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Freightliners' European
Page 69
Page 70
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INHAT is the future of the Freightliner system on the European mainland? Has it really got one? These are the questions that must be asked following the production of a report on road-rail transport systems in Europe published by the office of the European Economic Community. The report covers all the other main European systems but makes no reference to Freightliner.
The report is important because it sets out the guidelines for future EEC policy on intermodal road-rail transport. The Community Office explains that in February 1975 the Council of Transport Ministers laid down in a Directive a set of rules on road-rail transport — they call it Ferroutage — to last until the and of 1978, to encourage the development of combined roadrail goods transport. The Directive freed combined road-rail carriage from any quantitative restrictions — quotas; and removed various administrative constraints — authorisations, by October 1, 1975.
A progress report on these developments presented by the European Communities Commission at the end of last year found that this combined carriage had developed in the intervening period, and recommended that the Directive should be made permanent. It found that Ferroutage had many advantages to railways, hauliers and users and suggested that an overall Community policy and -investment strategy, beyond the limited aims of the Directive, was desirable.
Combined traffic
The 'report, details of which were recently released by the Community Office in London, says that it is not easy to measure the exact scope of combined road-rail carriage or how materially it has been enlarged. This is partly because of the shortness of the time span (two years) and also because goods traffic in general is only gradually recovering from the setbacks caused by the world recession in the mid-1970s. Even so, there is no doubt that combined traffic is increasing, says the report.
An analysis of figures from five of the major commercial transport companies specialising in road-rail carriage showed an increase in combined traffic from 4.45m gross tonnes in 1973 to 5.33m gross tonnes in 1976. The EEC view, however, is that there is a decided upward trend, of which about19 per cent was inter
national traffic in 1 976. Although this was a tiny proportion of total freight traffic, it represented a more significant -proportion of its own market — that is, long distance heavy freight.
EEC report
The EEC report specifically mentions what it considers to be the six major companies specialising in Ferroutage with varying shares of the international market, but does not mention Freightliner. They are Kombiverkehr in Germany; TRW in Belgium; Novatrans in France; Ferpac in Italy; Trailstar in The Netherlands, and Hupac in Switzerland.
Since 1970 these have been joined by ASC in Sweden to form the Union Internationale des Transports Combines Rail / ,Route — UIRR — and together with the railways of the nine member States and those of Switzerland and Austria, they have formed a committee to co ordinate efforts at international level to develop combined rail/ road carriage. There are some 2,300 rail wagons in use for this traffic, says the report, of which 25 per cent are assigned to international traffic.
It is to be hoped that Freightliner will lobby Brussels for a bigger say in this important de. velopment and maybe they will with their return to British Rail; Freightliner has a big potential market in Europe. At the moment, according to figures given by Cyril Bleasdale, managing director of Freightliners, in his recent paper to the Chartered Institute of Transport, 21 per cent of short sea route traffic and 42 per centof the deep sea market traffic is carried by the Freightliner organisation, iso there is surely a big slice of traffic on short sea routes that could be won from ro-ro.
76 major links There is, the report adds, a wide distribution of European international traffic between the large commercial centres throughout the Community —
76 major links in all, 29 of which concern Italy. There are links which connect outside the Community with both Spain and Switzerland.
Most of the equipment used falls either into the category of wagons adapted to road vehicles — like the French Kangaroo wagons or the German wagons of the Aachen type (both of which are drop axle wagons); or they are road vehicles which adapt to rail use, like the German Flexi-van (which is a swop body). The Flexi-van; however, is becoming increasingly popular in all coun,ries, the report comments.
There are about 60 terminals for road/rail interchange — half of them in France and 16 in Germany.
The report points out that the theoretical advantages of Fer. routage are as follows: combined carriage uses rail for long distance. Block trains on well selected routes are good business for the railways, have the advantages of safety, regularity and speed, and are less affected by bad weather, or traffic conditions.
Less road traffic
There is also some reduction in road traffic which is in line with general policy for energy conservation and regional development. It brings to the user the advantage of a door to door service and yet it can also be to the advantage of a door-to-door sercause it reduces their operating costs, especially labour costs, which are of particular significance to them.
After studying the effects of the pilot scheme, and discussing the technical and commercial difficulties with the various parties concerned, the Commission says that it considers that these positive arguments outweight the difficulties, and that, with increased co-operation between road and rail interests, and with a dynamic investment policy at Community level, combined road/rail carriage could have an increasingly large part to play in future inter-state trade.
Technical problems
But the Commission found that there were still several technical problems which were hampering the operation of the Directive.
There were bureaucratic problems. There were important tariff questions to work out. Rail tariffs, it stresses, must be made attractive both to the haulier, to make him choose rail, and to the railways to make combined traffic viable. The whole operation of combined transport needs a careful choice of location for transhipment centres, with a fluid road network around each centre.
The Commission suggests that there is a need for State subsidies towards infrastructure costs and road equipment. Uniformity of rolling stock is another theme of the report; and the Commission wonders whether it might be worthwhile to create an international company on the lines of SEGI in France, which is financed by banks and the builders of rolling stock to buy wagons and hire them to companies for the period until amortization costs are covered.
But in the whole field of commercial organization, the Commission thinks that, although the organization of combined transport is mainly the responsibility of the undertakings themselves, there is room for far more co-operation and mutual understanding.
Hauliers' problems
For the road hauliers and forwarding agents it feels that the problems of organization on the whole question of the size and scope of their commercial activities are for the undertakings themselves to solve, as is the delicate question of their relationship with container transporting companies, which may also be subsidiaries of the railways.
Finally, the Commission finds that there are still unsolved problems for companies using own account transport. These com panies complain that in sorni countries they are deterred b' high rates and by being made ti work through transport agents.
The Commission feels tha while the railways have the righ to fix special rates for the bi combined companies, it shoull be possible to find a fair rate fa the smaller own-account com panies. And it does not feel the these companies should b forced always to work throug transport agents.
The Commission says that will be submitting a proposE during 1978 on measures t encourage further the develop ment of Ferroutage after the en of the present temporary Dire( tive. It is to be hoped that whe the next report appears th name of Freightliner will hay made its mark as a major force