Thursday, May 29, 2008

Schenker AG extends rail services to Europe

(Berlin, May 29, 2008) To meet the rising demand for rail based logistics, DB Schenker is now rolling out a new range of services in Europe: DB Schenkerrailog stands for rail based logistics and becomes an established component of DB Schenker's European land transport operations. With the support of its subsidiary Railog as a specialist in rail logistics, as well as Fertrans AG, DB Schenker is already successfully engaged in this specialized market in a number of countries. Having been founded eight years ago as a Joint Venture with Deutsche Bahn, Railog will now be even more closely integrated along with Fertrans as part of the organization.

This means that customers throughout Europe will now be able to include rail transport in their planning and process control even more effectively than in the past, as well as taking advantage of the economic and ecological benefits of rail as a means of transport over medium to long distances. "This establishes rail as a fixed component of our European logistics. We offer our customers project-related and cross-carrier transport and logistics solutions – rail included. In this field we can rely on excellent customer relations and experienced teams. Right from the start, we are one of the market leaders for rail based logistics," says Hans-Jörg Hager, Member of the Board of Schenker AG with responsibility for European land transport.

Last year the company already handled the transport by rail of more than six million tons of goods, using over 200,000 freight cars for its operations. Customers can benefit from individually conceived routing plans and from efficient block train and direct train systems. With block trains crossing the entire European continent, DB Schenkerrailog takes on responsibility for all the processes that are involved – from the organization of the transport to the purchase of freight capacity and right through to final delivery to the recipient. The customer gets all services from a single source – right the way down the logistics chain, including pre-carriage and onward carriage to and from the originating and destination stations, as well as the scheduling of freight cars and containers and the handling of customs procedures. Rail related logistics concepts also stand for the ideal combination of all means of transport, including transport by truck, ship or inland waterway vessel. Transshipment services and warehousing facilities are available as well all the way along the transport chain.