SNCF Geodis chief's rap for shippers
'Shocking attitude' over single-wagon services revamp
The head of SNCF Geodis, Pierre Blayau, has issued a sharp riposte to French shipper groups that claim their logistics provision will be severely impacted by Fret SNCF’s drastic cutback in its single-wagon services and increased rates.
“This is a shocking attitude for shippers to take and it implies that SNCF is not a business, that rail transport is not a commercial activity and that our group is obliged to put a [single-wagon] service on the market at half-price,” said Blayau.
“What this amounts to, in essence, is that we subsidise the logistics costs of big firms. It’s totally unacceptable.”
In a joint statement, around 10 shipper federations, including the CCFA (automotive), FFA (steel) and UIC (chemicals), as well as transport and logistics trade body, the TLF, launched a virulent attack on the single-wagon strategy, which it said would “lead to the massive transfer of rail freight traffic to road, calling into question the recovery of Fret SNCF”.
Earlier this year, state-controlled operator Fret SNCF unveiled plans to cut its single-wagon network by two-thirds over the next two years, after it contributed 70% of the rail freight unit’s losses of more than €500 million (US$630m) in 2009.
The cuts focus on scaling-down operations to a break-even point identified at 200,000 single-wagon units – compared with around 600,000 currently.
“Ruinous and inefficient” is how Blayau described the current state of Fret SNCF’s single-wagon services, adding: “Why should we abandon the reform of our business, when our customers are constantly looking to adapt the way they operate to take into account the demands of the economic crisis?”
He claimed shippers themselves had become disaffected with the single-wagon service over the past two years and that it had declined at a faster rate than other rail freight market segments.
“Today, the very same shippers who proclaim ‘we must transport more by rail’ have made a conscious decision to switch to lower-priced road haulage.”
An opportunity to resolve their single-wagon differences may come later this week. Representatives from the shipper groups and SNCF Geodis are expected to participate in a meeting of a steering committee set up to pilot the state-initiated Rail Freight of the Future programme, unveiled in September last year.
“This is a shocking attitude for shippers to take and it implies that SNCF is not a business, that rail transport is not a commercial activity and that our group is obliged to put a [single-wagon] service on the market at half-price,” said Blayau.
“What this amounts to, in essence, is that we subsidise the logistics costs of big firms. It’s totally unacceptable.”
In a joint statement, around 10 shipper federations, including the CCFA (automotive), FFA (steel) and UIC (chemicals), as well as transport and logistics trade body, the TLF, launched a virulent attack on the single-wagon strategy, which it said would “lead to the massive transfer of rail freight traffic to road, calling into question the recovery of Fret SNCF”.
Earlier this year, state-controlled operator Fret SNCF unveiled plans to cut its single-wagon network by two-thirds over the next two years, after it contributed 70% of the rail freight unit’s losses of more than €500 million (US$630m) in 2009.
The cuts focus on scaling-down operations to a break-even point identified at 200,000 single-wagon units – compared with around 600,000 currently.
“Ruinous and inefficient” is how Blayau described the current state of Fret SNCF’s single-wagon services, adding: “Why should we abandon the reform of our business, when our customers are constantly looking to adapt the way they operate to take into account the demands of the economic crisis?”
He claimed shippers themselves had become disaffected with the single-wagon service over the past two years and that it had declined at a faster rate than other rail freight market segments.
“Today, the very same shippers who proclaim ‘we must transport more by rail’ have made a conscious decision to switch to lower-priced road haulage.”
An opportunity to resolve their single-wagon differences may come later this week. Representatives from the shipper groups and SNCF Geodis are expected to participate in a meeting of a steering committee set up to pilot the state-initiated Rail Freight of the Future programme, unveiled in September last year.
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