Austrian brewery Brau Union Österreich and Dutch food retail chain SPAR are collaborating with Rail Cargo Group (RCG) to transport their products on the railway rather than on the road. The rail leg of this new multimodal service will connect the Vienna South Terminal to rail facilities near SPAR’s locations.

As RCG explained, the only need for road transport will be for first and last-mile journeys. Trucks pick up Brau Union’s beer in their facility in Schwechat and bring them to the terminal in Vienna. From here, the goods are moved onto the rails to reach SPAR’s warehouses, for example the one in Wörgl, and then brought to their final destination, the stores, by trucks. According to RCG, projects such as this one should make it easier for customers to choose the rail since it does not require them to have rail sidings at their own facilities.

RCG’s investments in swap bodies

This initiative was also made possible by RCG’s investments in multimodality. In April, the company decided to expand its fleet with 300 new curtainsider swap bodies suitable for both rail and road transport. The swap bodies “can be loaded and unloaded from all sides, as well as from above. This is what sets them apart from a conventional container,” said Erwin Ferstl, Segment Manager Consumer Goods at RCG. Eight swap bodies are currently deployed for RCG’s collaboration with Brau Union and SPAR.

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