In order to improve the operating revenue and efficiency, railway transport enterprises in typical countries have taken active measures to promote the development of freight transport. The operation and development trend of freight transport is as follows:
With the rapid expansion of the demand for transport of high value-added products, foreign railways have taken container transport as a new profit growth point, and carried out multi-modal transport of railway, ocean, road and other modes of transport with containers as the transport medium, thus promoting the development of railway transport.
In Japan, the railway freight transport gradually shifts from bulk freight transport to container transport. Since 2004, the container freight turnover has accounted for nearly 90% of the total volume of JR Freight (Japan Freight Railway Company).
In Germany, container transport has become one of the main modes of multi-modal transport, occupying an absolutely dominant position. In 2015, a total of 89.358 million tons of port throughput in Germany was transferred by railway, equivalent to 30% of the total transfer.
In Russia, to develop containerization of railway freight transport is one of the main trends of RZD's railway development strategy by 2030. From 2012 to 2014, the average speed of container freight trains had increased from 822 km to 929 km per day and night. In the future, it is planned that at least 9,000 container freight trains will be operated every year, and that the train speed will be further raised.
The freight owner's demand for integrated transport services drives foreign railways to enter the fields of other modes of transport - mainly road transport, by means of equity participation and holding, to provide customers with "door-to-door" transport services; meanwhile, it also drives them to further expand their business to provide customers with integrated logistics solutions. Based on the considerations of controlling the whole logistics service chain, reducing transaction costs and providing quality services to customers, the railways in various countries are expanding their business scope.
In France, SNCF has extended its industrial value chain through investment in the establishment of subsidiaries or equity participation in other enterprises to carry out road transport or other business operations. As a result, SNCF currently controls more than 150 road transport companies in France, and has become the largest road freight company in France. On this basis, SNCF carries out highway-railway combined transport to provide one-stop logistics services, integrate the advantages of transport modes of highway and railway, and deliver cargos directly to the places designated by customers in an economic and convenient manner.
In Germany, DB AG takes offering multi-modal transport integration and whole-process services as its core competitiveness, providing door-to-door pick-up and delivery services for customers through truck transport; providing global consignors with land, sea and air transport services and integrated logistics solutions. In addition to providing packaging, handling and warehousing services, the multi-modal transport logistics center operated by DB AG extends to the fields of raw material procurement and production, and connects with customs clearance and commodity inspection, thus integrating railway logistics into the whole process of production, circulation and consumption.
In Russia, in order to consolidate the position of railways, RZD plans to transform the pure transport services into the integrated transport and logistics services, taking the integration of transport and logistics as the trend of future freight development. In recent years, Russia's transport and logistics market has seen a rapid development with an average annual growth rate of 9%.
Modern railway freight transport is becoming a part of the whole logistics chain, which puts forward higher requirements for railway freight traffic enterprises. The freight traffic organization shall match the operation process and must be punctual, reliable and traceable. In order to achieve the above requirements, railway enterprises must adjust and optimize freight traffic resources and improve the quality of railway freight services to meet the requirements of modern logistics.
In Germany, DB AG has put forward a package of plans in the "Future Railway" to improve the reliability and timeliness by means of simplifying the operation process, streamlining the organization, separately handling the block-train and wagon-load transport, and establishing a consistent responsibility system. In addition, DB AG has developed a Smartbox system to monitor the entire logistics chain with digital technology. Customers can obtain freight information in real time on a mobile APP, including: location, temperature and humidity, anti-theft information, customer's personalized data, etc.
In Russia, railway companies apply the railway automatic tracking and freight quality control system DISPARK developed by the Research and Design Institute for Information Technology, Signaling and Telecommunications in Railway Transportation of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, to track and provide feedback on train operations with high accuracy, and monitor the carriage status and the train deviation from the line.
Foreign railways are mostly the modern enterprises that assume sole responsibility for their own profits and losses and have full authority for management. Therefore, driven by market benefits, they constantly adjust the structure of freight traffic services and target customer bases. In recent years, they have shown a tendency to concentrate on transport services with good profitability and to focus on maintaining key customers.
