LCZ wins Baanbrekers Award 2023

Logistics Centre Zwevegem, together with Stow Group and Johan Gemels (Novandi), wins the multimodal Baanbrekers awards 2023. During an interactive event at Technopolis Mechelen, logistics Flanders cast its vote for the nominated pioneering multimodal projects. The winners: Stow Group as Pioneering Shipper and Logistiek Centrum Zwevegen as Pioneering Service Provider. Johan Gemels was crowned Multimodal Ambassador 2023.

Baanbrekers is an initiative of Multimodaal.Vlaanderen, VIL's multimodal advice centre.

Nomination by external jury and live voting

All companies that were able to demonstrate a special contribution to mobility in Flanders through a project, initiative or realisation were eligible for an award. An external jury, composed of government, knowledge institutions and companies, selected the four nominees, who presented their multimodal project. Based on this, the public decided via live voting who could take home the desirable trophy.

The personal honorary title 'Multimodal Ambassador 2023' was chosen via online voting prior to the show. The trophy went to Johan Gemels, director at Novandi: "It is quite an honour to receive this award. I see it as a crowning of the work I have been doing with passion for years. It is very important that, as a sector, we green the entire chain in the coming years. Multimodal transport is crucial for this. Going green means an extra cost, but this can largely be offset by innovation. Flanders leads the way in Europe in this field. We have been pioneering semi-autonomous shipping for years and other countries are watching us. I hope this Multimodal award will inspire even more companies to shift loads from road to inland navigation or rail," Gemels said.

'Baanbrekers' are real examples

Now in its fourth edition, Baanbrekers honours Flemish companies that choose the multimodal way. Flemish Minister of Mobility and Public Works Lydia Peeters personally presented the Ambassador Award, just like last year.

Through Baanbrekers, the minister wants to emphasise the importance of greening freight transport. "Transport and logistics are the barometers of our economy and this also translates into increasing traffic intensity resulting in traffic jams. The mobility and climate challenges are urgent. More than ever it is necessary to focus on modal shift within the logistics sector, towards waterways and rail. The work of Multimodaal.Vlaanderen is very important in this respect. Thanks in part to their efforts, we have avoided millions of truck kilometres since 2017. It is crucial to put the benefits of multimodal transport in the picture and Multimodaal.Vlaanderen does that through the Baanbrekers awards. The winners are an inspiration for other companies," said Minister Lydia Peeters.

Source: Multimodaal Vlaanderen