Today marks a significant milestone for autonomous logistics in Europe. At the HHLA TK Estonia terminal near Tallinn, yard trucking automation company FERNRIDE has begun the operational transition to driverless operation of terminal tractors. Together, the two companies aim to set new standards for safety and efficiency in port logistics.
The transition to driverless operations follows the successful certification of FERNRIDE’s safety concept and system design by TÜV SÜD, as well as approval by the Estonian Transport Administration (ETA). FERNRIDE is the first company to receive TÜV SÜD certification for an autonomous terminal tractor in accordance with the EU Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC).
TÜV SÜD Certification is an internationally recognised endorsement that verifies a product, service, process, or management system has undergone rigorous, independent testing and assessment to meet specific standards for quality, safety, and sustainability
The certification confirms that FERNRIDE’s autonomous vehicle platform — including the vehicle, sensors, computers, and software — meets EU standards for safety, cybersecurity, and system reliability. It marks an important step toward CE compliance and industrial deployment across Europe.
I spoke to Hendrik Kramer, CEO and co-founder of FERNRIDE to learn all about it.
Boosting productivity and safety while cutting emissions
FERNRIDE offers scalable automation solutions for yard trucking that increase productivity, promote sustainability, and improve worker safety. It is a risky and dangerous environment where people work with heavy machinery, doing repetitive tasks. Therefore, automation removes the need for in-cab safety drivers while enhancing site safety.
The company employs a human-assisted autonomy approach, which allows for remote takeovers of trucks when necessary. This ensures seamless integration and reliable operations for logistics operators.
Automation not only eliminates the requirement for human drivers but also enhances on-site safety. It improves vehicle efficiency by eliminating expensive idling periods while trucks are being loaded, thanks to the seamless switching capabilities of teleoperators who can maximise productivity by managing multiple vehicles.
According to Kramer, the certification is a defining moment not only for FERNRIDE but for the entire autonomous logistics industry in Europe.
“From day one, we’ve made safety the foundation of everything we build.
Meeting Europe’s most stringent regulatory standards took a remarkable effort, and I’m incredibly proud of our team’s dedication and precision throughout this journey.
This certification proves that our technology meets the highest safety benchmarks, not just in theory, but in practice, and brings us one step closer to making autonomous logistics a commercial reality across the EU.”
The missing piece to prove commercially viable technology
FERNRIDE currently has a ratio of one to four—one operator for four trucks.
And according to Kramer, “the more data we collect, the further we can push this to one to ten, one to twenty, one to fifty in the future."
The certification was the final missing piece in terms of a technological breakthrough to prove the entire model.
“Doing a pilot and the prototype is one thing, many in our industry have done that. But industrialising it and meeting all the requirements that we have in the European Union for building a safety case and proving it, this is the hard part.
FERNRIDE is now the first company — and only one — that has done that work and can prove to customers, to ourselves, to investors, basically everyone, that this is a commercially viable technology.”
What is the TUV Certification process?
Kramer walked me through the certification process in plain language. The company starts by describing all the potential scenarios where there could be a risk with using its system, such as where a truck could run into another object or another vehicle,
Then, you list all 5,000 potential risks and develop a technical and operational concept to mitigate those risks to nearly zero.
“It’s impossible to get to zero — since then it's like everything in the world, you should just stay at home and not operate at a container terminal. It can never be zero — it can just be acceptably low.
And this is what we defined very early in the process, three, four years ago, and then asked a third party, since we wanted to have a four-eyes principle, to confirm that this concept is safe. That all the risks that we could foresee are mitigated with technical and operational measures.”
With all those technical safeguards in place, specific functionalities are implemented to address potential risks. One example is the “hazard zone monitor,” which detects objects approaching or present in front of the vehicle and automatically reduces speed in a smart, adaptive way — without compromising the vehicle’s operational availability.
