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How inland transport improves resilience

Coordinating across multiple vendors can lead to unnecessary complexity and inefficiencies, creating risks and slowing down fulfilment. Working with one partner ensures smooth end-to-end inland transport and connections from port-to-destinations that are reliable, provide excellent end-to-end visibility, and can be scaled and flexed as demand changes.

• Cost effectiveness: Intermodal shipping can be cheaper than relying solely on trucks, especially for long distances. Trains or inland waterway barges are generally more fuel efficient for long hauls, and ships can carry massive quantities of cargo across oceans very economically.
• Enhanced efficiency: By keeping the cargo in its container, intermodal shipping reduces the need for unpacking and repacking at each transfer point. This saves time, labour, and minimises the risk of damage or loss. Containers are transferred from one mode of transport to the others by specialised container handling equipment.
• Easy scalability: Intermodal shipping can accommodate large or small shipments, from one single 20-foot or 40-foot container to shipments consisting of multiple containers.
• Safe and secure: The containers act as secure units, reducing the chances of theft or tampering with the goods. Container seals are deployed to ensure integrity.

Inland supports local, sustainable, and scalable supply chains

Optimising inland operations also enables more scalable and sustainable logistics by providing cost-efficient, intermodal options for moving goods between major ports, and warehouses that can be easily tailored to changing demand.

Two thirds of consumers in France, Germany, Italy and the UK are planning to make a sustainable purchase over the coming 12 months and are willing to pay a higher price for sustainable products, according to the GFK Sustainability Index. Choosing the right combination of inland transport - using a combination of trains, waterway barges and trucks - can in some cases help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Read this article to find out more about the relative benefits of different intermodal combinations, depending on journey type.

In addition, investment in port and airport infrastructure across Europe provides businesses with more options when moving goods around, opening opportunities to scale inventory in different markets according to shifts in demand. Beyond ports and airports though, established inland networks are arguably Europe’s best-kept secret. Alex Pinto, Regional Inland Growth Enablement, Maersk, says there is still a lack of awareness about the size and sophistication of Maersk’s inland network. However, the ability to connect ocean and warehousing across Europe via inland is a huge advantage for customers: “We have a big network of assets and control patterns that we can adjust across geographies where we have the infrastructure.”

For example, Europe’s inland shipping market sees huge amounts of goods move through the Rhine, Seine and Danube waterways, worth an estimated $10.2 billion, according to IMAP.

Focusing on your inland operations can improve connections and better integrate different parts of your supply chain, enabling you to respond easily to shifting market demands with customised solutions.

For Alex Pinto, visibility and scalability are a key strength for Maersk’s inland network for businesses moving cargo across Europe. “It’s really simple with Maersk, if you buy Inland together with Ocean, for example, it is almost seamless. Visibility and global coverage through one point of contact is optimal. And if something goes wrong, we can create capacity to reroute cargo from elsewhere.”

Whether you’re moving high volumes or specialised cargo, Maersk’s integrated or standalone Inland solutions across rail, road and barge help to smooth connections from ports to distribution hubs and customers, by reliably and efficiently connecting ports, inland terminals, warehouses and distribution centres.