Visibility tools drive integration of rail into intermodal chains

For decades, rail freight transport has had serious problems that hinder its development as a mode capable of moving volumes in accordance with its potential.

The low market share of the rail mode is traditionally related, among other factors, to its lack of capacity to generate a critical mass or to an inefficient business model that is gradually being transformed, as evidenced by the fact that private operators are gradually managing to capture volumes.

However, both both the European Union and the Spanish Administration have decided to make a firm commitment to rail transport. and heavy investments are planned, mainly for the passenger sector, but also to take trucks off the road in order to reduce the environmental impact of the European transport system.

In this context of change and momentum for the rail mode, FIELDEAS has organized this October 25 in Barcelona its first FIELDEAS Talks, a series of events aimed at unraveling how the digital transformation process impacts the logistics and transport sector.

In this first FIELDEAS Talks, a group of different actors of the rail mode have analyzed in depth the situation of freight rail, as well as its recent evolution and its development prospects for the future.

In this meeting Miguel de Sanjuan, Director of Development of the VIIA, Amador Hernandez, Transport Purchasing Manager of Lecta Group, Vicente Herrero, Commercial Director of Lecta Group, Vicente Herrero, Commercial Director of Lecta Group, Vicente Herrero, Commercial Director of MEDWAY, Raúl Maestro, General Director of Transportes Portuarios, Alba Carré, General Director of Calsina Carré, Julio Gómez-Pomar, President of ECO RAIL, Sonia Herzog, CEO of JSV, Viviana Dajer, Head of Transport and Logistics of BonÁrea, Óscar López, CEO of FIELDEAS, and Rodrigo Martin, Transport and Logistics Manager of FIELDEAS.

In particular, this meeting focused on the need to integrate rail into intermodal supply chains and the role that technology can play in facilitating this process.

To the intemodal integration through technology

In this sense, the general opinion of the experts gathered by FIELDEAS in Barcelona is that there is much to advance in the technological field within the railway mode, in order to make rail freight transport more efficient.

Similarly, new technologies also offer the possibility of integrating rail into more complex supply chains. In particular, visibility tools have great potential to prevent rail transport from continuing to be a major blind spot in the chain, generating inefficiencies that hinder its potential and reduce its market options.

Through a firm commitment to new technologies, the railroad can also gain new arguments in addition to the environmental advantages it offers over other more polluting modes.

However, there are also challenges and constraints to further technological development of the rail mode.

The main ones are related to the traceability of all rolling stock and the large number of players involved in rail transport.

Similarly, different degrees of technological development also coexist within the sector, which hinders the homogeneous adoption of visibility technologies that allow a continuous and transparent flow of information.

Nevertheless, the political impetus and its environmental benefits are factors driving the development of rail freight. In addition, a technological approach that facilitates their integration into the chain will provide an additional stimulus to increase their market share.

In particular, visibility tools can provide accurate transit times and warn of any incident, facilitating rapid decision making to find alternatives.

By generating data, shippers, other users and rail operators will be able to produce a flow of information with which to make real-time decisions on complex chains, regardless of the mode of transport being used at any given time.

FIELDEAS Track and Trace, a unique tool for visibility in rail mode

Members of the round table organized by FIELDEAS agreed on the lack of adequate visibility tools for rail transport in the market.

As Óscar López, CEO of FIELDEAS, explains, “in the freight railroad you need to have visibility to, first, be able to make decisions, but the second thing is to achieve better predictability and from there you can automate. The most important thing of all is the data to then convert it into information that allows decisions to be made.”

Faced with this reality, FIELDEAS has been working for some time to achieve comprehensive visibility of the supply chain, including the rail mode.

In this regard, and with regard to intermodal transport, FIELDEAS Track and Trace has a module specially designed for rail freight transport.

The tool harnesses the full analytical power of specially developed algorithms to take full control of intermodal supply chains that put the customer at the center and operate in an agile, efficient and resilient manner by making decisions based on real-time information.

FIELDEAS Track and Trace allows you to track goods in any mode, whether by road, sea, air freight and rail services.

The rail mode in particular requires software applications that allow reliable tracking of goods with modules specially designed for this mode of transport.

FIELDEAS Track and Trace is a unique tool in the market that prevents the railroad from becoming a blind spot that prevents information from flowing along the chain and breaks value generation.

Participants: Lola Hurtado, Amador Hernández, Sonia Herzog, Aniana Pamias, Vicente Herrero, Julio Gómez-Pomar, Viviana Dajer, Miguel de Sanjuan, Maylis Ab-der-Halden, Rodrigo Martin, Óscar López, Aitor Vieco, Alba Carré, Raúl Maestro.

Participants: Lola Hurtado, Amador Hernández, Sonia Herzog, Aniana Pamias, Vicente Herrero, Julio Gómez-Pomar, Viviana Dajer, Miguel de Sanjuan, Maylis Ab-der-Halden, Rodrigo Martin, Óscar López, Aitor Vieco, Alba Carré, Raúl Maestro.