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The UK is in Europe to stay and we must

23rd December 1999
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

be ready to live with, and learn from, a haulage community that does business in a Single Market. In this focus some top Continental transport journalists bring you profiles of progressive hauliers from four

countries. The Ne vial* is

represented by an operator specialising in transport to the UK who designs his own ultra-light trailers; iraixx by a haulage giant running more than 2,700 trucks across Europe and into Russia; by an air-cargo specialist who finds women drivers are more reliable; and by an intermodal expert who takes Alpine crossings in his stride.

aria! team: Tim de Jong, Per Fischer and Janine Vogler.

Mountain

IliFlil

Karl Fischer is a third-generation Bavarian haulier who specialises in hauling loads over the Alps to Italy. But 10 years ago he began to move loads from road to rail, and decided the environment would benefit from a more efficient rail link. It sounds like the haulage equivalent of a turkey looking forward to Christmas...so how come his business is thriving?

GERMANY avaria has such a

beautiful landscape "that we have to think about how to preserve it". That's not exactly a typical view for a

haulier, but then Karl Fischer is not exactly a typical haulier.

He's the third generation to run Simssee Transport, which has been combining road and rail to get loads over the Alps to Italy for the past ro years. But while Fischer is happy to use rail for the good of the environment, he expects the rail operators to run their trains as well as he runs his trucks.

Fischer: Fan of road-rail.

"Freight trains take 12 hours from Munich to Verona," he says. "Trucks need only nine hours, despite speed limits and regular jams. This is unbelievable!" Fischer reckons the rail journey should take six hours, which many feel is impossible— but he's more than ready to fight for what he sees as an essential link in the trans-Alpine chain.

To this end he's teamed up with the Fraunhofer research institute and won the backing of the Bavarian state government for a project called "MUCVR6", which stands for "MunichVerona in Six Hours".

Freight traffic through the Alps is predicted to increase by about 70%—"we can't solve this on the road", says Fischer. And he should know, because Simssee Transport was a pioneer of the Alpine route to Italy. The company was set up by his grandfather, also Karl Fischer, in 1936. At first it specialised in hauling milk; before long it was selling produce such as milk powder and animal feed.

The Italian connection began when Simssee started to haul timber to Italy, backloading with marble. At that time eight trucks a day were making the run so the Customs officials got to know everybody by sight.

The current owner studied economics, a useful background once he'd joined the family business in 1979. Simssee was running five tractors: one on local milk-collection work with four on long-distance work at that time. The present owner took the helm in 1987, and the fleet has steadily expanded. "We now have ro Scanias, one MAN and 70 swap bodies,says Fischer.

The drivers deliver up to six demount bodies at a time to the Munich railhead for transfer to Verona, where tucks take over again to complete the delivery. "Combined transport is the best solution for the future," Fischer believes. "The drivers can sleep in their own beds while the load is going to Italy. It's good for the drivers, good for the environment and also minimises the risk of damage to the load."

Simssee currently sends about 2,000 swap-body loads over the Brenner Pass to Italy every year, and as well as making the rail trip faster, Fischer

aims to make it cheaper. The intermodal option currently costs 15% more than a truck alone. "One run from Munich to Verona, for example, costs about f1,000, plus another 15% for the railway which takes three more hours. That can't be the solution," he says. "If you go down to Italy and you drive an average of 54km/h and you have the overtaking restriction on 38okm up to Lake Garda you get really crazy!"

The MUCVR6 project analysed the road and rail route, looking for ways to reduce the journey time. They identified minor improvements for the road route, but found more bottlenecks on the railway.

This research helped cut the rail trip to Verona to nine hours—and at the end of January a train will set out to complete the run in six hours..

If this determination to improve a rail link which is likely to take freight off the road seems remarkable for a road haulier, he has already won a number of prizes for environmental protection—including an EU award for switching 90% of his loads to the intermodal route.

Even his house is an ecologist's dream, so it comes as no surprise that the company's trucks have recyclable oil-filters, and use coconut-based oil for chassis lubrication. One experimental vehicle doesn't use oil at all. Saving the environment can also save money, and Fischer has needed to cut his running costs to absorb the cost of sending loads over the Alps by rail, Since June the company has been running two of its Scanias with the latest Euro-3 engines: against all expectations, the clean-running Euro-3 engines are at least as fuel efficient as earlier versions.

In the UK the cleanest engines are rewarded with VED rebates; German hauliers value them for the "eco-points" that are needed in Austria. The Euro3 Scania engines are worth five points; no other engine gets more than four.

As well as limning an efficient international haulage operation and speeding up the transAlpine railway system, Fischer finds time to help others improve their logistics and is working with Scania on a joint research programme.

To many UK hauliers Fischer must sound like a fantasy figure. He is certainly an idealist—but one who believes road and rail can comfortably co-exist. If that dream doesn't come true it won't be for want of trying. After all, the family business has flourished under his leadership...and he's on course to make the trains run on time,

' by Janine Vogler AM=117

Simssee Transport

RASED Hemhof am Simssee, Germany FOUNDED 193 6 by Karl Fischer, grandfather of

the present owner.

CONTACT Karl Fischer, director.

FLEET

11 tractive units (10 Scania 124s and an MAN ATL TST) with 70 swap bodies. Buys new sPECIALIT Y Intermodal transport from Germany to Italy.

TURNOVER .£1.3m.


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