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Current, Press Release, The Company
A career devoted to Combined Transport: Rainer Mertel goes into well-earned retirement
07/01/2020
A joint press release from Kombiverkehr KG and KombiConsult GmbH

  • 40 years of dedication in a variety of managerial positions
  • Many CT projects remain associated with his name
  • As a founding managing director of KombiConsult GmbH he will continue to offer the company advice and support

(Frankfurt/Main, 1 July 2020) Yesterday, Rainer Mertel (66), Head of Marketing and also managing director of KombiConsult GmbH, had his last day of work at Frankfurt-based Kombiverkehr KG. He has left the company after more than 30 years of service to embark on a well-earned retirement. Highly regarded among many industry representatives as a proven authority and expert in Combined Transport, Rainer Mertel will be relinquishing not only his position as Head of Marketing, but also the managing directorship of KombiConsult, the subsidiary founded on his initiative. "In Rainer Mertel not only we but the whole intermodal sector is losing a pioneer of Combined Transport. Many projects, milestones and even ideas for the future are closely associated with his name. With his energy and keen sense for creative and pragmatic solutions, throughout these years he consistently drove for our transport sector forward in the right direction, thereby helping to establish environmentally-friendly intermodal transport as a now vital alternative to road freight transport. That he will remain available to provide advice and support to our subsidiary KombiConsult for specific projects even after his official departure makes the farewell a little easier," emphasised Armin Riedl, Managing Director of Kombiverkehr KG.

Rainer Mertel graduated in economics in Frankfurt am Main in 1979. This discipline was to serve as the basis for his consistently holistic approach of considering all circumstances from several sides and recognising their context. His career in the industry began in 1981 with Studiengesellschaft für den Kombinierten Verkehr, the German agency promoting intermodal transport, for whom he worked until 1988. The research he carried out during this time included studies of the energy-saving potential of piggyback transport for the freight industry, swap body systems in Europe and the importance for transport policy of combined road/rail transport.

He was appointed to Kombiverkehr KG on 1 July 1988, heading the Marketing department continuously from then right through to now. His primary areas of responsibility included market research and observation, national and EU-wide funding projects, public relations, cooperation with international bodies such as the UIRR and Interunit and representing Kombiverkehr in a wide and varied range of causes. In the 1990s his activities focused in particular on collaborating with other departments in order to optimise the operational and sales sides of the intermodal services offered. The only recently commissioned MegaHub Hannover-Lehrte terminal can be traced back to the Platform 2000+ technology project on which Rainer Mertel worked. He also made a contribution to what is known as the Brenner strategy, the main focus of which lay on switching from single-wagon transport to block trains on the Germany – Italy routes.

After many years building up a unique wealth of knowledge of intermodal transport within Kombiverkehr, a separate company dedicated solely to offering consultancy services for logistics companies, associations and ministries was then established. Rainer Mertel prepared the ground for this new venture, founding the subsidiary KombiConsult at the end of 2000 and remaining its managing director until today. The amendment of the guideline on the funding of combined transport transshipment facilities was the first project entrusted to the young consultancy firm. The BRAVO, SAIL and CREAM projects are among the major initiatives that the company has handled in the last few years, all of them analysing Combined Transport on European corridors and delivering improvements with many technical achievements and new production processes. Over the years he has been involved with the EU's CT directive 92/106 and grappled with issues of dimensions, weights and cabotage relating directly to national and international Combined Transport. In these fields, too, Rainer Mertel is one of the foremost acknowledged experts. Having served twenty years at KombiConsult GmbH, he is now handing the reins over to Uwe Sondermann, the longstanding authorised officer and now managing director of the company, who will take KombiConsult forward alongside his fellow managing director, Christian Franz. "I am very grateful to Rainer Mertel for bringing me to Frankfurt in 2003 as the first employee of KombiConsult. Down the years together I have learned so much from him that I would today like to pass on to my staff and customers," said Uwe Sondermann warmly.

For many years Rainer Mertel was also a lecturer at vocational colleges in Mannheim and Glauchau and a member of the UIRR's administrative board from 2018 to 2020. In his leisure time he enjoys racing on his bicycle.

Rainer Mertel geht in den wohlverdienten Ruhestand

After 40 years, Rainer Mertel has ended his professional career in Combined Transport on 30 June 2020.

The press photo can be downloaded here.