We are on to something big with the concept of rail freight corridors: but please let us not repeat the mistakes of the past and leave the customers on the sidings as watching by-standers.

What stops shippers from using rail for international shipments? Is it lack of capacity and infrastructure? In some instances yes; but to the shipper, those that have used rail freight services, they will usually first point to unreliability, lack of customer focus, the door-to-door costs being too high and generally the transit time too slow.

The European Commission think they have a solution – international rail freight corridors. Links from China to Europe by rail are developing and attracting sizeable interest from shippers. My contention is that this policy will not succeed unless customers – the driving force behind change and enterprise – are fully and actively engaged in the management and development of these corridors. They should not be left in the hands of just the infrastructure managers, rail freight undertakings and civil servants alone.

The European Commission considers that two main elements should be developed to improve the quality of rail freight transport and ensure it has sufficient capacity. The Commission thinks better coordination between infrastructure managers and Member States is what is needed, along with priority access for freight services.

To this end it is considered that a corridor approach, which first targets a few strategic international axes, by implementing measures to improve operations, capacity, transparency of the information and non- discriminatory access, should be pursued.

The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) is right behind this initiative. The CER vision is for a core rail network of freight-dedicated and mixed-traffic trans-European lines, forming the backbone of a wider network catering for rail freight needs. They call this core network the PERFN (Primary European Rail Freight Network). They also suggested that each corridor be managed by the key players - European Commission, National Governments, Rail Infrastructure Managers and Railway Freight Undertakings including Operators. Have you noticed, however, which category of 'key player' is missing in their corridor management?

Rail freight customers must be directly involved: if you leave them out of the equation (forwarders, 3PLs and shippers) it is quite likely that the corridors will end up being designed and run for the operators rather than the customers, and you will drive the customers away.

Also the performance of the industry is absolutely critical to ensuring many customers stick with rail freight and more customers are encouraged to try and make at least medium-term commitments to rail freight services for international shipments.

Knowledge or perception of service performance is a key issue for shippers who are considering taking the plunge to switch from one mode of freight transport to another. The development of performance indicators could increase transparency and help shippers make a choice to use rail or not. As supply chains become more sensitive to quality issues and reliability on precise transit times, so the importance of KPIs will increase. The customer must be involved in developing and validating the KPIs to ensure they are meaningful and useful.

Past experience has shown that customers drive successful changes and innovations: they must form part of the management team and help drive high performance rail freight corridors.

Andrew Traill, The Shippers' Voice Ltd.

Labels: KPIs, performance, rail freight

# posted by Shippers' Voice @ 12:23 0 Comments