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Truck tran
begin to compete
Railway‘s monopoly in the land transport sector
came to an end between the two World Wars.
In 1931, Deutsche Reichsbahn responded by taking
over Schenker, a deal which it kept secret.
Between 1890 and 1925, transport
performance by rail in Germany
trebled from 22.2 to 70 billion tonne-kilometres
(by comparison, in 2008 performance
by DB Schenker Rail amounted to
91.2 billion t-km). However, after the end of
World War I, rail‘s monopoly in the land
transport of freight, which had lasted almost
a hundred years, was gradually drawing to
an end. The invention of the truck was swiftly
followed by innumerable further technical
developments – such as the diesel engine
in 1923 – which made road haulage faster and
cheaper, and consequently a serious competitor
for rail. Between 1925 and 32, the
number of trucks in the German Empire
rose eightfold.
At that time, freight transport accounted
for more than two thirds of the sales of Deutsche
Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). As
historian Peter Borscheid comments, “Rail
was undeniably the main transport mode, a
financially strong symbol of industrialisation
with a comfortable monopoly, a giant that
enjoyed state protection – and one beside
which the individual carriers appeared tiny
and insignificant.”
But the new competition from road transport
meant a noticeable drop in earnings for
Deutsche Reichsbahn as from 1924. The new
with
trucks carried freight from door to door, creating
fierce pressure for Reichsbahn. This
was particularly true in the lucrative part
load sector, which DRG used to cross-subsidise
the transport of bulk goods such as coal,
which had to be carried at low rates imposed
by the government. When the situation became
even worse during the Depression after
1929, Deutsche Reichsbahn demanded
that the government take action to limit
truck transports in favour of rail – a move
which was however initially unsuccessful.
DRG, which had independent management
powers, thereupon acted on its own
initiative and, in February 1931, signed a
36 railways