Transportation Management Report 2011 - Capgemini

Figure 9: Expected development on CO 2 emisions
Average CO2 emmision
(gram/tonkilometer)
23
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Expected development on CO 2 emission
(containers short distance transport)
Source: CE Delft, ‘Studie naar Transport Emissies van Alle Modaliteiten (STREAM)’, version 2.1, 2008
2005
2010
2020
Supply chain managers have to
analyze if shipping goods by rail is
a good option for their company.
They need to develop a thorough
understanding of the benefits/
weaknesses of rail. Rail’s advantages
are most obvious when shipping
goods over longer distances (150
kilometer is a good standard),
for large volumes, for heavy and
standardized loads, and for nonperishable
goods (as opposed to
time-critical products). Rail is more
independent of weather conditions
and is generally considered a very
reliable mode of transportation.
Over the past few years the railway
logistics environment has been
changing. More and more freight
corridors are being created in Europe,
allowing a continuous and swift
flow of goods between Europe’s
main logistics and industrial centers.
For lower volumes, the number of
regularly combined transport services
between main destinations is rapidly
growing. Regarding tracking and
tracing, the railway industry is slowly
gaining ground on road transport.
Container tracking gives much more
control to the supply chain manager.
Wagon tracking provides a secondbest
opportunity to monitor progress
and manage delivery agreements.
For those companies that have built
their supply chains entirely on road
and waterways, the transition to rail
will be a slow and complex process.
Getting a connection to a rail network
may be tedious and could take one to
three years and require investments
in handling facilities. Setting up
processes and IT systems will require
proper preparation. TMS solutions
will need to foresee rail functionalities
in order to show when rail is a better
option.
It is said that modal shift is the most
powerful enabler for CO 2 reduction
in transport. If modal shift reduces
CO 2 emissions then it makes sense
that the higher the modal share
is of rail transport the lower the
CO 2 emission from transport. Rail
transport can be considered as the
most environmentally friendly mode
of transport. In order to integrate rail
into their supply chains, supply chain
managers must carefully weigh the
benefits of rail in today’s landscape
and take timely steps to set up their
supply chain. The logistics manager
will then reap the benefits and gain
strategic and bargaining power while
also reducing CO 2 emissions.