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Current, Press Release, The Company
Kombiverkehr KG shifts more than 880,000 truck consignments to climate-friendly rail in 2019
02/18/2020
  • Increase in services to and from Spain, Denmark, Hungary and Sweden
  • Economic downturns in the chemical and automotive industries having a significant effect on national consignment volumes
  • Modern container carriers set to open up new market segment in 2020
  • CO2 avoidance should receive greater reward

(Frankfurt/Main, 18 February 2020) Kombiverkehr KG ended the 2019 financial year with a total of 884,168 truck consignments (one consignment corresponds to the capacity of a truck-trailer combination), or 1.77 million TEU, which were shifted from the roads and sea routes onto the railways. This means that 5.7 per cent fewer containers, swap bodies and semitrailers were transported compared with the previous year. "In 2019 the German economy found itself on the brink of recession. This led to a decline in the number of consignments, particularly on individual national transport routes, due to falling volumes in the chemical and automotive transport segment. The rise in available freight capacity that this caused ensured a fall in road haulage prices, which made it difficult for us to profile our products on the market, even in some parts of the international services," says managing director Robert Breuhahn, drawing an initial conclusion from the trend over the last financial year. The Frankfurt-based company achieved a total transport tonnage of more than 20 million gross metric tons, with the average distance travelled by the transport units also climbing. Forwarding and logistics customers made an active contribution towards the German government's climate targets with a saving of 1.03 million tons of carbon dioxide.

Product range of national trains remains stable
The volume of consignments shipped on national services slipped from 290,142 consignments in 2018 to 266,153 in 2019, partly also due to the loss of a company train customer on a north-south route. Declining transport volumes in the year just gone ultimately led to a slight consolidation in national transport. Nevertheless, Kombiverkehr was able to maintain the product range of all open trains on the market for its customers, thereby continuing to meet its original purpose of offering forwarders particularly stable and sustainable train connections. Only on two of more than 30 connections within Germany did the frequency of departures have to be temporarily adjusted to the fall in transport volumes.

Differing trends in international transport
The operator closed 2019 with 618,015 truck consignments (-4.6 per cent) transported on international services. The transport corridors and bilateral connections between countries varied markedly, however. In the subsidiary markets of Denmakr, Hungary and Sweden, Kombiverkehr recorded growth rates of up to eleven per cent, partly because the performance quality of the railways there met the requirements of those markets. Despite many further strikes in France which took place in the middle and towards the end of 2019, services to and from Spain increased by more than seven percentage points. With performance quality now matching demand following a changeover in traction in autumn of the previous year, the Kreuztal/Kornwestheim – Verona Q.E. v.v.  train launched in 2019 also proved to be a stable train product within the south European transport network An unsatisfactory punctuality ratio on individual routes, price differences between road and rail and particular weather events such as those that led to the suspension of transalpine rail services, sometimes for several days, resulted in falls in consignment numbers in other subsidiary markets that ultimately could not be made up.

Greater frequency of departures towards Sweden and Italy
The operator responded to continuing demand for transport between the Ruhrgebiet and Sweden by significantly increasing the days of departure on the important west-north Duisburg – Lübeck-Skandinavienkai v.v. route. Having already been upped to eleven departures a week in each direction in November 2019, the frequency of departures was boosted to a total of 16 at the start of this month. In Italian services, too, the frequency of train products has been increased on a transalpine route via Austria. From 13 February forwarders and logistics companies now have a choice of five rather than the previous four departures a week in each direction between Hanover and Verona in northern Italy.

New market segments opened up through modern container carriers
Kombiverkehr KG took the decision a good three years ago to enter into the tank container segment of the market – these have a total weight of up to 60 metric tons and a length of 52 feet – with the aid of a modern, newly developed container carrier, the SGMNS. A short, weight-optimised container carrier has since been added to the company's existing fleet of wagons. The last 20 of a total of 100 wagons to be purchased have recently been integrated into the fleet. "There are plans to perform initial tests of the loading process and the end-to-end rail transport of the tank containers, which are particularly long and heavy, between two terminals of the Combined Transport network in the second half of the year. This means we at Kombiverkehr can offer active assistance to the chemical industry by enabling it to run existing tank wagon transports successfully within our Germany-wide and European intermodal network," says managing director Armin Riedl, convinced of the future market opportunities for his company.

CO2 avoidance should receive greater reward
Investment in railway infrastructure is essential if rail freight transport is to again be made more efficient over the long term for current and future requirements. In the medium term the company is urging direct subsidies for companies whose commitment to intermodal transport is creating the conditions for the German government's climate targets to be achieved more quickly. "Despite the need to reduce harmful emissions in the transport sector, politicians have not yet honoured the day- today efforts of the limited partners of our company towards the protection of the environment. We are therefore urging as further important measures the elimination of toll charges on the initial leg from and final leg to the terminal and, as is currently the practice in many European countries, consignmentrelated financial support for the use of Combined Transport," says Riedl, summarising the current situation succinctly.

Kombiverkehr, press photo, free for reproduction

Pressefoto Kombiverkehr KG Sendungsbilanz 2019
With Kombiverkehr KG having shifted a total of 884,168 semitrailers, swap bodies and containers from road and sea to rail in the 2019 financial year, in 2020 the aim is to open up new market segments in the chemical transport sector in conjunction with forwarding and logistics customers and through the use of modern carriers.

The press photo can be downloaded here.