FastTrack: extra wagons for busy periods

The popularity of the train as mode of transport is increasing and Rotterdam is also increasingly developing as a rail hub. Trains are reliable and environmentally friendly, but the increasing demand also has a downside: a shortage of container wagons. VTG Rail Europe, which operates throughout Europe, is filling this gap and is now also offering FastTrack in Rotterdam. It is a type of Green wheels for container wagons, which operators can hire directly via a simple online system.

The VTG Rail Europe head office is in Hamburg and, with some 82,000 tank wagons, traditional wagons and intermodal wagons, it has the largest wagon fleet in Europe. VTG Rail Europe hires out intermodal wagons on a lease basis to operators and shipping companies. “Container wagons are scarce and the demand from clients is high”, stated Rody Smal, Head of Area Benelux at VTG Rail Europe. “We took over a fleet of 15,000 container wagons in 2015 and were able to lease out all of these within a short period of time.”

Immediately available

Leasing a container wagon usually involves a delivery time. Rody stated: “The lead time for making a wagon available can run to a few weeks: the paperwork, quality control and shunting in combination with the European shortage of wagon workshops, create longer lead times than desirable. This problem required a solution. That’s how we came up with the idea of making a set of container wagons available in a fixed composition in a port area. Clients can book this set online for a certain number of days or even just a few hours.”

Online booking

Initially, the set in Rotterdam will comprise ten 60 foot and fourteen 90 foot container wagons and will offer a total capacity of 86 TEU. The system looks just like online booking for a hotel room or a hire car. Clients check the online availability, approve the conditions, sign a contract and can in principle immediately collect the booked set for deployment across Europe.

Hamburg pilot

The concept has been tested over the past few months as pilot project in the Port of Hamburg. Rody: “As the introduction was a huge success, we are now offering the service permanently there and are expanding to other ports. Rotterdam, as the biggest container port in Europe, is particularly suitable for this. In the future, it will be possible to align the composition of the set to market demand. Expansion is also a possibility. We aim to deploy this solution in the most versatile way possible, so that capacity problems can be absorbed effectively. This could offer an interesting future alternative for the inland shipping industry if problems with low water levels occur during busy periods.”

For more information visit www.vtg.com

8th July 2019