Advantages of CT

Vehicles are exempt from vehicle tax as long as they are used exclusively for the first and final leg of Combined Transport and are appropriately marked.

An application for a refund of motor vehicle tax may be submitted to the responsible tax office for goods vehicles and tractor-trains that use the Rolling Roads and for semi-trailers shipped by unaccompanied Combined Transport.

Most operators now offer their customers timetables for direct and shuttle train services with fixed journey times. Improvements in the handling of operations in the terminals mean that it is generally possible to adhere to fixed timetables, which in turn makes transport planning easier, thus helping to optimise production processes along the logistics chain.

Reduce your fixed and variable vehicle costs by having your loading units for Combined Transport moved by rail for the main leg of their journey. The use of tractor units on the comparatively short first and final legs by road will lower your vehicle costs: the result will be less fuel, fewer repairs, and less wear and tear on operating resources.

You also need fewer vehicles when using Combined Transport to handle your operations than is the case with transport by road alone. Fixed vehicle costs also fall as a result of vehicle and tax savings.

By opting to use Combined Transport to move your loading units, you benefit from spare vehicle and staffing capacities. Scheduling vehicles specifically for the first and final leg to the terminal frees up vehicle and staffing capacity, which you can usefully deploy for other transport services. This further enhances the flexibility of your tractor units.

Tolls for using federal motorways only need to be paid on the initial and final legs, which are short distances compared with the main leg of the journey. The use of Combined Transport thus means lower tolls than is the case with end-to-end road transport.

Compliance with existing social legislation is straightforward when using Combined Transport as drivers are only used to cover the “short distances” of the initial and final legs, which is highly conducive to flexible working arrangements. This advantage of Combined Transport gained even greater significance with the new regulations on driving and rest times and the introduction of the digital tachograph on 1 May 2006.

Incidentally, the time spent on Rolling Road trains also counts as a rest period, since it offers sufficient opportunity to sleep.

The strength of the railway lies in its ability to transport large quantities of freight over long distances with a high level of safety. Roads are superior when it comes to the flexible distribution of goods locally. The respective advantages are best exploited by combining both modes of transport, without the need to reload the cargo.

Using Combined Transport helps to relieve the pressure on the road infrastructure. Nearly 50 million tonnes of cargo were shifted by Combined Transport in Germany alone in 2005. This equates to the removal of around 10,000 truck journeys a day from Germany’s roads.

The advantages of rail transport are particularly significant not only for hazardous goods, but for all other goods with high safety requirements: the service running on guided track, the central operations control and monitoring, the train radio telecommunications system and the timetabled services are the basis for safe transport by rail. Accidents are an extremely rare occurrence thanks not only to the safety advantages of the “track” system, but also to due compliance with a host of regulations and control measures.