Girteka doubles intermodal rail freight

Girteka Logistics, the largest asset-based transportation company in Europe, has announced the results of its intermodal rail freight division, which carried double the number of Full Truckloads (FTL) compared to 2020, saving over 14.4 million kilograms of CO2 emissions throughout 2021.

Girteka Logistics continued growing its operational intermodal capabilities through the year, beginning to use new freight lanes throughout Europe, starting with the newly-opened Kaunas Intermodal Terminal, which connected Lithuania with Tilburg, the Netherlands in July 2021. The lane also connected the Netherlands with the city of Rzepin in western Poland.

The road freight company also began using two additional lanes in its EU network: one in Germany in an industrial area, going towards the southern tip of France, with another freight route connecting northern Italy with northern France.

Overall, the company doubled the amount of FTLs it carried compared to 2020, with over 16,100 fully-loaded trailers traveling on rail tracks, saving the environment of more than 14.4 million kilograms of CO2 emissions, as the FTLs travelled for more than 15.2m km throughout the EU.

In addition to the saved emissions, the company has also calculated that carrying FTLs on the back of trains across Europe reduced the number of tires that Girteka Logistics needed throughout the year by at least 900, as well as avoided at least 61 accidents on the road, based on the average numbers in the industry. The company says this further showcases a commitment to sustainability and road safety as the obvious first choice for its communities.

Furthermore, Girteka Logistics‘ customers have access to its fleet of trucks that are powered by the latest Euro 6 standard diesel engines, as well as the option to complete first- and/or last-mile deliveries by using Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) or HVO100 fuel, further reducing the CO2 emissions of the whole process, as HVO can reduce the environmental impact to up to 90% compared to regular diesel.

“The impressive growth of Girteka Logistics’ intermodal operations, which now have doubled in terms of our capacity and our CO2 emissions savings for two years in a row, is no coincidence,” stated Pavel Kveten, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Girteka Logistics European Business Unit. “It is the result of the hard work of our colleagues, who have put their best effort in to not only make sure that we had a ready product presented to our customers but to also assure our clients that our intermodal offering will satisfy their need to become truly sustainable, as evident by the number of emissions that we prevented from entering the environment.”

The logistics provider noted that growth, in particular, intermodal rail freight services to and from the UK will be one of the main priorities going forward in 2022. Overall, Girteka Logistics plans to grow the number of FTLs carried by intermodal rail transport by 50% in the coming year.

“I also wanted to highlight the work of our partners who have ensured that our intermodal services were of the highest quality and allowing us to deliver trailers reliably throughout the year,” added the COO, noting that “even in the worst-case scenario, our fully asset-based fleet enables us to react and alleviate any kind of issues on a very short notice, which is a key advantage of our intermodal offering.”