SINCE MARCH 2017, WE TRANSPORT WITH THE ROLLING HIGHWAY
Since March of this year, we have introduced the service called “Rolling Highway”, managed by the company RALPIN. The idea of being able to offer our customers a part of transport by rail, is part of the context of environmental protection that our company has been pursuing for years and which sees Franzosini being the first Ticino company to boast the ISO 14001 environmental certification. If we consider the policy of the Confederation to transfer road traffic to rail traffic, the combined accompanied transport service (road-rail) pursues these principles.
The choice to be able to use the rolling motorway service, compared to the normal unaccompanied intermodal service (only the semi-trailer, swap body or container is loaded on the train, without the tractor), which allows transport to continue immediately once the train arrives at the terminal, made our decision lean towards the first option. The versatility of having the driver with the vehicle directly on site, allows a faster management of the vehicles and respect the delivery times previously set with customers.
Currently one to four vehicles are loaded per day at the Lugano-Vedeggio terminal; The train departs at 20:45 and arrives at the Basel terminal the following morning at 05:00. In March alone, this saved carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of around 4,488 kg. Another interesting factor, for combined traffic, is the possibility of charging up to 44t which allows to contain the costs that the service generates: in fact, the only savings of the performance-related heavy traffic charge (HVF) and fuel, are not – in themselves – sufficient to equate the direct road service to the combined one. It must be said, however, that there are grounds for the combined rail service to be truly competitive with road in the near future. Franzosini for the moment, his contribution tries to give it.
