The transport and logistics provider Gebrüder Weiss and consumer goods specialist Henkel have expanded their 25-year-old logistics partnership with a rail project.
Since May of this year, Henkel’s detergents and cleaning agents that are manufactured in the Serbian city of Kruševac have been delivered by Gebrüder Weiss to their European sales markets along the train Vienna-Düsseldorf line.
Already handling approximately 750 loads a year, the new service which was designed in conjunction with Henkel’s logistics centre in the German town of Düsseldorf, lowers greenhouse gas emissions (CO2) emissions by approximately 500 metric tons per year.
“We are circumventing the current shortage in truck capacity and have cut climate-relevant emissions by up to 70% on the Vienna-Düsseldorf route, while matching the delivery times of road transport,” emphasised Roland Raith, Serbia manager at Gebrüder Weiss.
The delivery concept was jointly developed and implemented by Gebrüder Weiss, Henkel and the technology and transport company Helrom.
Formerly transported by truck along the entire route, the products from Henkel’s Laundry & Home Care division are now being loaded onto Helrom’s horizontal trailer wagons in Vienna, allowing Gebrüder Weiss to use the same trailers that had previously been utilised in road transport. The train is also directly connected to Henkel’s factory services.
“The loading method is barrier-free,” noted Raith. “Thanks to Helrom, we no longer have to use conventional rail terminals. Nor do we need cranes or special craneable trailers. The trailers are simply slid laterally onto the freight wagons using swivelling loading platforms and removed again at their destinations by other tractor units.”
Patrick Csar, logistics and export manager for Supply Chain Laundry & Home Care at Henkel, commented, “The trailer hub is located right next to our site in Düsseldorf. That means we can unload the products straight from the wagons and shortcut them to our warehouses. The train link enables us to avoid truck transport, decrease CO2 emissions and therefore make our processes more sustainable.”
