(Frankfurt/Main, 21 June 2023) Kombiverkehr KG ended the 2022 financial year with a total of 969,442 truckloads (one load corresponds to the capacity of a truck-trailer combination), or 1.94 million TEU, shifted from the road to climate-friendly rail. The company posted sales of EUR 462.7 million (+9.7 per cent). After deducting all taxes, net annual income for the 2022 financial year came in at EUR 368,000. The Frankfurt-based operator continues to lobby intensively for a climate bonus for forwarders and carriers who use environmentally-friendly rail for their shipments, but have to bear the costs for the effects of ongoing infrastructure projects. This was message given by the Administrative Board and management team to the limited partners present at today’s partners’ meeting.

The figures mean that 31,483 more containers, swap bodies and semi-trailers were transported compared with the previous year, a rise of 3.4 per cent. In national transport a total of 207,921 truckloads (+9.1 per cent) and in international transport, including services to and from the German Baltic Sea ports, 761,521 truckloads (+1.9 per cent) were carried on the 622 Kombiverkehr trains that run each week. The company achieved the increases in volume largely in the first quarter. As the year progressed, inflation in Europe, high energy costs and the knock-on effects of infrastructure work had a negative impact on shipping trends. Thanks to flexible network adjustments, the operator continues to offer one of Europe's largest intermodal networks, while at the same time new digital applications ensure the rapid exchange of data and high transparency within the intermodal supply chain.


Growth in national transport and almost all international transport regions

Seen over the year as a whole, volumes climbed across all transport segments: national transport (+9.1 per cent), Benelux (+25.4 per cent), northern Europe & German Baltic Sea ports (+1.4 per cent), eastern and southeastern Europe (+5.2 per cent) and western Europe (+6.4 per cent). Only in southern European transport, the axis on which Kombiverkehr records the highest volumes, did it report a fall of 2.3 per cent. Disproportionate growth was posted in international services with the Netherlands (+20.0 per cent), Belgium (+20.3 per cent), Turkey (+72.7 per cent), Greece (+35.4 per cent) and the Italy – Scandinavia via Austria route (+14.5 per cent). Volumes declined on the lines between Germany and Italy (-2.2 per cent) and between Germany and Spain/France (-6.6 per cent), among others. “After a very strong first quarter, we were still well ahead of expectations for volumes at the end of the first half. It could have been even better given the high demand, but our traction service providers were reaching the limit of what was possible in terms of their capacities,” managing director Armin Riedl said to the partners in attendance. “As it has been in the last few years, the situation with regard to engineering works was extremely fraught and very challenging overall. That led to some trains having to be cancelled for quality reasons in the first six months. Had trends continued in the second half of the year as they did at the start, Kombiverkehr could easily have carried more than one million consignments in the network for the third time in the company’s history.”


Climate-friendly rail enables forwarders to save the environment 1.42 million tonnes of CO2

The total quantity transported on Kombiverkehr trains climbed from 22.16 million gross tonnes in 2021 to 22.87 million tonnes in the 2022 financial year (+3.2 per cent). The company’s forwarding customers have relieved trunk roads of more than 804 million kilometres driven by vehicles and 18.97 billion tonne-kilometres, while the average distance covered fell slightly to 830 kilometres. All of them thus made a significant contribution towards reaching the climate goals set out in the European Green Deal. With more than 3,800 daily journeys on environmentally-friendly rail, 1.42 million tonnes of harmful greenhouse gases were avoided over 2022.


Transparent transport service in focus

In the 2022 financial year, the punctuality and reliability of train systems again presented a challenge for all stakeholders in the intermodal logistics chain. “Given the enormous backlog of essential engineering works for the maintenance and expansion of infrastructure, this issue will very likely continue to occupy us over the next few years,” said Heiko Krebs, since April 2023 the second managing director of Kombiverkehr. “Going forward, all of us want and need modern and efficient railway infrastructure in Germany and Europe. That’s why we must adapt ourselves to the new reality as well as we can so that the exceptional circumstances on the rail network are hopefully only temporary and not seen as the new norm.” While the standard timetable has been largely reliable to date, now constant changes to the timetable in response to line closures, single-track operation or diversions have become the rule rather than the exception. The Frankfurt operator is therefore refining its digital transport management systems to ensure that it can offer customers transparent and plannable transport services even if changes or deviations to train movements have to be made at short notice.


