Submissions by rail to Italy are often cheaper and sometimes faster than road transport

Richard Kempers has been actively engaged in rail transport since the 1980s, because our organization always believed in the concept of intermodal transport. Our first attempt in this area started with the creation of Hucom, which offered a full load service with a hundred trailers between Antwerp and Novara. The project was ultimately unsuccessful due to the many problems combined transport faced at the time, such as long transit times, lost units, theft and vandalism. At the time, the pricing of the rail operators was also of little interest compared to the market prices of road transport. In 2002, after completing my university studies, I joined our family business. Having regard to the subject of my thesis on Swiss transport policy and negotiations with the European Union on the shift of freight traffic to rail, it seemed obvious to get back to work with intermodal solutions and focus more on developing a service that could compete with road transport. The introduction of kilometer charges and other artificial cost increases for road transport and subsidies to promote rail transport have allowed intermodal transport to the south to become increasingly important. The number of services has increased significantly since then and the quality of service has clearly improved. The introduction of the 45 ’ container concept and the adaptation of European legislation in this regard also prompted us to get on the train again.

To distinguish ourselves from other logistics intermodal service providers in Italy, we have opted for a different approach – less industrial bulk cargo and more smaller customers and partial cargo. Dealing with partial shipments has always been one of our central business activities and a solid base of loads that could be built on was already present: so we started with a few 45 ’ containers and our fleet has gradually grown into a hundred units that run daily on the Italy-Netherlands line. In the beginning it took some effort to get our employees used to the planning process of intermodal transport, but soon enthusiasm prevailed. Involving customers in this development from the initial phase was also perceived as essential: the transition to a greener and more sustainable transport solution had to be a success for both parties. We transport most door-to-door submissions in order to guarantee a fast lead time in this way: shipments are collected directly and delivered from the same container to final destination. This avoids extra links, which in addition to time savings also saves costs. Only very small shipments are collected or delivered by local couriers and collected through one of our transfer points. And so it is that we load a partial shipment in the Netherlands on Friday and deliver it in Italy on Monday. Road transport cannot match that, especially in terms of price. A good example of this intermodal shift, where multiple modes of transport are combined, is our unique service in Sicily and Sardinia: partial shipments that are loaded in the Netherlands between Thursday and Friday will leave for the weekend by rail to Northern Italy. On arrival on Monday, the goods are shipped by boat from Genoa to Palermo or Cagliari the same day, where they arrive at night on Tuesdays. Ultimately, the shipments will be delivered on Wednesday. And if you have to unload with a box truck with a tail lift in the center of Catania, that is no problem.
Our choice to put the cards on intermodal traffic has certainly contributed to our success in Italy transport and plays a fundamental role in our overall range of services. In addition, most customers today expect you to be able to offer alternatives.