Leading the way in intermodal rail ERS Railways

rything and lots of other keys that open only some doors. The challenge here is to design a system that offers high numbers of combinations in a complex hierarchy; it is a challenging mathematical and technological problem. For example, if you want a reversible key – one that fits the lock either way up – that severely limits the number of combinations.”

Steady growth

Although EVVA exports its products worldwide it remains very much a European business, selling over 90 per cent of output in western and eastern Europe. “Our family has been making locks since the 1860s and we have grown mostly organically, taking fairly small steps along the road,” says Mr EhrlichAdam. “We have advanced by constantly bringing new products to the market and expanding our presence country by country, often by taking over our distributors and turning them into subsidiaries that can deliver products and services locally. But despite our conservative approach we have been able to grow substantially the size of the business in the last years and we are beginning to grow in more distant markets overseas.”

EVVA has been sensitive to the issue of environmental protection for many years. In fact, the company recently won an award for its expertise in climate protection and energy efficiency from klima:aktiv, the Austrian Ministry for the Environment’s climate protection initiative. A programme to upgrade all lighting fittings with energyefficient lights begun in 2009 resulted in a reduction of 40 per cent in energy consumption at the Vienna production plant. “We have now taken a big step forward from this and installed a large photovoltaic generating system that provides our basic energy requirements all year long,” says Stefan Ehrlich-Adam. “We continue to take a leading role in environmental protection projects with the city of Vienna and we are currently working on a CSR report. We are learning to look at environmental issues in a new way so that we can move forward with more profound initiatives. One of our goals, for example, is to develop an oil-free production facility.

“Overall EVVA will continue along the path that we have set out on this year, developing electronic access solutions that are sophisticated yet easy-to-use and supporting our customers with more effective remote services. We will do what EVVA has always done – introduce new, even disruptive, ideas into what has always been a very traditional industry.” n

LEADING THE WAY IN LEADING THE WAY IN INTERMODAL RAIL INTERMODAL RAIL

The award-winning ERS Railways BV is one of Europe’s leading private railway companies and a pioneer in the provision of fast, efficient and sustainable intermodal rail solutions. Victoria Hattersley talks to managing director Frank Schuhholz about its unique service offering and plans for future development.

Founded in 1994 as a small intermodal operator, today Rotterdam-based ERS Railways serves several European countries through its offices in the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. In August 2013 it was taken over by the UKbased Freightliner Group.

Now running around 250 trains per week, the company employs 105 people and has a modern fleet of locomotives with over 400 leased container platforms, low-bed as well as double pocket wagons.

Range of services

ERS Railways offers a number of services throughout Europe, ranging from ‘open train’ container services for multiple customers, to regular services for single customers. From its Rotterdam base it serves the Milano region of Italy, running open train container services for a variety of container sizes (20ft, 30ft, 45ft and so on).

The company also runs a service seven times a week from Rotterdam to Switzerland for one single customer; and from Rotterdam to Poznan in Poland five times a week. The latter is expected to increase to six round trips per week in Q2 2014.”

Germany is an important hub for ERS with several services coordinated from its Frankfurt and Hamburg offices. These include, amongst others: a service from Krefeld to Warsaw running twice a week; three round trips per week for a single customer running from Ludwigshafen to Lübeck; and 16 round trips between Bremerhaven, Hamburg and Austria each week. Furthermore, there is a train running four times a week from Rostock, serving Brno in the Czech Republic.

But as an intermodal specialist, ERS is also able to link up these various rail services with maritime operations. Mr Schuhholz explains: “Via boxXpress.de, a Hamburg based railway undertaking, in which we have a 47 per cent share, we provide intermodal transport solutions to German hinterland destinations such as Munich, Nürnberg, Ulm and Stuttgart to name a few.”

Expansion in Poland

In the coming year, ERS is looking to expand its service offering to Poland, where it is already something of a pioneer. For example, it will be looking to connect Rotterdam with Warsaw.

Last year, the innovative connection ERS already runs between Rotterdam and Poznan saw it win the prestigious ‘European Freight Operator of the Year’ title. Mr Schuhholz explains the significance of this: “The award was very important because we were up against tough competition. Our innovative connection between Rotterdam and Poznan was an important factor behind the jury’s decision.

“When we entered the Polish market in 2012 there were no trailers being transported by rail to that country; they were mainly transported by road. We began the transition to rail and we now run five round trips per week. This has made a big difference to the Polish freight network. With the services we currently run, we can pull 15,000 truckloads off the road each year.”

Aside from the above-mentioned award, ERS Railways has also received the Polish ‘Ambassador of Innovation in Transport’ award – again from the innovative services between Rotterdam and Poznan.

Future development plans

Looking ahead, ERS Railways sees huge opportunities in Europe when it comes to intermodal solutions. There is strong potential in the trailer segment owing to the increasing road tolls, driving restrictions and infrastructure issues which can make life that much more complicated for road-based forwarders.

But market expansion is not the only priority for ERS: it is also dedicated to sustainability throughout its operations, and taking traffic off the roads is just a part of this. Since 2012 it has made the switch from diesel-operated to electric-operated locomotives for long distances.

In the future there will be a strong focus on offering increasingly tailor-made solutions for its major customers on the existing trade lanes as well as for dedicated clients like DLS on the Germany-Poland corridor. Mr Schuhholz concludes: “We are seeing increasing numbers of shippers, such as big FMCG companies, who want a sustainable approach across the whole supply chain. They are far more likely to choose our solutions, therefore, if we together with our customers (forwarders, logistics companies and carriers) can offer benefits in terms of cost, efficiency and sustainability.

“These are the topics we will have to be looking into in the future to convince customers that intermodal can offer many advantages if it’s well implemented and executed.” n

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