rewritten with named owners and cut-off times. Includes an AEO evidence gap review where the authorisation is held or being sought.

    Includes

    • Process map with waiting time per step
    • ATLAS rejection and rework register
    • AEO evidence gap review
    • German-language work instructions
    • 90-day review

  • Cold-chain risk map

    €6,200

    Duration: 3 weeks

    Every handover in your cold chain scored for likelihood and consequence, plug capacity modelled against the arrival peak, and the three points most likely to break named in writing.

    Includes

    • Handover risk scoring across the full chain
    • Reefer plug capacity model for peak week
    • Revised handover protocols
    • Temperature evidence chain review
    • 90-day review

  • Day rate

    €1,950 per day

    Duration: By agreement

    For work that does not fit a fixed scope: a second opinion on a tender, an expert seat in a project steering group, a week of hands-on support during a pilot, or a short investigation after an incident. Billed per day, partner-level, minimum two days.

    Includes

    • Partner-level, no juniors on the invoice
    • Minimum two days, booked in advance
    • Written note after each day if you want one
    • Convertible into a fixed-price engagement

  • 45-min scoping call

    No fee

    Duration: 45 minutes

    A structured conversation, not a sales call. You describe the symptom, we ask about a dozen questions and tell you which practice area it belongs to, what finding the answer would cost, and whether you need an outside firm at all.

    Includes

    • Video or telephone, your choice
    • German or English
    • A short written summary afterwards
    • No obligation, no follow-up sequence

Net of 19% German VAT.

Whitepapers

Two things we wrote down so we would stop repeating them.

Both are free, both are PDFs, and neither asks for your email address. If they answer your question, you did not need to hire us — that is a fine outcome.

  • PDF · 2 pages

    Berth window adherence and what it costs your gate

    How a 90-minute deviation at the berth becomes a four-hour queue at the gate, why the two are usually measured by different people, and the four numbers you need before you can argue about it.

    Download PDF

  • PDF · 2 pages

    AEO and ATLAS: the controls auditors actually ask for

    A working list of the internal controls that come up in practice during an AEO review, what evidence satisfies each one, and the three that most applicants cannot produce on the day.

    Download PDF

Not sure which one you need?

That is what the free call is for. Most people arrive convinced it is the gate and leave knowing it is the yard.

Book the scoping call