RAIL FREIGHT\\\
While the Covid crisis coincided with an upsurge in the use of rail from China to the UK, very little of the traffi c that Davies Turner has
handled on its Express China direct rail service has been PPE, says head of supply chain services, Tony Cole. The commodities handled
Short-sea operator keeps on the rails
Intermodal and shortsea logistics operator Samskip is a major user of rail in Continental Europe and, to a lesser extent, in Great Britain, says head of UK trade, David Besseling. One of the main rail corridors from Italy to the port of
is
Rotterdam, served by a variety of rail connections including eight company trains a week and with shortsea connections to the UK, Ireland, Norway, Baltics, Russia, and Scandinavia. Sweden to Duisburg, where
Samskip operates its own terminal, is another well-served route with 20-30 trains a week in each direction. There are also rail services between Duisburg and
Amsterdam Port, from
where shortsea connections are also available. Other rail routes are Mannheim/Rotterdam and Central and Eastern Europe to Rotterdam and Amsterdam. “We fi nd that on distances of
over 300km, rail can be more effi cient, but shorter distances tend to be by road or barge” Besseling explains. The cost of transhipping containers between rail and truck for pick-up or fi nal delivery tends to make rail less cost-eff ective
on the shorter
distances; barges tend to do a bit better, mainly because some
large customers are located close to canal terminals. Use of rail at Samskip is
increasing, Besseling believes. “Ongoing trends are the driver shortage
and the increasing
interest in cutting CO2 emissions, which are both driving a shiſt to rail.” Factors
that might work
against rail are the currently low diesel prices and, interestingly, the latest European Union Mobility Package. The latter will require drivers based outside their home country to return there periodically and this could create an upsurge in drivers willing to take loads at reduced prices on their way back. However, the Mobility Package regulations are still under discussion and it is possible that they will be modifi ed to reduce this eff ect. Rail’s market share at Samskip been
has increasing lately,
Besseling says. It received a boost at the start of the Covid outbreak when truck drivers were reluctant to visit Italy while rail services carried on operating. In the second Covid wave, rail operations have been aff ected by train drivers and crane drivers at terminals going sick, but this is aff ecting truck drivers too.
Truck weight to rise to 48 tonnes – for
intermodal trialists only
The Department for Transport’s (DfT) is proposing a
Those taking part in the trial limited trial of a higher,
48-tonne weight limit for trucks in intermodal operations. Recalling the higher limit for intermodal operations in the last century, before the current blanket 44-tonne limit was introduced, trucks would have to have six axles and the trial would be limited to specific operators. Vehicles would also have
to comply with the existing constraints of the current road infrastructure, such as bridge capacity and some routes may not be permissible.
will also be required to comply with other existing rules, such as maximum axle weights, and it is likely that they will be limited to a maximum journey length, currently proposed to be 50 miles. Operators are also required to be part of domestic intermodal – road and rail – operations. DfT proposes that the higher
limit would be limited to for repetitive container loads that travel along a set route, with the operations liable to happen frequently, feeding into scheduled trains operating on one or more days a week
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represent a broad cross section of general freight; which varies week- by-week. Cole says: “Whilst the pandemic
contributed to the increase in traffi c, the direct rail service is benefi tting from many other factors aff ecting the alternative air and ocean modes. If airfreight rates fall signifi cantly, our direct rail service might not be so competitive, but some customers are most likely to
Issue 8 2020 - Freight Business Journal China rail revolution is no fl ash in the pan, says Davies Turner
have re-engineered their supply chains to accommodate the longer transit times so that they can benefi t from the lower cost of the rail service. I am very confi dent that we will retain the business that we have managed to convert from the ocean freight alternative.” Davies Turner’s goal is still a
twice-weekly service, but for that it would need to increase the volume of containers. However
the forwarder did achieve a record weekly number of six high-cube 40ſt containers directly to the UK during October. In addition to the existing direct
service to Dartford, in July Davies Turner introduced direct options to its hubs in Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham and hopes to add Cumbernauld in Scotland soon. Currently, traffi c is transhipped
on the Continent to road for the fi nal leg to the UK, although occasional direct services have
13
operated into the London area. Davies Turner might be
interested in such an option, says Cole, but that would depend on an operator starting a service that goes all the way from Wuhan to a rail head in the UK and the costs of such a service. Outwith the China route,
Davies Turner also uses various UK rail freight operators to move ocean containers to and from the country’s main deepsea container ports.
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