Rail's role in the supermarket supply chain
Last Autumn, a new weekly Stobart rail service for Tesco run by DB Schenker completed the longest train journey in Europe by a single operator, after a 1,100 mile journey from Valencia to Dagenham was started importing fresh Spanish produce in a refrigerated train. Each refrigerated container is monitored remotely by Stobart from pack-house to customer to ensure the temperature is precisely controlled so that the fresh fruits and vegatables arrive on time and in optimum condition. The faster journey time by rail means that the produce is fresher as well and Stobbart intends to expand this to a daily service. This weekly service alone represents a reduction of 13.7 million kilometres or road journeys and a reduction in CO2 emissions of 8625 tonnes a year. And importantly on the return journey to Spain the train will be full of pallets being carried for CHEP ensuring that is no empty running. Last July, Colas Rail imported melons as part of the regular Norfolk Lines train from Italy to the Midlands. Now it has launched a second international reefer service between Spain and the UK which exports automotive parts from the UK to Valencia and imports general cargo and perishable goods, Asda, Britain’s second largest supermarket chain, has been using rail in partnership with the Malcolm Group and Direct Rail Services since 2001 for what is now a daily service which connects the Asda National Distribution centre at Magna Park to its RDC in Grangemouth a distance of 550 kilometres. Magna Park is 15 kms away from the Daventry Internation Rail Freight Terminal and the Grangemouth RDC is about 600 metres from the WH Malcolms terminal. The annual road travel savings, allowing for movements from the rail terminals to the distribution centres is 9718,800 kms and a savings of 6376 CO2 emissions. Rail services offered by the Malcolm Group in partnership with Direct Rail Services (DRS) now also include deliveries between Grangemouth and Linwood, Grangemouth and Aberdeen Daventry (DIRFT) and Mossend. W H Malcolms was able to find custom to justify the southbound deliveries as Asda was not needing a full train on this return sector. Tesco has been expanding its rail use in partnership with Stobart since 2006. The daily service between Rugby and Grangemouth operated by DB Schenker, which services its sites across the central belt of Scotland, using electric locomotives for the first time on the service from the Midlands to Scotland which enable a further CO2 reductions of 30%, compared to diesel locomotives, and will deliver an annual carbon saving of 7,500 tonnes on Stobart’s previous traffic. Six days a week there is now a service between Grangemouth and Inverness which removes 42 truck movements each day from the busy A9. This is an example of rail providing the secondary distribution.
Soft drinks producer Britvic has teamed up with logistics firm Wincanton to switch transport of drinks such as Pepsi, Robinsons, Tango J20 Drench Water and fruit shot from road to rail with goods being delivered to DIRFT rail depot at Deventry and from there onwards Malcolm Logistics transports the goods by train to Granngemouth and Mossend for distribution across Scotland. Additionally Quaker Oats, is now using DB Schenker for the transport of porridge oats from its factory in Cupar Scotland to its storage depot in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. In fact quarter of what we eat, sit on, drive, work with and wear is transported by rail from the key southern container ports of Southampton and Felixstowe. If the rail network is upgraded rail’s market share could increase to nearer 40% out of Felixstowe, the UK’s biggest container port which has 28 daily rail services, which would help relieve the congested A14 and remove 40 million lorry miles each year. There has been a sea-change in governmental, industry and public perceptions of the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in order to avoid climate change and that is why rail, as a low carbon energy efficient means of freight distribution, is so important in the context of creating long-term sustainable transport for society. But supermarkets also choose rail because of its economic benefits. The simple statistic which shows that an average freight train can remove 50 long distance HGVs from our roads1 clearly illustrates what rail freight contributes to our economy and society. Road congestion does not just reduce speeds, it also reduces reliability since a congested road is more vulnerable to disruption forcing hauliers to build-in “recovery time” to their journeys to ensure right-time arrival every time. This in turn reduces productivity and adds cost. |
Rail freight is playing a growing role as trunk haulier to the supermarket supply chain. Household names such as Asda and Tesco having been putting rail at the heart of their distribution systems for some years now.
mostly consignments of fresh onions bound for supermarkets across the UK. What this service demonstrates is the versatility of rail to move mixed cargo across Europe.
Freightliner intermodal trains, which move over a million container units a year, carry a variety of supermarket food cargoes ranging from meat, avocado, chicken products, tea, coffee and alcho-pops as well as clothing, general merchandise and white goods to various destinations.