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Climate Protection in Parcel Logistics: More Freight on Rail at DHL

DHL and DB Cargo are expanding their cooperation and aim to create a rail transport network for parcels with new routes. This is expected to save 80 to 100 percent of CO2 compared to road transport.

Tobias Meyer, Group Board Member for Post & Parcel Germany at Deutsche Post DHL Group, and Dr. Sigrid Nikutta, DB Group Board Member for Freight Transport, symbolically gave the starting signal for new connections. (Photo: Deutsche Bahn/Oliver Lang)
Tobias Meyer, Group Board Member for Post & Parcel Germany at Deutsche Post DHL Group, and Dr. Sigrid Nikutta, DB Group Board Member for Freight Transport, symbolically gave the starting signal for new connections. (Photo: Deutsche Bahn/Oliver Lang)
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von Matthias Pieringer

Deutsche Post DHL Group and Deutsche Bahn AG are expanding their cooperation in the field of parcel transport by rail. On October 4, Tobias Meyer, Board Member for Post & Parcel Germany at Deutsche Post DHL Group, and Dr. Sigrid Nikutta, DB Board Member for Freight Transport, symbolically kicked off new connections. This is expected to increase the share of parcels transported via this mode of transport from two percent to six percent, according to both companies. In the long term, they aim to transport around 20 percent of national parcel shipments by rail.

Dr. Sigrid Nikutta, DB Board Member for Freight Transport: “Parcels belong on the rails – together with Deutsche Post DHL, we are developing a rail network. This is a strong alliance for the climate, as each DHL train saves our planet 80 to 100 percent CO2 compared to road transport. A single freight train can transport up to 100,000 parcels.”

Deutsche Post DHL sees need for change

However, for this to succeed, Deutsche Post DHL believes that some changes are necessary, such as faster wagons for light freight, an expansion of infrastructure, better routes incorporating high-speed tracks, simplified procedures for the construction and expansion of rail connections, as well as faster, cost-effective procedures for loading and unloading from truck to rail and vice versa. For some transports, customers would also need to be willing to accept slightly longer transit times for a more climate-friendly transport by rail.

Post & Parcel Board Member Tobias Meyer: “The cooperation with Deutsche Bahn and the expansion of fast, light freight transport by rail is an important part of our sustainability strategy. Our CO2 emissions per parcel are already significantly lower than those of competitors, partly due to the already advanced conversion of our delivery fleet to e-mobility. We want to further expand this lead and shift long transport routes to the railways. This is another step towards a CO2-neutral mail and parcel service in Germany.”

The first parcel trains of a new type, based on interchangeable containers, started rolling in Germany as early as 2000 on a North-South connection. In recent years, additional connections have been added. In April 2021, when Deutsche Post DHL last informed about the status of their sustainability program, the rail transport network for parcels consisted of 13 connections, almost all of which operated on weekends.

The company had announced at that time that they would shift more parcel volumes to the railways. Now, an additional seven train connections, mostly with weekday services, have been added. This allows the share of parcels transported by rail to be increased from two to six percent.

From the Großbeeren freight terminal near Berlin alone, destinations in the metropolitan areas of Dortmund, Mannheim, and Frankfurt am Main are served. Parcels from surrounding DHL parcel centers are transported by truck to the respective freight terminal and then loaded onto the trains. From there, they go to the destination region, where they are reloaded and taken by truck to the receiving parcel center. This transport mostly takes place overnight. The power on the railways is supplied by sustainably produced electricity. With a view to the upcoming pre-Christmas peak traffic, Deutsche Post DHL and DB Cargo plan to deploy an additional 20 trains on weekends before Christmas.

Cologne Parcel Center to Lead the Way

To further expand climate-friendly parcel transportation by rail, Deutsche Post DHL would also equip selected parcel centers with rail connections. This could reduce transportation to terminals, speed up loading, and transport even larger volumes in the available time windows in a climate-friendly manner by rail. The first step is to expand and build a direct access to the neighboring Eifeltor container terminal in the Cologne parcel center over the next few years. However, previous experiences by Deutsche Post DHL in planning new or upgrading existing rail connections in Germany have been rather sobering, as a multitude of structural and regulatory requirements complicate such projects and require years of lead time, said Post and Parcel Board Member Meyer.

Up to 100,000 parcels could be transported per train. Compared to road transport, Deutsche Post DHL claims to save around 1,000 tons of CO2 monthly by using rail transport.

Translated automatically from German.
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