Domestic CT service in Poland for trailers 14/01/25
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Freightliner PL has identified a sectoral and regional gap in intermodal services
Author: Piotr Stefaniak
Already in the first quarter of this year we will launch twice a week transports of semi-trailer trains from Silesia to Świnoujście and back, making a breakthrough in the provision of such transport in the country – says Konstantin Skorik, CEO of Freightliner PL.
On December 8 last year, the Ferry Terminal in Świnoujście received the first train with semi-trailers carried out by Freightliner PL. Your first, and the first in the history of this port?
– Yes, that is why we can talk about a breakthrough event. Apart from a few exceptions, in Poland semi-trailers are not transported by rail, especially in domestic relations. And as the experience of our western neighbour shows, hundreds of thousands of them are transported in this way every year. In Germany, about 20% of intermodal loads are semi-trailers transported by rail, and in our country it is less than 3%. Our subsidiary Freightliner DE alone transports semi-trailers from northern to southern German destinations and vice versa six times a week. Each train contains up to 38 semi-trailers. And according to German statistics, railways transport up to 1 million semi-trailers per year. This is also the number of cars that do not end up on the roads.
Why aren't there many such services in Poland? Isn't it worth organizing them?
– There are several such permanent connections, but not within the country – semi-trailers are transported to the West by rail, and also further on ferry connections to Great Britain. In both cases, the organization of such transport is determined by economics. The service must be competitive with traditional truck transport. Our project is an important part of the supply chain between Poland and Sweden, which is implemented in the full formula of intermodal transport.
What are the results of your test trailer transports to Świnoujście?
– Our estimates indicate that we will meet the profitability condition when we have a full train, i.e. approximately 34 trailers in one train.
These are tough requirements and perhaps that is why no one has ever attempted to organize a service similar to yours before.
– Distance is also key in this calculation. For example, it will not be profitable to transport semi-trailers by rail from Warsaw to Gdańsk in Poland for a long time. But in our project, transport from Upper Silesia to Świnoujście, the distance is sufficient, exceeding 600 km one way. And because in Sweden we have expanded – with the participation of the local carrier Green Cargo – the transport of semi-trailers by rail, from Trelleborg to Gothenburg, Stockholm and Umeå in northern Sweden, we have extended the supply chain by train by 1,300 km in an extreme case.
This is the symbolic distance threshold that the European Union recommends for launching intermodal transport to move freight from road to rail.
– With our intermodal service, we can potentially go much further when we cross the southern border of Poland. And such a cross-border service is within our capabilities, as German experience shows. Semi-trailers are picked up there from ferries reaching northern ports, then travel by rail 700-800 km through Germany and often further – to Austria, Switzerland and Italy.
However, in the first phase of our project implementation, we decided to test it for Polish-Polish connections. So that potential clients would have tangible proof that "it is possible". We organized this project in cooperation with Galan Logistics, which acts as a logistics operator and plans its further development based on the transport of intermodal semi-trailers by rail. Galan, like us, sees the potential in this project and believes in the right idea of intermodal transport, which guarantees many benefits.
How was the transportation organized?
– The cargoes set off from the Świnoujście Ferry Terminal towards Upper Silesia. We launched the second train in the opposite direction. I will add that in both cases these were incomplete trains, but we sent an important promotional message; we are ready to provide such a service, we know how to do it, linking the activities of various stakeholders.
What advantage do you point to when promoting this service?
– Firstly, that there will soon be a permanent rail connection to the port in Poland and it will be possible to send semi-trailers with cargo abroad. This is an important signal for the road carrier community, struggling with the problem of a lack of drivers, who are less and less willing to travel for many days behind the wheel.
Secondly, our offer meets the expectations of a growing number of shippers and customers in the supply chain to demonstrate “green” transport. As you know, from this year a new group of companies must submit non-financial ESG reports, showing progress in decarbonising their operations. We give them an important asset in implementing their pro-climate strategy. At the same time, with such a service, we will improve the situation of cities and local communities by reducing the number of trucks passing through these cities, which will significantly improve road safety for other participants and reduce the degradation of road infrastructure.
I would also like to emphasize that our offer does not take away the transport work of road carriers. They will have it provided on the first and last mile of intermodal transport, which can reach up to 150 km, which will have a positive impact on the balance between work and private life of drivers.
What will be the ecological effects of your new offer?
– Based on our tests, we estimate that CO2 emissions can be reduced by over 76 percent. I believe this is an important argument and an interesting offer when freight forwarders choose a means of transport.
For many years Freightliner PL has been associated with the transport of bulk goods by heavy trains. Where does the interest in intermodal transport come from – is it a reaction to the glass ceiling that coal, ore and aggregate transport can no longer penetrate?
– The bulk rail freight segment came to life in 2022–2023, which we benefited from, consolidating our position in the top five carriers in terms of transport work. And we never gave up on the intermodal market, conducting such operations since 2017 in Germany. But we were aware that in Poland there are strong players with specialized rolling stock and terminals. Nevertheless, while implementing our strategy, which assumes the expansion of operations, we were looking for a sectoral and regional gap. And I think we found it.
When will you launch a permanent, full-scale and regular offer of trailer transport by train?
– Already in the first quarter of this year, we will make a breakthrough in providing such transport in the country. These will be semi-trailer transports from Silesia to Świnoujście and in the opposite direction twice a week. The regularity of the connection will also be important in our service.
How do you estimate the risk of not providing a full squad?
– When launching new connections, there is always a risk associated with filling the trains, but our company works with customers to ensure that this risk is as low as possible. This is supported by the fact that our offer of delivering semi-trailers to ferries will constitute a small percentage of the total transport of entire vehicle combinations on this route. We also expect an increase in demand for such services, bearing in mind that numerous trains with semi-trailers are launched to/from ports in Germany every day.