The UK’s top intermodal rail freight company currently operates Hyster equipment, supplied by Briggs, and this new £3.5 million deal sees the company replacing some of its older machines.

Briggs secured the contract for the new Hyster RS4531CH reachstackers following a detailed tender process, during which it demonstrated its ability to meet Freightliner’s service expectations as well as the low cost of operation of Hyster equipment.

“We’re a large, safety critical organisation with multiple sites across the country so we need an equipment and engineering services partner we can trust,” said Peter Thompson, Chief Terminals Engineer, at Freightliner. “Briggs was awarded this key contract because of its commitment to providing a safe and reliable solution in a challenging environment.”

Freightliner moves containers from the deep sea ports of Felixstowe, Southampton, Tilbury and London Gateway to all major UK conurbations, operating approximately 100 daily services across the country and handling more than 770,000 containers per year. The company’s existing fleet of Hyster reachstackers has proved to be utterly reliable, clocking up in excess of 18,000 hours during a five-year period of operation.

As well as equipment reliability, a high standard of engineering services support is essential to ensure Freightliner’s reachstackers operate at peak performance. Under the terms of this new contract, Briggs will provide 24-hour service call-out cover six days a week plus a UK parts stockholding facility and, in most cases, same-day parts supply.

With 600 engineers, including more than 130 who are specially trained in ‘heavy truck’ maintenance, Briggs Equipment operates one of the country’s largest mobile engineering workforces. To minimise disruption to Freightliner’s front line operations, engineers will schedule out of hours servicing and will work alongside a dedicated team of UK-based heavy truck technical support managers to help Freightliner achieve its business objectives.

The new generation Hyster RS4531CH reachstacker is designed for maximum space utilisation in intense container terminals and ports, offering outstanding manoeuvrability and superior handling speeds with no loss of power at full capacity for demanding loads. The truck not only complies with Tier IV Final engine legislation, but Hyster’s energy-efficient technologies also deliver fuel savings of up to 25%.

Paul Giles, Ports & Terminals National Business Development Manager at Briggs, said: “Our relationship with Freightliner is based on our ability to deliver high quality machines plus comprehensive, round the clock engineering support backed by reliable management information that supports decision-making at the highest level.

“We have a dedicated team supporting the daily business needs of Freightliner in its drive for service excellence, while our expertise in ports and terminals means we understand customer needs within this fast moving, deadline-driven environment.”

All ten of the new reachstackers are fitted with the Hyster Tracker wireless asset management system, enabling Freightliner to monitor asset activity, individual driver performance and promote driving best practice. Meanwhile, the service level agreement will be managed using Briggs’ market-leading online asset management tool, BE Portal. Key performance indicators are accessible 24/7 via the system, enabling both Freightliner and the Briggs team to measure equipment performance by terminal, by individual machine and across the entire company to effectively manage the fleet.
Caption: Briggs Equipment is supplying Freightliner with extensive engineering services support as part of a new contract for ten Hyster RS4531CH reachstackers.

At the intermodal terminal, in the city centre of Gothenburg, freight is transferred from rail to road and then distributed to companies throughout the region.

At the beginning of 2018, the intermodal terminal will need to be moved to allow future development of the city. Following an agreement between the City of Gothenburg and the Swedish Transport Administration, it has now been confirmed that the terminal will be relocated to the Arken area next to Gothenburg Roro Terminal in the Port of Gothenburg.

“As approximately 70 per cent of the freight is related to the port, Volvo or other activities near the port, it will be an extremely advantageous location,” said Arvid Guthed, Vice President Port Development at the Gothenburg Port Authority.

Twelve trains and 200 trucks each day
On a normal weekday, 12 trains and 200 trucks arrive at and depart from the terminal. Apart from domestic trains, there are also departures for various destinations in Europe. During the course of a year, around 70,000 trailers are switched from one mode of transport to the other at the intermodal terminal.

Arvid Guthed continued: “The intermodal terminal at the port will have the same capacity as the current terminal. Relocation will also mean that heavy road traffic will be directed away from the city centre to the large roads leading to and from the port. Generally, a higher proportion of transport will take place by rail instead of road.”

The intermodal terminal at the Port of Gothenburg will be coordinated with the closure of the present terminal. The present terminal is operated by Green Cargo. It has not yet been decided who will be the new operator following the move to the port.

New plans for cross docking of forest products
Apart from the intermodal terminal, there is also extensive cross docking of other products at the present terminal, including timber and paper, which arrive at the terminal by rail. These operations will cease on March 31, 2017.

“We have a number of cross docking terminals for forest products in the port area. We are working intensively to expand capacity at these terminals to ensure the same volumes can continue to be cross docked in Gothenburg,” Arvid Guthed explained.

Paving the way for trailer trains
The new terminal will be located beside Gothenburg Roro Terminal. Trailers will be transported from the ro-ro terminals by ship to different destinations, including the United Kingdom and Belgium.

“The Port of Gothenburg is internationally renowned for the fact that half of the containers are transported to and from the port by rail. With the intermodal terminal located in the heart of the port, new opportunities will be opened up to switch trailer transport from road to rail with substantial environmental gains as a result,” Arvid Guthed concluded.