ITC
"ITC believes that smart solutions are among the ones of the greatest importance for the future development of the railway transport. We want to be part of this promising development!"
Kristiana Chakarova, senior project manager
The Institute of Transport and Communications (ITC) provides consultancy services, carries out researches, organizes and manages training programs targeted to sustainable development of the transport sector in the benefit to the entire society.
After a first decade mainly devoted to projects for harmonisation, modernisation and reorganisation of the Bulgarian transport sector, currently ITC is proud to announce over 80 successfully completed national and multinational projects in deferent transport related areas. The projects are focussed on development of strategies for all transport modes’ development based on current status evaluation and future trends analyses, traffic modeling and forecasts for all transport modes, elaboration of financial, economic and cost benefit analyses, sensitivity and risk analyses, etc.
The over 20-years of experience allows ITC experts to participate in and to contribute to large scale international research and collaboration projects. ITC staff is eager to accept the Smart Rail Project challenges.
Country: Bulgaria
To the website of ITC
CER
"We think that beside of the block-train transportation - which is the core business of the private railway undertakings - the wagonload or wagon-group deliveries are also a very important tool in order to keep the position of railway transportation against the road transport."
Andras Vegh
CER Cargo Holding SE is especially active in railway logistic business, has subsidiaries in more countries in CEE region performing independent activities and agencies in more countries as well.
The first among them was the Hungarian railway company which was established in 2004. This company has become one of the leading and acknowledged players in the private railway sector of Hungary. As a result of the measures taken in the field of activity and result optimization, a decision was made in 2010 to establish companies outside the territory of Hungary. In accordance with earlier plans, a Slovenian representation office and a bit later a Slovakian company started their operations. In order to be able to organize our future businesses in longer relations, the CER Cargo Holding personal presence had been developed and until 2013 the Romanian and the Croatian branch offices were established too. CER Hungary, CER Slovakia and CER-FERSPED in Romania work as private railway undertakings. In 2014 forwarding company BILK-TRANS Ltd. which manages also container truck transportations joined the CER Group. The group’s transporting capacity neared almost 2,3 million tons of different goods in 2014. The range of transportations includes conventional and dangerous products, (petro-) chemicals, agriculture goods but exceptional deliveries as well.
CER Cargo Holding SE is the managing company of the Group, headquartered in Budapest, in Hungary.
Why CER is in this project
CER Cargo Holding is firmly believes in future’s potential of railway business. We think that beside of the block-train transportation – which is the core business of the private railway undertakings – the wagonload or wagon-group deliveries are also a very important tool in order to keep the position of railway transportation against the road transport. CER welcomes every project whose goal is to find new solutions for this delivery method.
What CER expects:
- Feasible ideas in respect of increasing of competitiveness of the rail transportation
- Finding of new potential clients are ready to work by rail
- Finding of cargo can be target of the project
- Realistic methods in reference to increasing of utilization of train capacities
Finding feasible solution for private railway companies for wagonload transportation.
Country: Hungary
To the website of CER cargo
ECG
“ECG – the Association of European Vehicle Logistics represents approximately 80-85% of the finished vehicle logistics sector in Europe and constantly contributes to development of a favorable climate in the transport sector in Europe. We are participating in the SmartRail project in the expectation that it will improve efficiency of rail transport. This is especially important at a time when our industry is experiencing capacity constrains in whole of Europe.”
Mike Sturgeon, Executive Director EGS
Founded in 1997 as the European Car-Transport Group of Interest, ECG (now known as the Association of European Vehicle Logistics) is a non-profit association to promote the interests of the finished vehicle logistics industry at EU-level. The Association represents around 100 leading vehicle logistics companies from 28 countries across Europe, including Georgia, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey.
ECG members provide transport, distribution, storage, preparation and post-production services to car manufacturers, importers, car rental companies and vehicle leasing operators. The members have an aggregate direct turnover of around €22.2billion and employ directly some 100,000 employees. Members are active in various transport modes: road, rail, maritime and inland waterways. They own or operate over 420 car carrying ships, some 18,800 purpose-built railway wagons, 84 river barges and more than 23,300 specialist road transporters. In total ECG represents approximately 80-85% of the finished vehicle logistics sector in Europe. (Data source: ECG Survey of Vehicle Logistics in Europe 2014/15).
