PTP Inks Agreement with Terberg Tractors Malaysia To Develop Autonomous Driving Terminal Tractors

18 June 2019 - Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas Sdn Bhd (PTP), a member of MMC Group has successfully signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Terberg Tractors Malaysia (TTM) to develop a comprehensive study on the viability of deploying autonomous driving terminal tractors to transfer containers within the terminal. 

Yang Berhormat Loke Siew Fook, Minister of Transport, Mohd Solihan Bin Badri, Johor State Public Works, Infrastructure and Transportation Committee Chairman, Christoph Prommersberger, representative from the Kingdom of the Netherlands Embassy for Malaysia and Rosnan Fathlal, Chairman of Johor Port Authority were present during the MOU Signing Ceremony.

The agreement was inked between Marco Neelsen, PTP Chief Executive Officer and Boo Wei Ching, a member of the Board of Directors, TTM and witnessed by Yang Berhormat Loke Siew Fook, Minister of Transport together with Dato Sri Che Khalib Bin Mohamad Noh, PTP Chairman.

Speaking after the event, YB Loke commented that the Ministry of Transport is pleased that PTP, with the support of TTM have taken proactive measures in addressing the challenge of present technology advancement in support for the Government’s Industry 4.0 journey.

“The autonomous terminal tractor study will definitely provide the essential knowledge that will enable ports in Malaysia, and especially PTP, to continuously improve safety and increase its competitiveness to better serve its customers.
“Furthermore, the cooperation between PTP and TTM is also in line with the Government of Malaysia’s call for more participation from the private sector in realising the National Policy on Industry 4.0 and subsequently reduce the dependency on foreign labour and increase the sourcing of local labour.” he added.

PTP’s Chairman, Dato’ Sri Che Khalib Bin Mohamad Noh in his speech remarked that the pace of change in the port industry have been unprecedented in the past couple of years due to shipping mergers and acquisitions, global economic uncertainty, as well as the fast pace technological advancement.

“PTP in its quest to remain competitive and in search of higher efficiency and productivity has been undertaking some progressive work on operations facilities, support facilities and infrastructure as well as system upgrade. All this is in line with our aspiration to become an advanced preferred port in the region. A port which operates and offers smart solutions that will help optimise operations, promote efficiency and reduce logistics costs in a safe environment.” 

George Terberg, Chairman of The Royal Terberg Group in his statement said the company is embarking on a new journey with TTM to provide full autonomous solutions to customers like PTP.

“With the years of research and development that we have done, we have launched our automated yard tractor, AutoTUG, which can operate automatically, without major changes to the infrastructure of a terminal, allowing you to introduce automation gradually and flexibly, in parallel with manual operation.”

“The Royal Terberg Group always takes a long-term view in everything that we do, and we have committed innumerable man-hours and investments into this autonomous project.”