Seock-Jin HONG, Professor, Bordeaux Management School (BEM)
Euro Cargo Rail has made
Gevrey near Dijon the central hub for its transports for GEFCO. Gevrey is one
of the largest shunting yards in the country. The shunting yards around 3,500
metres long - about the same length as the runway for an Airbus A380 or a jumbo
jet. This hub in Burgundy is where almost all trains meet with new cars from
the five PSA plants in France and two other factories in the Czech Republic and
Slovakia, to be sorted into trains to 15 distribution centres in France and
other European countries. ECR has leased half of the tracks from the French
infrastructure operator RFF. GEFCO has set up a second, smaller hub in Achères, near Paris, so that it can also process wagons from
the PSA factories in Aulnay and Poissy. ECR and its partners run approx. 50 trains a
day for GEFCO, most of them via Gevrey. 50 trains every week - 550,000 new cars
transported every year between Paris and Marseille. For this route, ECR
connects the longest wagon train with 833 meters (before 750 m) with the
fastest speed 120 kilometers per hour (before 100 km/h)
Nowadays in Europe, the
ability of small cargo improves a lot using rail transport by wagonload. In
Gevrey, ECR handles cargo in two and half hour because of their innovative
logistics capacity. So, Gevrey transformed from simple railway station to
complex logistics hub.
The automobile market is
a strategic market for European industry and especially for logistics company closely
linked to the automotive sector. Western European have almost 500 cars per
1,000 people. With regard to the economy and the environment, this means that the
market will continue to maintain the level: short-term leasing, car sharing and
car hire are becoming more and more popular. DB Schenker Rail UK contracted
also BMW for Mini cooper transport 78,000 cars yearly between Oxford and
Southhampton. The trend of rail transport of car is increasing.
Privatization is a vital
factor to succeed eco-friendly logistics service using rail. More freedom and
motivation, more innovative environment to develop diversified service will be
given. To pursue the privatization of rail industry, separation of
infrastructure and network will be considered. Furthermore, more logistics
service provider will be participated easily without any barrier to enter. That
is, the privatization is not a goal. The privatization is a mean to provide
more free market to innovate the market and industry.
GEFCO is one of Europe’s leading transport and
logistics firms. The company, founded in 1949 and part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën automotive group, works for a number of international groups,
including big names from the automotive industry
and components suppliers, air and space travel, electronics, consumer goods, investment
goods and equipment industries. GEFCO employs 9,400 people in 29 countries throughout
Europe, North Africa, Asia and South America. In 2010, the group recorded a turnover
of €3.4 billion, more than
three quarters of which came from overseas markets. A good third of the annual
turnover stemmed from outbound automotive logistics. GEFCO transported 2.7
million cars, half of them by rail and half by sea. But PSA has a plan to sell
a majority stake (more than 50%) to raise cash and lower debt because of recent
European economic crisis. One of candidate would be GEODIS which is subsidiary
company of SNCF.
The private French rail
freight company Euro Cargo Rail (ECR) was founded in 2005 and became part of
the DB Group in November 2007 with the takeover of the British company EWS (now
DB Schenker Rail UK). The company, based in Paris, is an important link in the
European DB Schenker Rail network today, allowing international long-haul
transport from central Europe to Spain and Great Britain in addition to
national transport in France. ECR employs 830 people and holds 2,000 wagons, 135
locomotives and 60 French customers with 155 destinations in Europe. In 2010,
the company recorded a turnover €110 million.
Figure 2 ECR new Hub in Gevrey, France, Source; railways, No.1,
2012
Figure 3
A
shunter at the Gevrey hub, near Dijon, puts together trains of wagons carrying
new cars
from the PSA group. Source;
railways, No.1, 2012 //End//
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