ECG’s Brussels based secretariat works daily to fulfill the core mission of the Association, i.e. Information & Awareness; Education; Networking & Integration; Lobbying & Representation; and Standardisation. ECG is recognised by the EU institutions as the voice of its members within the EU’s decision-making procedures and is a member of several EC Expert Groups. ECG also facilitates non-commercial co-operation between member companies using different transport modes (road, rail, maritime and inland waterways), and assists them in sharing best practices regarding quality issues (for example via its ECG Operations Quality Manuals, which are widely recognised as standards in the industry).
ECG has numerous publications. One of the key publications is the ECG Survey of Vehicle Logistics in Europe, a 400+ page book which encompasses a country-by-country analysis of production sites and sales forecasts, as well as an industry outlook. It is published every two years.
ECG’s “Operations Quality Manual” is another very well-known and widely used publication among logistics service providers in our industry. This freely available document covers all aspects of the handling of cars and light commercial vehicles. It also has two sister-publications: one on the handling of commercial vehicles and another on the handling of high & heavy cargo.
Recently ECG has published book on ‘Finished Vehicle Logistics by Rail in Europe’. It represents a unique undertaking to approach the rail transport sector from the perspective of FVL, taking into account the complexity of European rail. It can be used as an instructive manual for those who wish to understand the complexities involved in moving freight by rail in Europe even if they have no prior knowledge.
Country: Belgium
To the website of ECG
H-LOG
“H-LOG is proud to be part of the Smart Rail Consortium to promote smart rail transportation in Europe in line with its long-term company strategy to encourage the logistic shift to rail !"
Olivier Maurel
Since 2010, H-Log InfoLogistics is a leading provider of logistics information throughout the supply chain. Supply chain needs more and more information to operate globally. The H-LOG group provides solutions that capture and digitize these pieces of information closer to its creation by the customer ERP or by Supply chain actors, and enrich them at each step: in production, in warehouse, during transportation or distribution, whatever the mode, and then manage the return logistics.
H-LOG develops innovative solutions in the field of cloud computing for logistics. These services are particularly well suited to this sector by providing a high quality of service, safety information and allowing almost instantaneous to a worldwide deployment. In line with the EU SmartRail project , H-LOG is the first contractor of the French ECOPMS Project which supports the re-emergence of rail as an alternative mode of transportation, or Class 2 Railway Undertaking (OFP), which combine loaders, road and rail companies or through the deployment of new rail Class 1 freight companies (as Europorte ECR ..).
Country: France
To the website of H-LOG
Abirail
“We are excited to co-develop the innovative concepts of the European railway freight transport – and the data exchange necessary for it to be functional!”
David Krasensky
ABIRAIL CZ s.r.o. has started its history on 1st July 2013. Its mission is to bring “Automation, Business, and Innovation (ABI) for Rail”. Having been founded under the STARMON Group, the Czech producer of the signaling and diagnostic devices for railway, it is focused onto the area of the railway transport (both passenger and freight), road, city, and waterborne transport; it provides technical consultations, analyses, and information technologies (ICT) and intelligent or innovative technologies. With its partners and technology vendors, on which it strongly relies, ABIRAIL acts also as the system integrator or value added reseller (VAR), stressing the importance of integrating and exploiting the data in the way you need. After two years of activity it counts 10 top-experts (beginning just in two) ready to bring you their extensive expertise in the rail and ICT area.
Country: Czech Republic
To the website of ABIRAIL
Ecco
“ecco-rail your private European logistics partner – the ecco group will make you competitive”
Gino Pfister
Since 2010, ecco-rail, a 100% private railway company, has been providing logistics solution for forwarding companies and industry clients. The company provides high-quality services helping clients to find the best and most efficient transport options tailored to their needs. Beginning in 2012 ecco-rail has been providing railway transports on its own in Austria and Poland to better cater to their client needs. Strengthened by the customers trust and always providing the services to the client’s satisfaction, ecco-rail was able to grow rapidly and starting in 2015 the company was able to expand its own railway service further to include Germany as well and building a connection between the rail services previously provided in Austria and Germany.
The success of ecco-rail Germany and the industry needs for a good service is imminent by the company’s rapid growth on this market.