“This is one of ten safety functions we’ve built into the system,” Kramer explains. “
And beyond validating the concept in theory, we’ve conducted extensive testing both in the field and at test sites to statistically prove the system’s reliability. All of this is independently audited by a third party.”
According to Benedikt Pulver, Head of the machine safety department at TÜV SÜD:
“FERNRIDE is the first to receive TÜV SÜD certification for a specific port application involving autonomous trucks. This milestone could establish a new benchmark for safety and compliance in autonomous trucking for terminal applications.”
Kramer admits, “This means I can sleep very well as a founder and managing director of the company, knowing that we have done everything in our control to make sure our system is safe, we have proven that it's safe, and therefore it will be safe.”
FERNRIDE and HHLA have maintained an ongoing partnership since January 2023, working closely to ensure a seamless transition into live operations and executing productive moves at the terminal.
They selected the container terminal use case for its autonomous trucking system, as there is a real problem to be solved — keeping supply chains running and making them more resilient due to the shortage of drivers needed to operate them.
According to Kramer, “These are dangerous and repetitive tasks, and it’s becoming harder to find people to do them. So we need to introduce automation to make it more efficient, safer, and resilient."
"Our partnership with HHLA, the container terminal operator of Hamburg, is very intentional — to get a first design customer that helps us refine our technology and make it a product that works for a real customer.
There are companies out there prototyping on test sites with super smart engineers. But you need to put your product into the hands of customers, into real operating environments, and make sure it works there—so that it creates value for the real customer, not an artificial one.”
The strategy focuses on implementing a gradual approach to integrate FERNRIDE-enabled autonomous terminal tractors at HHLA TK Estonia, eliminating the need for safety drivers.
Three FERNRIDE tractors are currently in operation at the terminal. FERNRIDE has implemented structured roll-out scenarios and standard procedures to train on-site personnel through the transition to fully driverless operations.
According to Kramer, HHLA has proven to be a wonderful design customer. The terminal in Tallinn is relatively small, but its staff are “super agile, innovative, and collaborative.”
“We work as one team — they bring the operational experience of running a container terminal, and we provide the autonomous vehicle technology.
We now have the first terminal operating an autonomous truck without a safety driver — and can roll this out across Europe and the world.
That’s important in this industry, where most players are fast followers. Not many want to be the first mover, because new technology introduces a risk of downtime — and that’s a big deal when a vessel is scheduled to be offloaded and operations are interrupted.
So everyone wants to buy proven technology. Now we’ve shown that it works — if you'd like to see it in action, visit Estonia. It’s proven.”
FERNRIDE offers an enterprise robotics solution that the customer's workforce will operate. It enables the existing workforce — people driving trucks today — to transition to safer, healthier jobs. We’re not offering this as a service where Fernride remote operators run the system.
Kramer explained, "We provide service-level agreements and remote technical support, like a hotline, but the actual operation is done by the customer’s team. So the partnership is really about enabling their workforce.”
.Riia Sillave, CEO of HHLA TK Estonia:
“Entering the phase of driverless terminal transport marks a significant milestone – not just for our collaboration with FERNRIDE, but for the future of terminal operations.
As one of the first terminals to take this step, we are shaping the path toward more intelligent and efficient logistics.
We trust that innovation succeeds by including the know-how of our employees – our team’s engagement is the foundation for the integration of this technology into everyday operations.”
Building the future of industrial automation, one terminal at a time
While FERNRIDE’s process is intentionally incremental, logistics and container terminals are very standardised. Once the technology works, it can scale rapidly. The technology is ready now.
With over a decade of research, 150 staff, and high-profile customers, including Volkswagen, HHLA, and DB Schenker, the company wants to become a next-generation industrial automation company—not only for container terminals, but also for open-road trucking, defense applications, construction, and mining.
Customers are signing up for large rollouts, and Henrik predicts that within a few years, there’ll probably be dozens of terminals in Europe— and hopefully beyond — that have introduced the technology with thousands of trucks operating.
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