Samskip adds Greece to its pan-European multimodal
network
Europe's leading multimodal container operator Samskip
has added Greece to the list of countries in Southern Europe that it now serves
by road and rail. It has appointed one of Greece's major transport and
logistics specialists, Carel Ltd, as its agent and has launched rail services
linking Mannheim and Rotterdam with Athens and Thessaloniki.
Paul J Swaak, Director Strategic
Development for Samskip Multimodal Container Logistics explained that Samskip
had been looking closely at Greece since early 2006 but only now did the
company feel the time was right:
"With Greece's major port, Piraeus, in
constant turmoil, shippers are looking with new interest at the scope for
intermodal transport to and from Greece. Shipping all-water from Northern
Europe to Greece is fraught with problems and trucking becomes more expensive
every time there is a rise in the price of a gallon of crude oil. Moving cargo
in our 45ft palletwide (pw) containers by rail now makes a very competitive and
environmentally friendly alternative, faster than sea and cheaper than road
transport.
"We have now secured a reliable connection by
rail into Thessaloniki and Athens and the first boxes have moved into Greece,
arrived within the lead times and have been shipped back loaded."
The latter is, according to Mr Swaak,
crucial if one is to offer a sustainable and attractive product:
"It is pretty easy to ship containers to
Greece but not so easy to find backloads. The economics don't work if you have
to ship empties northbound"
Mr Swaak is sure that Samskip MCL has found a reliable
partner in Carel Ltd:
"Carel is one of the leading forwarders in
Greece, handling more than 10,000TEU per annum. It has an excellent reputation
in the market and is not frightened of innovation."
Carel's Managing Director, Lefteris Karoulis,
agreed:
"These are still early days for multimodal
operations in Greece but we like to be pioneers. We enjoy working on such
ground and we aim to establish a strong base and be the leading Greek-owned
company in the market.
"Greece is completely integrated into
Samskip's multimodal service network, connecting both West and East Europe to
the Greek peninsula. Via Patras, Athens and Thessaloniki, containers will be
transferred to/from the frequent rail shuttles connecting to rail terminals in
Rotterdam and Mannheim.
"From Rotterdam, connections can be made with
Samskip's shortsea services to/from the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, the Baltic
States and Russia, while from Mannheim the whole of Central Europe is served.
The shuttles run on fixed schedules, resulting in reliable departure and
arrival times."
Mr Swaak added:
"We can offer 45ft pw hi-cube containers able
to transport 33 pallets, 45ft curtain-sided containers, 45ft reefers and 45 ft
flatracks. You could say we do not sell a simple transport product; we sell a
total logistics solution tuned to the needs of the European market. Local sales
and customer service provided by Carel ensures the best local presence for
Samskip in Greece."
-ends-
Note to editors
Photographs to accompany this press
release can be downloaded from
http://www.dunelmpr.co.uk/Samskip-Photogallery-NEW.html. The caption for the
photographs reads:
"Samskip has started an Intermodal service
linking Rotterdam with Greece".
Samskip operates one of Europe's largest multimodal
container logistics systems. The Samskip system is able to move containers
door-to-door between over 30 countries from Russia, Scandinavia and Iceland in
the north to Spain, Italy, Austria, Greece, Hungary, the Czech Republic and
Slovakia in the south and centre of Europe.
Samskip offers a wide range of routing options,
utilising road, rail, sea and inland waterways as appropriate to provide the
best combination of rate and transit time to suit individual customers'
requirements and preferences. It now has at its disposal over 13,000
containers, ranging from 20ft to 45ft pallet-wide high cube containers
including reefers, curtain-siders and flat-racks.
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