Ecco-rail’s full services, support customers throughout each stage of logistics project.
From the inquiry stage, to the actual state analysis, the client’s needs and finding the best and viable solution and implementing it, through a focus on the supply chain.
Country: Austria, Germany, Poland
To the website of ecco-rail Austria and ecco-rail EU
TankMatchRail
TankMatch Rail is striving to find the best rail logistics solution available in the market.
The barriers and restrictions in the rail sector are multiple and not easy to overcome. We bring in our todays knowledge about the rail sector and point out which adjustments have to be made to make the sector more competitive.
Hamburg, July 13th, 2015
TankMatch Rail Hamburg offers the market the reliable organization of block train operations in Germany and Europe. With our wide knowledge about the transport of dangerous goods and biofuels by rail, we are one of the most experienced forwarding companies in the rail sector.
We offer our service to clients from the Mineral Oil Industry, Chemical Industry and Renewable Energies. Our key success factor is our experienced staff. We are acting as a team whenever our clients are looking for a smooth rail transport solution with high complexity. Our proposal for an optimized transport by rail always reflects the high priority of safety and long-lasting reliability. Due to a close cooperation with a reasonable number of service partners, we can guarantee a maximized fulfillment of our client’s requirements.
Country: Germany
To the website of TankMatch Rail
Ederlog
The sensible idea “freight to rail” suffers in itself from the fact that for many years the required infrastructure was more damaged than expanded. At the same time, the available investment funds are getting lower and lower. Here it is necessary to look with great creativity for solutions which are as affordable as efficient for freight.
Michael Roggenkamp, director Ederlog
Founded in 2010, ederlog is supporting companies as well as public authorities in various questions of logistics, investment planning and structural changes. Based on a long years’ experience of the owners in different management functions we focus on workable and affordable solutions. Mainly we are active on the Eastern and Central European markets, where we build bridges over the Eastern border of the European Union – connecting people, companies and business.
Since the launch of the company six years ago we managed 34 projects in 11 countries, partly together with a European wide network of experienced partners.
Country: Germany
To the website of Ederlog
SEACON Logistics
Connecting supply chain partners and IT solutions for optimized utilization of freight rail corridor(s)
Joris Tenhagen, Business Development Director
Seacon Logistics is the leading logistics service provider in terms of multimodal chain management. The company globally coordinates cargo and information flows and delivers tailor-made, responsible logistics solutions. On the outskirts of Venlo, the multimodal ECT inland terminal connects the port of Rotterdam with the German hinterland by rail and water. The terminal has 4 million consumers within easy reach and is attracting more and more large importers. Seacon Logistics could not have chosen a better location for its operations. The chain manager started in Venlo in 1986, at the same time as ECT, and specialised in overseas forwarding and various niche markets including a strong focus on agro-cargo. At present, Seacon has a global network of logistics partners and 75 agents. Furthermore, the company has 800 employees, more than 200,000 m2 of warehouse space and fifteen strategically located branches in Europe. However, as a family business with three board members, we still manage to keep the lines short and do business in a transparent manner. We are flexible and scalable and adapt to the wishes of the customer, in respect to which quality comes first.
Seacon Logistics offers supply chain solutions all over the world. From its maritime background, the chain manager continuously invests in efficient, clean logistics and, where possible, aims to develop its logistics flows in a multimodal manner. Within Europe, this logistics heavyweight also operates strategic inland locations in Meppel, Born, Milan, Neuss and Duisburg. We have established corridors of rail and shipping connections from the UK, Benelux and Germany to large consumer markets in both Eastern and Southern Europe. Good for customers who want to reduce their CO2 footprint.” Seacon coordinates all the cargo and information flows using its own, modern ICT system Control Tower. “This links the systems of customers and transporters to one another and, thanks to the new BI tool, monitors the KPIs of the various parties, keeps track of turnover figures and makes connections, allowing for efficiency to be introduced throughout the entire chain.”
Country: The Netherlands and Italy
To the website of SEACON Logistics
Port of Rotterdam
“The Port of Rotterdam participates in the Smart Rail Consortium because of the importance of good quality rail connections of the Port of Rotterdam to the European hinterland. The knowledge and insights that will derive from the Smart Rail project will help to improve the performance of the rail to and from the Port of Rotterdam !”
