INTERVIEW: Nick Radcliffe
“Our message is stimulating the interest both of companies that are actively using rail, and also those that aren’t but are at least interested. What we’re looking to combat is the view that rail is more complex than road haulage. What we are up against is that, with road, you only need to know where it goes from and when; where it’s going, and when it’s expected to get there”
our system. One of our developments is to enable regional manufacturers to put goods on to containers to go back into the national distribution centres.’
Rail ‘A friendly place’ So far, Radcliffe has taken well to the industry he found himself in by chance. ‘It’s a friendly place,’ he said. ‘You get the feeling that railway people take pride in their industry, and are keen to explain it to you so that you can understand it. That said, it is highly conservative with a small ‘c’ and is slow to change. It suffers from being very process driven and from having a lowish net profit margin. Innovation is inherently risky, and it is only the higher margin businesses which can afford to take the risks.’ FreightArranger has been warmly received by the industry
too. The system earned second prize in the Rail Freight Customer Challenge and the 2013 Rail Customer Experience Competition, which came with a £20,000 cheque. It was one of 16 finalists chosen from 111 entrants in the competition organised by the Enabling Innovation Team. The prize money was set aside to be invested in further software development, enhancing the enquiry and booking element to make the process even simpler and faster.
A resurgence in rail freight Radcliffe and the FreightArranger team are keen to continually look to the future. ‘Things are looking positive for rail. Entrepreneurial companies want to be involved. They see that this is where profit is.
‘Our message is stimulating the interest both of companies that are actively using rail, and also those that aren’t but are at least interested. What we’re looking to combat is the view that rail is more complex than road haulage. What we are up against is that, with road, you only need to know where it goes from and when; where it’s going, and when it’s expected to get there.’ The good news is that there is a hunger for an effective rail freight system.
‘Rail is flexible’, said Radcliffe. ‘There’s a structural transport cost in the UK. These days, ports are very significant. The manufacturers used to be based in our cities, such as Birmingham, but a lot of that has gone abroad and now we all need access to the ports. ‘Unfortunately, the origins of the road system predate this change in our economy. What we are seeing are miles of jams along the distribution corridors to and from the ports into the centres of consumption. Rail is the answer. It is addressing the deep-sea routes, but also needs to do more on the domestic intermodal front, which is where both the problems and the opportunities lie. It simply isn’t possible for the road network to develop itself fast enough to cope with demand. ‘I think the obvious answer is a resurgence in rail freight. I think it would be good for the economy, and it would obviously be great for FreightArranger too.’
www.freightarranger.co.uk
• December 2013 Page 59
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