Lower Austria to become Europe’s logistics hub

New study quantifies the share of empty truck trips in Lower Austria; Regional government shows commitment to river shipping and rail transport

A study, which was presented last week at the fifth Lower Austrian Logistics Day at Vienna-Schwechat Airport is striking: One-third of all truck trips in Lower Austria are empty runs. Thus Petra Bohuslav, the competent regional councillor, sees an urgent need for action. She has in mind a further shift of freight transport from road to rail, as well as the examination by the management of the company, whether its own fleet is really economical or not, and if cooperation with transport companies would make more sense.

As traffic by 2030 will increase by 27 per cent, every effort must be taken to transport this cargo volume as environmentally friendly as possible, Bohuslav emphasised in conversation with the newspaper NÖ Wirtschaftspressedienst. She sees the solution of the problem mainly in rail and water transport. „Just the Danube provides a good solution, as we currently use the river as a dual carriageway on only one track,“ she says. As evidence of the offensive investment strategy, she states that by 2017 EUR 2.4 billion will be invested in the development of rail transport and EUR 1.6 billion in road development.

Christian Moser, Vice President of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce and transport entrepreneur, sees Lower Austria’s central location where all transport axes through Europe meet, as a potential to become Europe’s logistics hub. This means not being solely a transit country, but to generate value through product refinement.

ecoplus, the Logistics cluster of Lower Austria, co-host of the Logistics Day, has currently around 140 members. More than 90 per cent of them are small and medium enterprises (SME). 40 per cent of the cluster members come from industry and commerce.

www. wko.at/noe/verkehr www.ecoplus.at

Quelle: LogEastics
Portal: www.logistik-express.com