Maurits van Schuylenburg, Project manager logistics
The aim of the Port of Rotterdam Authority is to enhance the port of Rotterdam’s competitive position as a logistics hub and world-class industrial complex. The Port of Rotterdam Authority manages, operates and develops the port and industrial area of Rotterdam. Not only in terms of size, but quality as well. The Port Authority is responsible for maintaining the safe and smooth handling of all shipping. We invest in the development of the existing port area, new port sites, public infrastructure and in handling shipping.
Core tasks:
- Sustainable development, management and operation of the port
- Maintain the safe and smooth handling of all shipping
We cooperate among ourselves, as well as with our stakeholders, customers and shareholders as a means of achieving our joint goals.
ProRail
ProRail is the Rail Infra Manager in the Netherlands. As an independent organization ProRail is responsible for Traffic Control, Capacity Management, Management & Maintenance of the Railway Network, including renewals and constructions. ProRail connects people, cities and business by a dense, intensively used rail network. We provide a secure, reliable, punctual and sustainable rail network and comfortable stations in conjunction with operators and partners. Our professionals work efficiently and cost-consciously on a rail network focused on pleasant passenger travel and unobstructed freight transport.
Country: the Netherlands
To the website of ProRail
BD Rail Services
BD rail services is a French rail and multimodal forwarder. BDRS is a young company founded in 2013, taking over activities from a former BD Rail Services company. We provide to shippers either wagonload offer or rail/road transportation with the aim to offer the best combination depending on the product cost and he flexibility needed. We also cooperate in partnership with road hauliers helping to develop the business on our lines.
Main achievements are:
– Building up a new rail/road service between Marseilles and Parma, using Vintimiglia route. This offer running 3 times a week allowed to shift from road to rail around 100 000 tons yearly.
– Awarded by the French Government Agency called ADEME, with ECOPMS project, BD Rail services is now developing a rail/road offer between Marseilles and Lyn/Mulhouse area. This offer allows to transport either wagons or swapbodies.
BD Rail services is part of R&D Concept group, including Ecomodal as consultancy company, specialized in rail and multimodal and consulting either for shippers, haulers and public authorities.
Main tasks:
BD Rail services will be in particular involved in Living Lab 1 in which they will provide a head start with their experience and results from a project in France, ECOPMS. Also in some other WP’s where they will be active their built up expertise wil be useful input.
TOI
“TOI appreciates being part of the Smart Rail consortium and will contribute to solving challenges in development and implementation of Smart Rail demonstrations and services“.
Olav Eidhammer, Senior Research Economist at TOI
the Institute of Transport Economics – Transportokonomisk institutt (TOI) is a national transport research centre for Norway and a non-profit organisation. TOI is a truly multi-disciplinary institute and employs 70 researchers that provides research in the following research themes: Industry and Freight, Economics and Modelling, Environment and Climate, Planning, Land Use and Public Transport, Road Safety, Transport Safety and Security and Travel behaviour and Mobility. TOI has coordinated and participated in a large number of projects under the Framework Programmes, Horizon 2020 and other programmes of the European Union. The Institute emphasises the importance of international research cooperation in the transport area. On the national arena, TOI carries out commissioned research for the Ministry of Transport and Communications, The Public Roads Administration, Local and Regional Administrations, The National Research Council of Norway.
Country: Norway
To the website of TOI
ZLC
“As experts in Logistics and Supply Chain Management, ZLC will provide the vision of railway transport in the context of the whole supply chain as an added value for SMART-RAIL.”
Susanna Val, Associate Research Professor
Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC) is an international research institute established by the Government of Aragon in Spain in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Zaragoza. Founded in 2003, the ZLC campus is located in the heart of PLAZA, the largest logistics park in the South-West of Europe that serves as a working laboratory to transfer new knowledge and working practices. ZLC’s mission is to create an international center of excellence for research and education in logistics and SCM that actively engages with industry and the public sector to develop and disseminate knowledge. To accomplish its mission ZLC partnered with the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics to form the MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program, a unique model of collaboration between industry, government and academia. This successful partnership led to the creation of the MIT Global SCALE Network that now spans four continents. In addition, Zaragoza Logistics Center participates in several national and international research and educational initiatives.
