Philip Mortimer, a director at Truck Train Brokerage, one of the partners responsible for developing Freightarranger, explains more about the system aimed at boosting the amount of freight delivered by rail.
H
ere are some direct quotes from for- warders/shippers and cargo interests when quizzed about rail:
“…it is all too complicated to try to find the rail operators.”
“I would not know where to start to put to- gether an inter-modal chain involving rail, hauliers and terminals.”
“Rail: no chance, never use it. Not reliable enough.”
“Not on my radar.”
“Takes far too long to check out rail options and their response is pathetically slow.”
The comments set out above were made during the course of recent conversations with a large number of freight forwarders about how they select transport options for containerised freight in Britain.
Worryingly, these responses expose a huge credibility gap as far as rail freight services are concerned and how they are seen by a key part of the commercial freight forward- ing sector. Rail is seen as remote, suited only to large block train movements domi- nated by the larger shipping lines, difficult to secure information from in relation to services, space availability, prices and un- able to give accurate real time location of cargo in transit. The forwarding sector is deterred from using rail services by their invisibility and the inability to make en- quiries and get a rapid response.
The case for rail is that it is a reliable and consistent option. It is usually more cost- effective than road, the carbon footprint is some 67% lower, and there is excellent load security.
However, rail is in effect ruled out of a huge market by its inability to understand and satisfy the volatile and demanding require- ments of the ‘retail’ freight sector. One call to a road haulier and the job is fixed. The equivalent enquiry to rail operators leads to a multiplicity of contacts to string together an inter-modal option. This can and does deter forwarders from even thinking of rail
88 | rail technology magazine Aug/Sep 11
This deep-seated problem has been rec- ognised and is being addressed through Freightarranger, a project part-funded by the UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB). The major objectives of the TSB project are to secure modal shift and to reduce inter- urban road congestion and energy and emissions burdens. Given the invisibility of rail freight services, a project has been supported which aims to level the playing field for rail by providing instant access to available rail services in terms of routes, schedules, timings, space availability, pric- ing and an ability to track the progress of the shipment in real time independent of the train service provider.
A neutral screen-based system is being developed to provide rapid responses to enquiries and allow informed choices to be made which are not readily achievable us- ing present methods. In effect rail freight will follow the model used in the aviation and hotel/accommodation domains.
The benefits of Freightarranger to the for- warding community are to make multi- modal selection as quick and easy as tel- ephoning a road haulier for a single-mode transit. For enquiring parties the benefits are the ability to seek a much wider choice of options more quickly, which include the pre/end haulage, line haul and terminal components as a composite commercial of- fer which can be booked directly.
The front and back office savings in terms of administration and paperwork are likely to be significant, with reduced error rates by avoiding multiple transcription require-
Live trials
The Freightarranger project is aiming to start live trials using the brokerage sys- tem in early 2012 from the Tilbury/Bark- ing area to the Midlands and Scotland and then roll out onto other possible routes be- fore the project is complete under the TSB auspices. The project is then aiming to be commercialised and developed for a great- er spread of routes. Potentially it could link to European operations or be operated within national domains within Europe.
Freightarranger is designed to allow train service providers and end-haulage provid- ers to input their services, availability and prices in a neutral/firewalled format to protect their commercial positions while making the information available for the brokerage.
The results should be evident as higher lev- els of train fill, which will benefit the train operators. This could apply both to open trains and to contract trains where unfilled space can be released to a wider market than at present and used to commercial gain.
Freight Arranger is a consortium between TruckTrain Brokerage Limited, Rock- shore Limited, GB RailFreight Limited, John G Russell (Transport) Limited and Coventry University. It is part-funded by the TSB after being one of the winners of the TSB’s Informed Logistics Competition.
FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit
www.freightarranger.org
as a credible service provider. The way forward
ments. Similar online tools have generated 50% time savings. This has found particu- lar favour with major lines and forwarders.
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