• A total of 937,838 truck consignments shifted from road to rail in 2018
• Service quality on railways and strikes in France had a detrimental impact on results in international transport
• Route price reduction, modified production concepts and new services for 2019

(Frankfurt/Main, 1 February 2019) Kombiverkehr KG, the European market leader in intermodal rail transport, shifted a total of 937,838 truck consignments (one consignment corresponds to the capacity of a truck) in its national and international networks in the 2018 financial year. The volume of consignments equates to 1.86 million TEU. Compared with the previous year, 2.1 per cent fewer consignments were shifted from the roads to the railways. With the annual results now available, Robert Breuhahn comments, "Customers in the forwarding and logistics industry demand an average performance quality of 85 per cent and 90 per cent in international and national transport respectively. Unfortunately, however, some rail freight transport companies fell a long way short of this target last year, which ended up costing us business on numerous services." In addition, around ten per cent of
the regularly booked trains could not be run due to a lack of resources, among other things, which resulted in delays on the line. Other factors were widespread strikes by public sector employees in France, which dragged on from March until early July and had an extremely negative impact for Kombiverkehr on services between Germany and France and between Spain and Portugal.

The results in the individual market segments are broken down as follows: the Frankfurt-based company managed another hefty increase in Baltic Sea transport. With 14 per cent more containers, swap bodies and semitrailers transported, a total of 90,083 truck consignments were shifted between the economic centres of Germany and the Baltic Sea ports of Kiel, Lübeck and Rostock with onward transport by ferry to Scandinavia. Baltic Sea transport more than compensated for the 3.6 per cent drop in domestic transport to 200,059 truck consignments, which can be attributed to the suspension of a single product (Bremen Roland – Stuttgart Hafen v.v.), so a total increase of 1.2 per cent in national transport (290,142 truck consignments) was recorded. Kombiverkehr shifted 647,696 truck consignments in international transport, representing a reduction of 3.6 per cent compared to the previous year.

The figures for total volumes show that Kombiverkehr KG also chalked up another positive result during the last quarter of 2018, with growth of over two per cent. "The volume increases in maritime transport to and from Rotterdam as a result of switching to the terminal in Neuss, the expansion of capacity to 22 weekly departures and the stabilisation of the situation both on the Brenner Pass and in national transport are being sustained in the current financial year, which will be particularly challenging due to some essential work to optimise operations," continues Breuhahn. A new and efficient product concept for transport between the Ruhr district and Poland, the new short shuttle train between Hamburg and Kiel-Norwegenkai for shipments to and from Oslo and the planned launch of the Kreuztal/Kornwestheim – Verona v.v. train service in the second quarter of 2019 should provide a further boost for the company's volume of consignments. "By reducing route prices, the federal government has also sent out the right signals for developing new products and strengthening the sector," says co-managing director Armin Riedl.




With a 14 per cent rate of increase, transport services to and from the German Baltic Sea ports were the fastest growing in the national de.NETdirekt+ network. Kombiverkehr KG provides onward transport by ferry from Kiel, Lübeck and Rostock to and from Scandinavia and the Baltic states in cooperation with leading shipping companies.

The press photo can be downloaded here.