Country: Spain
To the website of ZLC
Railistics
“As technology brings us closer together, the importance of working in international teams becomes ever more apparent. We are very happy to be included in the Smart-Rail consortium and to have the opportunity to bring new ideas to the rail-sector”
Paul Melia
With offices in Wiesbaden, Dessau, and Berlin, Germany and international representations in Bucharest, and Ankara, Railistics is a professional consulting firm providing a wide range of services related to transport policy, transport economies, intermodal transport, railway vehicles, infrastructure and operations.
Railistics integrates legal, technical and economic factors, market requirements, railway systems knowledge and strategic thinking with process-oriented planning and financial responsibility. This “system approach” is responsible for Railistics’ many success stories.
Railistics provides a unique expertise around the restructuring and transition of European Railway and transport markets, in countries such as Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Turkey, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria. Business development strategies, legal framework adaptations, institutional body (safety, regulation, investigation) implementations and operational related marketing concepts have been successfully developed.
Railistics works with industries, governments and authorities, shipping agents, private and public train operating companies, manufacturers and the supply industry, infrastructure managers, financial service providers and transit authorities.
Panteia
“As part of the Smart-Rail consortium, we aim to put in practice sustainable solutions in todays’ rail freight services”
Panteia provides support to decision makers, helping them to formulate, monitor and evaluate strategies for effective policy. To do so, Panteia has developed unique knowledge bases and innovative methods, supported by independent market and policy research. Panteia advises on effective ways of reaching and motivating target groups which may include citizens, consumers and companies, in delivering or implementing changes for improvement. Together with our clients Panteia aims to contribute to sustainable, social and economic progress.
Panteia unites research, consultancy and training. We employ more than 200 highly qualified professionals covering all relevant disciplines. Panteia carries out qualitative and quantitative research in all social and economic fields and has an extensive infrastructure of data and models, methods and technologies and international networks at its disposal. Panteia works for national and international clients and is often the leading partner in international networks and consortia.
With Panteia’ s broad sectorial knowledge and experience in the application of research, we are able to contribute to innovative ideas and provide authoritative advice which can be applied in practice. In short, Research to Progress.
Country: The Netherlands
To the website of Panteia
Uniresearch
“Participating in a complex research and innovation project such as SMART-RAIL with 19 international partners provides Uniresearch with the opportunity to demonstrate our added value both in the management of the project and in telling Europe about our results.”
Ernst Verschragen, project manager
Uniresearch B.V. (UNR) is a SME (founded in 1994) which is specialised in project management and consultancy services in the field of national and European research projects and innovation activities.
Uniresearch has a team of qualified consultants, bringing together a mix of technical, scientific and business administration backgrounds. Based on the management experience gained in over 120 R&D projects, web based project management and transparent communication tools and procedures have been developed and selected that provide a central archive of all project related files, an online reporting function, up-to-date performance and progress overviews (both technical and financial), a shared webserver that enables the uploading/sorting of project files by all partners, a platform for (technical) discussions, and a public domain for dissemination purposes (window to the outside).
Second key activity of Uniresearch is in the dissemination of project results and facilitation of technology and market take. Activities involve the design, setup and maintenance of Project websites, organisation of workshop and (final) project events, creation of project flyers and newsletters and the organisation of exploitation strategy seminars.
Main tasks:
In the Smart-Rail project, Uniresearch has been assigned the task of project management facilitator and dissemination and exploitation manager.
Country: The Netherlands
To the website of Uniresearch
The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research
“Customer oriented rail freight services are key to the modal shift towards transport by rail.”
Paul Tilanus, project coordinator
TNO is a non-profit independent research organisation established in 1932. TNO’s public mission has been laid down in a special law: to support industry and society in general in transforming knowledge into products and processes of economic and societal value and apply scientific knowledge with the aim of strengthening the innovative power of industry and government. In the system of innovation, TNO acts as an interface between science and the market. Being both embedded in the world of fundamental research and having strong links with the world of users, TNO is positioned to fulfil this role in which contract research and strategic collaboration are keys to the transfer of knowledge.
Country: The Netherlands
To the website of TNO
Agreement no. 636071.