Customers


The clients of the CT operators, in the case of the most classical commercial model of the UIRR, that is to say the unaccompanied model from terminal to terminal, are road haulage companies, freight forwarders or logistics companies, which take care of transport of the loading units (swap bodies, containers or semi-trailers) to the closest adapted terminal and carry out collection in the destination terminal using their own road vehicles or with the help of partner companies.

Numerous regular clients are engaged as partners by acquiring capital shares in UIRR operators or even collaborating in working groups or governing bodies (for example the Board of directors) of these operators and therefore actively participate in the UIRR policy. The UIRR operators are therefore very close to the market and guarantee commercial confidentiality to their clients.

Indeed, most of the UIRR companies refrain from acquiring transport services from shippers in order not to compete directly with their shareholders. It is the key to the commercial co-operative model which, since the creation of the first UIRR member companies 40 years ago, has manifested itself by rates of growth greater than the market average, often in double figures in unaccompanied international transport.

A limited number of member companies of UIRR, mostly subsidiaries of one or several railway undertakings, also offer the complete transport chain, inclusively the initial and final road legs in direct competition with road hauliers and freight forwarders. For these operators, the clients are the industry and the shippers.