Giant Hubs

The Port of Rotterdam is among the largest logistics centers in the world. With a handling capacity of about one million three hundred thousand tons – per day! Punctuality is the definitive factor for success at Europe's largest port. More than 180,000 people work in the port area and help to keep this logistical masterpiece safe – and operating on time. From maritime pilots and terminal operators to coast guards. Everyone follows a carefully synced and always tight schedule. Every year, more than 130,000 ships call at Europe's largest seaport. Container ships, inland ships and cruise ships. A total of 350 a day. With 140 million tons of container goods entering the port each year, "unwanted" cargo also gets through. Europol estimates that half of all cocaine circulating in Europe is smuggled through Rotterdam. Suspicious containers are a case for customs. 650 officers are on duty in the Port of Rotterdam every day. The biggest port in Europe is also one of the most innovative in the world. The operator ECT opened the world's first automated terminal here all the way back in 1993. The 100 automated vehicles are the secret of this terminal's success. They were invented in Rotterdam, and are now gaining ground at more and more ports around the world. They save on personnel costs – and time. The Universe of the port of Rotterdam: A giant hub, bigger than the island of Manhattan. Get an exclusive look behind the curtain and learn what it takes to keep it running on time.

Five separate train lines, almost three thousand passengers per minute and trains arriving every second. How can the people behind the scenes of the world’s busiest station overcome a traffic load like this every day? The teams in this Giant Hub need a minute-by-minute precision, a constant control, a military discipline but at the same time always still a smile on their faces for the 3,6 million customers every day. At 4:30 in the morning: The 200 doors to the world’s busiest station start to rise and they won´t close for the next twenty- one hours. This signals the start of the morning rush hour and requires a logistics process that is perfectly in sync. Nobody knows this kind of challenge as good as Hidehiko Moriyama, he is the station master of the biggest train company of the city. His team are the eyes and ears of the entire station. Cutting-edge technology allows them to keep an eye on everything from behind the scenes. When the day is almost over for some, another team is just about to start its shift. At night, everything happens at the same time. The teams work against the clock. The window in which there are no passengers or trains on the tracks is a mere three hours long. Repairs and work on the tracks must not disrupt the traffic flow under any circumstances. This would cause too much chaos. So, before the first guest arrives back in the morning, any sign of construction work disappears completely. It’s as if nothing had happened.

What does it take to deliver millions of packages and documents every day right in time? You need a Giant Hub: UPS Worldport in Louisville is a technological marvel. It is the largest automated package handling facility in the world, and the center point of UPS’s worldwide air network. More than 300 flights arrive and depart daily and the hub with its 250 kilometers conveyors has a troughput of 500.000 packages per hour. Roughly two million packages a day increasing to more than four million during the peak season. 10 pm. The night rush hour begins. When frontline supervisor Tyler Sawvell and his crew unload and load the aircrafts on the ground – guys like Terry Rigdon in the general operation center control every flight activity of the cargoplanes. The world’s leading logistics group UPS relys on their one airline. With its 244 aircrafts, UPS Airlines is one of the biggest worldwide. Terry Rigdon’s goal is to get every aircraft with its cargo to their right destination – on schedule. But in this night, bad weather causes a lot of trouble and delays for the whole crew at Worldport. Due to thunderstorms the whole area have been put on an operations ban for 30 minutes. That means the outbound crew are not alowed to work. They can not unload any airplane. So they can’t feed the hub. Are they able to recover lost time to get a very special package with a gastank from triumph motorcycle to his customer in Seattle overnight?

Rungis International Market is the world's largest wholesale market for fresh produce. Fish, meat, fruits, vegetables, cheese and even fresh flowers are sold here every day in quantities so large an entire train station and highway exit has been built to serve it. Being just outside Paris, Rungis serves many Parisian restaurants or great standings. The market has distinguishing clients and only the freshest, highest quality products can hope to be sold. Each day, more than 6.000 trucks arrive at the Rungis Market. 30.000 employees and customers flock through the overall 9 big halls on the 232 hectare-area. It’s a city of its own. The waste of the market is recycled and the energy genereated by the incinerator is used to heat up the market – and even Orly Airport! 10 pm. Rush hour in Rungis begins at the A40, the biggest market hall for seafood in Europe. Wholesaler Pascal is specialized on high quality seafood from France. His goal: to sell all his products within the same day. ---- 00 am: High noon in the meat pavillion. Butcher Christophs works between innumerable halves of pork and beef. At 5° Celsius all night, the temperature outside doesn’t really matter. ----- 01 am: Now there is hectic in the fruit pavillion. Supplies are checked, prices defined. You can find the most exotic creations here. What happens to the fruit that cannot be sold? ----- 06 am: Now, thousands of trucks, delivery vans and cars are in a hurry to get back to their customers, restaurants, supermarkets. Now, the market begins to sleep-till the evening, when everything starts again…

It is one of the biggest and busiest metro systems in the world: The Moscow Metro. During rush hour the trains are running every 90 seconds to transport around 9 million people daily – that makes 2.3 billion a year. Which means: it is the busiest metro outside of Asia. Nevertheless, the trains are at 99,9 % on time - world record for the most punctual metro system! This is made possible by a sophisticated operating and maintaining system, innovative technique and a perfect match from all departments. Every line of the metro is running completely self-sufficient, on its own system of rails and underground stations. Disruptions on one line do not affect the other ones. The Moscow metro is also known as the most beautiful metro system in the world. 44 of its 200 stations along the 346-kilometer-long rails are world heritage sites. Built in the 1930ies these stations look like palaces – to preserve them in good condition means a big effort. In World War II, the metro served as bunkers for the inhabitants of Moscow and the stations were used as military bases. One of the reasons why Moscow Metro is one of the deepest in the world! Even during the war, the Russians keep on expanding their metro system – and they still do. There are construction sites all over Moscow, so it is also one of the fastest growing line networks. Discover these and more stories in the underground of Moscow – on Giant Hubs!