This is the largest ever single donation our club has ever received
Anke Wibel, port chaplain in Hamburg and manager Duckdalben
Hamburg (February 14, 2022). Lars Rolner, founder of the United Group, and his son Andreas Rolner, Managing Director of United Heavy Lift, handed over a Mercedes eVito minibus to the Hamburg Sea Men’s Club Duckdalben on February 14, 2022. Anke Wibel and Jan Oltmanns, managers of the Duckdalben, received the sybolic key for the first electric car in the club’s fleet. In the future, the donated eVito will bring seafarers from the port terminals to the club. It bears the name Oscar, visible from afar on a sticker. Anke Wibel: “Oscar comes from Sesame Street. Sailors from all over the world are familiar with the international name.”
Andreas Rolner elaborates, “Every year, we invite our business friends to Eisbein, an international shipbrokers’ dinner in Hamburg. But last year, in view of the pandemic, we cancelled the event. However, we didn’t want to go back to business as usual so easily. Therefore, we reallocated the Eisbein budget and gave it as a donation for the E-car. We want to use it to thank all the seafarers who work tirelessly at sea all year round – and under even more difficult conditions during the pandemic.”
Jan Oltmanns, “We thank United Heavy Lift for the generous donation. It enables us, as one of the major facilities for seafarers in Hamburg, to use an electric car. In this way, we are setting an example for the sensible mobility of tomorrow. Thanks to the new eVito, we can finally retire our old van after 340,000 kilometers in the Port of Hamburg.”
Most seafarers who visit the international seamen’s club run by the Deutsche Seemannsmission Hamburg-Harburg e.V. (German Seamen’s Mission Hamburg-Harburg) use the shuttle service: volunteers pick them up at the terminal and take them back to the ship after their stay at the club. In the years before Corona, the minibuses covered almost 250,000 kilometers per year. Since the club was founded, the vehicles named Bibo, Ducky, Kermit and Elmo have traveled over 4.8 million kilometers in 267,462 trips in the port: That is, six times to the moon and back. Some time ago, Ernie joined them. Like all the other vehicles, it is environmentally friendly and runs on natural gas, which means it is immune to diesel driving bans. Now Oscar stands (or drives) for the eco-logical current state of e-mobility.
Anke Wibel adds, “This is the largest single donation our club has ever received. Considering that we are currently receiving significantly less donations than in previous years, this donation really made a difference.”
United Heavy Lift and the non-profit Rolner Foundation support various social projects, both nationally and internationally. We encourage our suppliers or their shareholders to also participate in civic engagement and contribute to society in the countries and regions where they do business.
