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The Alpine Rolling Highway

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The Alpine Rolling Highway Interview with Ludwig Näf, CEO of RAlpin AG The Alpine rolling highway The Swiss government has passed laws to protect the majestic beauty of the Swiss Alps and supports RAlpin’s rolling highway through government subsidies Switzerland’s position as a transit country on the important north-south trade axis through Europe places a heavy burden on its road transport infrastructure. An astonishing 600,000 heavy goods vehicles pass through the Alpine Republic each year. In the mid-1990s, efforts to shift the passage of goods through the Alps away from the roads and onto other modes of transport were enshrined in legislation. 35 years later, RAlpin AG ensures that one in six of these trucks crosses Switzerland without using its roads. International Business spoke to Ludwig Näf, CEO of RAlpin AG about how this has been achieved and what the future holds. EB: Mr. Näf, you were appointed EB: How does RAlpin achieve this? separately in comfortable carriages make the service attractive to driv- CEO of RAlpin AG at the beginning where they can relax over food and ers. If they would rather take their of July this year. What was it that Ludwig Näf: RAlpin AG is the prod- drinks and ensure that they take statutory break in their truck cabin attracted you to the company? uct of laws passed in Switzerland the legally required rest periods. at a lorry park, then we won’t be aimed at shifting goods transports able to persuade them to use our Ludwig Näf: I have spent my entire passing through the Alps from the EB: Switzerland bans lorry drivers service. They are our customers career so far in the rail transport roads to the railways. The compa- from driving at night and on Sun- as well. and transit sector and believe ny was set up in 2001 to develop days. How much does this help that it offers many of the solutions and operate an intermodal corridor your business model? EB: How is RAlpin working to make that we are looking for in terms of to ferry goods from our terminal its service more attractive for those dealing with issues surrounding in Freiburg in Germany to Novara Ludwig Näf: The ban on heavy who use it as well as those who congestion, environmental dam- in Italy. We operate a so-called goods transports at night and on pay for it? age and facilitating cross-border Rolling Highway through the Swiss Sundays is very important. We of- trade. RAlpin AG has developed an Alps. Lorries embark the specially fer unrestricted, around the clock Ludwig Näf: We have ordered five extremely effective model by which designed rail bogies for a 450 km transports. That makes us very new driver accommodation car- all of these aims can be achieved. trip that lasts on average between attractive to freight forwarders and riages with comfortable sleeping eight and ten hours. Drivers travel logistics brokers. We also have to berths, showers and snacks. Driv- ers can already avail themselves driver for the whole, door-to-door of these services at our terminals journey because they can take but we want to enhance the driver their statutory rest break comforta- experience in transit. Freight for- bly on the train. Another advantage warders are already finding it dif- is the 300 EUR saving in avoided ficult to replace drivers and the road tolls and the saved fuel costs entire sector suffers from staffing in both directions. It costs 650 problems. We can play a part in EUR to cross the Alps on one of making the job of professional our regular services. That is an driver a little more attractive. expense that is quickly recouped when you consider the savings that EB: Roughly one in six of the trucks can be made in other areas. passing through the Alps makes Loading of RAlpin’s roll-on, roll-off trains takes just 30 minutes. Disembarkation takes just 15 minutes use of your rolling highway at pre- EB: How have the numbers of us- sent. How many of the remaining ers of your service developed since Lithuania as well as Italy where our transalpine trains. A quarter five out of six trucks do you think it was first launched? a lot of traditional family haulage of our financing comes from state you can shift to your service? companies are being passed on to subsidies intended to encourage Ludwig Näf: By 2006 we were the next generation. this shift and stemming directly Ludwig Näf: We are expecting to transporting 80,000 trucks per from Swiss legislation to protect its grow by between 10 and 20% year and in 2008 we celebrated EB: How do you think the haulage Alpine regions. This allows us to in the next few years. There is the 500,000th truck on our service. and logistics sector will develop in offer a competitive service, which, certainly potential to increase the The annual average is around the coming years and what effect once anchored in our clients’ number of users of our existing 95,000 trucks, so we are very will that have on your business? schedules, should see us grow service, but we also want to intro- pleased with the development so even further in the future. Anyone duce additional routes. Within the far. From an environmental point Ludwig Näf: There are huge pres- who has tried to drive through the next two years, we hope to open a of view we are also reducing CO2 sures on these companies, not just main north-south routes through new terminal near Milan that will emissions by 28,000 t per year. in terms of recruitment difficulties. the Alps and experienced the long lengthen the distance drivers using This year, we have seen the effects The biggest is, of course, the need queues at all times of day through our service can cover. Conveni- of the economic slow down with to cut costs to remain competi- the tunnels will understand the ence and cost are two big drivers transports slightly lower. tive. Our service goes a long way challenges hauliers face. Looking of our success. to increasing safety and efficiency ahead, for transporters of time- EB: What do these figures repre- while delivering a financial benefit. sensitive goods, we believe we of- EB: When you talk about a route sent in terms of the proportion of We believe that this simple calcula- fer the best solution. that could potentially ship goods the total amount of goods flowing tion will tempt more hauliers onto by train all the way from Freiburg through the Alps? to Milan, what makes your service different from traditional unaccom- Ludwig Näf: We are responsible for panied intermodal transports? around 5% of total goods move- ments through the Swiss Alps. RAlpin AG Römerstrasse 3 Ludwig Näf: With our service, load- If we measure by weight, that 4601 Olten ing and unloading are substantially corresponds to 10% of the total. Switzerland faster. Our trains are in essence We have many longstanding cus- roll-on, roll-off and that process tomers, including major players +41 58 8228888 usually takes just 30 minutes to in the sector. Our new customer +41 58 8228880 load and 15 minutes to unload. acquisition efforts are targeting the [email protected] Furthermore, you only need one markets in Eastern Europe and www.ralpin.com.
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