Kombiverkehr intends to consolidate European market leadership

With new services, innovative products and transnational alliances Kombiverkehr KG (Frankfurt) intends to further consolidate and strengthen its European leadership-position concerning the shifting of transports from road to rail. “Particularly in times when there is a general drop in the demand for transport, the European network we have built up in recent years means that we can continue to offer our customers a real alternative to pure road transport, even with a thinned out departure schedule. So we are going to do everything we can to maintain the networking effectiveness of the trains we operate,” the General Managers Robert Breuhahn and Armin Riedl said at the company’s general meeting, held on 24 June.

The strategy of Kombiverkehr is aiming at serving even more routes and at developing new market segments. Last year a train service to Turkey was started. There is a new service that carries temperature-controlled goods by rail, based on the use of an innovative container. XPressNet is an independent network of intermodal routes, designed for date and time-sensitive consignments in the express goods, package and breakbulk markets in Germany. In view of the uncertain economic situation, its launch was postponed to 2010. The cooperative agreement concluded between Kombiverkehr and the Rotterdam port operator ECT in turn has already become reality. The new partnership has brought increasing numbers of seagoing containers onto the Kombiverkehr network.

Established in 1969 the Kombiverkehr Deutsche Gesellschaft für kombinierten Güterverkehr mbH & Co KG develops, organises and markets an international network for combined road and rail transportations. With over 160 direct and shuttle services, the company provides forwarders and transport companies with more than 15,000 connections across Europe every night. The partnership is owned by some 230 national and international forwarders and transport companies as well as DB Mobility Logistics AG. In 2008, the company’s 167 employees shifted 1,021 million truck consignments (2.043 million TEU) from road to rail. Thus the company achieved annual sales of EUR 432 million.

Quelle: Österreichische Verkehrszeitung