New customer portal and data hub now in live operation

Kombiverkehr reached two important milestones in digitalisation at the start of 2023. The first of these was the launch of the new myKOMBIVERKEHR customer portal in the middle of March. The new online platform gives customers much greater transparency within transportation activities, while schedulers have access to the entire tool for their day-to-day work in digitalised form. From timetable information through transport bookings and up-to-date information in real time including estimated time of pick-up right up to a comprehensive dashboard, all the relevant information is now available in a single application. Krebs: “From next month our portal – and hence our customers – will be updated once a week with the latest engineering works on the routes taken by our train products. This information will be provided by our service partner, DB Cargo. We are thus close to achieving a first major interim goal of being able to present this information on engineering works.”

After being taken into operation with the first forwarding customer at the end of April, the CT4.0 data hub is now live and operational. The system is based on the EDIGES 4.1 data standard and allows access to timetables, bookings, terminal status reports, train movement data and information on initial and final road legs. Data are exchanged accessibly and in real time, but always solely within an authorised distribution list.

“With their contemporary and universally applicable technical standards as well as their high compatibility, these two applications are part of our primary objective of developing Kombiverkehr into a digital operator. We understand this to mean the ability to offer our customers a completely digital customer journey, starting with online booking and extending through contactless processing at the terminal to electronic billing, all stored in our customer portal,” Krebs continued. Currently the staff of Kombiverkehr are working intensively on the “Easy Booking” and “KIBA” projects with the aim of both taking the next step in modernising the web-based booking process and using artificial intelligence to optimise wagon loading.


Terminal subsidy directive brings planning certainty, renewed demand for climate bonus

Kombiverkehr KG welcomes the positive impact on terminal capacity in Germany that will come from the new “Directive on Subsidising Terminal Infrastructure for Combined Transport”, which came into force on 3 December 2022 after the EU Commission had given its consent to the notifiable subsidy in its decision of 28 October 2022. “When 2022 began there was still considerable uncertainty with regard to the legal position around further terminal subsidies, as the time limits for these had passed. Now that this major source of CT funding has been approved, further sums can again be invested in extending, modernising and building new infrastructure. It is absolutely vital that sufficient financial resources are provided in the federal budget,” Riedl stated.

However, the demand for a climate bonus per truckload for forwarders and carriers who use environmentally-friendly rail for their shipments had previously had little response in government circles. “We will not be dialling down our efforts to achieve better conditions for the use of Combined Transport for our customers. For federal government to invest in rail infrastructure alone will not be enough. It is the users of rail who bear the actual costs of these engineering works – the network operator itself does not suffer in this situation. It is the responsibility of the state to provide infrastructure with sufficient capacity and in sufficient quality. If it is unable to do so, and if climate protection is to be achieved by shifting transport from road to rail, then these additional losses will have to be compensated by those who actually cause them,” said Riedl, reinforcing his message to Berlin.


Limited partners elect Administrative Board for three years

The partners of the company also appointed a new Administrative Board at the partners' meeting. The seven-strong representation from forwarders on the Administrative Board consists of Kai-Jörg Bode, Spedition Bode GmbH & Co. KG, Christian Cornelius, Anhalt Logistics GmbH & Co. KG, Georg Dettendorfer, Johan Dettendorfer Spedition Ferntrans GmbH & Co. KG, Carsten Hemme, Paneuropa Transport GmbH, Ulrich Maixner, Hoyer GmbH Internationale Fachspedition, Ueli Maurer, Bertschi AG, and Sonja Stich, Karl Schmidt Spedition GmbH & Co. KG. As a 50 per cent partner, DB Cargo AG sends two members to the Administrative Board of Kombiverkehr KG. In accordance with the Articles of Association, the Administrative Board is chaired by a representative of the forwarders. At the constitutive meeting Carsten Hemme was elected chairperson. DB Cargo AG will continue to fill the vice-chair position.