ECG — 2024-12-05
News from ECG
Rail transport plays a vital role in achieving decarbonization and ensuring transport capacity in vehicle logistics. A new study gives insights into what prevents OEMs from shifting more of the transportation to rail. ECG, the Association of European Vehicle Logistics, has started a dedicated working group to help increase rail efficiency.
The study was conducted by the management consulting company Infront Consulting with the support of ECG. It was an update of a similar study from 2023, but it added the investigation of reasons OEMs do not choose rail transport to a high extent.
The study examined industry stakeholders and collected interviews to highlight relevant issues and challenges in improving the accessibility and performance of intermodal transport for finished vehicles.
Axel Marschall, Managing Partner, Infront Consulting: “Our study demonstrates the benefits of enhancing engagement with rail transportation. We believe in the long-term advantages of using rail for transporting finished vehicles, as it provides a sustainable and efficient transportation system.”
“Rail transport has a big potential and benefits regarding CO2 efficiency, pricing, and efficiency for mass volumes, but certain barriers exist to overcome. If you design your operations to utilize it, it’s unbeatable”, says Axel Marschall.
ECG covers all modes of transport within the FVL supply chain, and rail is an immensely important factor in a well-functioning supply chain. In contrast to road transport, rail transport is significantly more complex due to the involvement of many stakeholders, requiring comprehensive collaboration. For this reason, ECG members have decided to establish a working group.
“ECG is the platform to bring all stakeholders together and improve the conditions of our industry,” says Frank Schnelle, Executive Director of ECG.
“There is still a significant potential for improvement in both the efficiency and productivity of rail transport, which is essential for the future of sustainable transport. To achieve a substantial improvement, all stakeholders in the supply chain, including the OEMs, need to work together to overcome the complexity,” says Frank Schnelle.
The study highlights action fields for all market players. It focuses on barriers such as limited wagon availability, limited visibility, infrastructure bottlenecks, inefficient co-operation, and short-term tactical reactions to price fluctuations.
The ECG working group will address various areas to achieve improvements independent of the well-known challenges within the rail network across Europe, such as a degraded rail infrastructure. Ways of finding solutions are within standardization, shared information, and transparency to recognize delays easily, which otherwise could lead to bottlenecks.
Andreas Sundl is the Chief Operating Officer at Hödlmayr International. He will lead the newly founded Rail Initiative at ECG, which includes members from FVL-Rail and representatives from OEMs.
“The working group aims to generate a “voice for rail” in ECG to contribute to the European Green Deal as to the member companies of ECG”, says Andreas Sundl.
The Rail Group’s primary focus will be operations and standards. Operations involve increasing resource efficiency, such as wagons, load factors, waiting times.
“We need transparent figures on empty runs and standing times of wagons in front of loading and unloading points,” says Andreas Sundl.
Regarding standards, Sundl says the Rail Group needs data on expected volumes and an understanding that the ordering of transport on rail infrastructure follows an entirely different logic from that of road freight transport.
An example is that FVL companies and other stakeholders need to order rail transport volumes long before the transportation takes place, which decreases flexibility.
“The planning rounds for rail infrastructure start in Q2 of the previous year and must be completed by the end of Q3. This means that orders placed by OEMs in Q3 or Q4 are difficult to process as regular traffic in the following year,” says Andreas Sundl.
The rail working group is generating significant interest among ECG members and automotive manufacturers, as all stakeholders along the supply chain stand to benefit. ECG will work closely with representatives of OEMs to advance OEMs to advance shared objectives