SCANDINAVIA\\\


DHL Freight is boosting frequency of its Sweden to Czech Republic and Austria groupage road services. Daily departures have reduced


lead times between


Sweden and Central Europe to only three days, says the carrier. Cargo leaving DHL Freight’s


hub in Helsingborg, Sweden arrives the next day in Brno, Czech Republic and reaches Vienna, Austria a few hours later. End-to-end lead times have improved from five to three days.


Shipments arriving in Brno and in Vienna are delivered to customers in the respective countries the following day. Customers shipping to or from Hungary and Slovakia also benefit from improvements in lead times of up to two days, as cargo is consolidated in the Vienna hub and on-forwarded by daily overnight connections to other Central and south-east European countries. Large Scandinavian-owned retailers have set up shop in


Eastern Europe and traffic volumes of Swedish export staples like furniture and forest products are growing fast, says DHL. CEO DHL Freight, Amadou


Diallo, said: “We have modified this trade lane to address market requirements and our customers’ need for faster deliveries. The


Issue 8 2014 - Freight Business Journal


Faster to the heart of Europe


highly reliable and now improved door-to-door lead times will allow our customers to improve their production cycles and reduce internal inventory and fixed costs.” CEO DHL Freight Sweden and


Nordics, Peter Hesslin, added: “We have seen great interest in this line, particularly from small and medium-sized enterprises across


all industries. Germany is still the most important export destination for Swedish customers, but with the change in production cycles and the improved supply chains other markets become more and more important, too.” DHL already operates high


frequency services to other major European markets, including the


31


UK, he told FBJ, and services are also available from Denmark and Norway. Rail as well as road is used


to reach central Europe as well as to Italy and for intra-Nordic transport, Hesslin adds. The only constraint is track capacity on the Scandinavian and European rail network.


DSV at cross purposes


DSV is developing a Crosstrade option


aimed at companies


who want to buy and sell goods in Scandinavia or other parts of Europe but control the transaction from the UK. “It’s part of our one stop shop thinking,” explains Scandinavia director, Karl Timmis. “It means that they don’t have to search for a service provider in Scandinavia and, depending on exchange rates, it could be financially


advantageous.” More generally, DSV seems


some challenges ahead in the wider freight market to Scandinavia. The market for forest products out of Norway and Sweden has soſtened, in the face of heavy competition from the likes of Canada and South America. The new sulphur emission rules could also push up the cost of sea and ferry transport – perhaps by around 10-12%.


(Very) long vehicle


Abnormal load specialist Van der Vlist’s specialist rail vehicle trailers went into action to move a new metro train to Copenhagen in late September. The 57 tonne carriages were loaded onto the 10 axle trailer at the Innotrans rail exhibition in Berlin and moved to Rostock. There, the 39m long three-carriage metro set a record for the longest ever cargo taken on the ferry to Denmark - and the Van der Vlist truck became the first public vehicle to drive on the then unopened Nykøbing Falster bypass, due to tight bends and roundabouts in the city.


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