The international transport and logistics company Gebrüder Weiss and the ÖBB Rail Cargo Group have been working together for three decades. To mark this anniversary, Wolfram Senger-Weiss, CEO of Gebrüder Weiss, and Christoph Grasl, member of the management board of the ÖBB Rail Cargo Group, celebrated together with numerous guests at the Vienna Central Station on May 6. The highlight of the event was the ceremonial christening and commissioning of the jointly designed Taurus locomotive named “Europa”. The anniversary locomotive will operate on routes across Central Europe.

Long tradition in rail freight
“Gebrüder Weiss was one of the pioneers of rail freight transport in Austria more than 170 years ago,” explained Wolfram Senger-Weiss. “Long before trucks took over the majority of freight transport, rail transport was part of our core business,” he emphasized to the guests. Starting with small transports between Lindau and Munich in 1853, Gebrüder Weiss continuously expanded its rail freight services over the next 170 years. One example is the subsidiary company GW Rail Cargo. Based in Maria Lanzendorf near Vienna, the rail freight forwarding company organizes rail transports throughout Europe for international companies. Every year, up to 1.5 million tons of goods are transported in around 1,000 block trains to recipients in central Europe. The goods include mineral oil, chemicals, gases, agricultural products, and steel.

Orange Combi Cargo: a success story of partnership
A milestone in the partnership with the Rail Cargo Group is the Orange Combi Cargo (OCC), a block train that has been running daily for 16 years between Vienna, Wels, Hall i.T. and Bludenz. It provides a stable, environmentally friendly transportation solution within Austria, transporting food and beverages, drugstore products and building materials among others. It replaces approximately 60 truck trips per day, avoiding around 9,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year.

“The Orange Combi Cargo is a prime example of our cooperation. Thanks to the OCC, we have shifted more than 240,000 truck journeys from road to rail since 2008,” sums up Christoph Grasl, member of the management board of ÖBB Rail Cargo Group. “With every ton that we transport by rail with Gebrüder Weiss, we benefit the environment.”

Working together for climate-friendly freight transport
A significant proportion of rail transport consists of transit traffic, particularly between western ports such as Rotterdam and Hamburg on the one hand and the Adriatic ports on the other. Stable networks and partnerships such as the one with the Rail Cargo Group are essential for Gebrüder Weiss in shifting transports over to rail.

The transport and logistics provider Gebrüder Weiss and consumer goods specialist Henkel have expanded their long-standing logistics partnership with an innovative rail concept. Since May of this year, Henkel detergents and cleaning agents manufactured in the Serbian city of Kruševac have been delivered by train to their European sales markets along the Vienna-Düsseldorf line. This service, which already handles some 750 loads a year, was designed in conjunction with Henkel's logistics center in Düsseldorf. The two partners benefit in multiple ways. "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," emphasizes Roland Raith, Country Manager Serbia at Gebrüder Weiss. The new solution lowers CO2 emissions by approximately 500 metric tons per year.

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. This allows Gebrüder Weiss to use the same trailers that had previously been utilized in road transport. "The loading method is barrier-free," explains Roland 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 swiveling loading platforms and removed again at their destinations by other tractor units."

The delivery concept was jointly developed and implemented by Gebrüder Weiss, Henkel and Helrom. One particular advantage is that the train is directly connected to Henkel's factory services. "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," explains Patrick Csar, Logistics and Export Manager for Supply Chain Laundry & Home Care at Henkel.

Long-standing logistics partnership
Gebrüder Weiss been cooperating with Henkel for more than 25 years. The logistics provider operates land, air and sea deliveries between various Henkel production and distribution hubs in Europe, Asia and the United States. Gebrüder Weiss is already deploying several low-emission gas trucks for Henkel in its European land transport network.

The transport and logistics service provider Gebrüder Weiss has transported 12,600 LED street luminaires and lamp posts to Mongolia via the New Silk Road rail route for the lighting group Zumtobel. Within twelve months, more than 80 containers were delivered on schedule from Austria to the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar. All this was done against the backdrop of an infrastructure project of the Mongolian government, for which the Zumtobel Group was commissioned two years ago to supply and install street luminaires.

Customized load securing
The risk of transport damage due to strong acceleration forces during train transport was eliminated by means of special load securing in the container. During the approximately 30-day journey, the nine-meter-long lamp posts were securely stored in specially made wooden racks that prevented the cargo from sliding around in their containers. Franco Ravazzolo, Head of Projects & Break Bulk at Gebrüder Weiss: “We recommended choosing the rail option via the New Silk Road to the customer Zumtobel because we wanted to avoid problems that would have arisen due to time delays in sea transport as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.”

Alexander Rosa, Head of Sales Processes Zumtobel Austria: “What we’d already experienced with complex project transports by rail was one of the reasons why we chose Gebrüder Weiss. The recommendation to use rail transport has proven to be spot on. With the lighting project in Mongolia, we have tapped into a new market that promises further potential in the future.”

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