American e-commerce giant Amazon has increased its intermodal transport in Europe by 50 per cent, with a large role for rail. This growth percentage is based on data from 2023.
Spanish publication El Mercantil writes that 25 per cent of all goods travel via intermodal transport from Amazon’s hub in Zaragoza. The company uses that hub to supply other hubs in Europe. Whichever goods do not travel by rail end up on trucks headed to Spanish ports. It transported 35,000 containers via rail from its Zaragoza hub. According to Amazon, the company had increased its Europe-wide intermodal transport by 50 per cent at the end of 2023.
Many of Amazon’s goods in its Zaragoza hub travel northward to the Benelux and Germany. On that route, Amazon makes extensive use of VIIA’s route between Bettembourg in Luxembourg and Le Boulou in France. VIIA’s offers three round-trips on the route, which crosses over a thousand kilometres. Amazon ships about 50 truckloads on the route weekly.
Struggle to commit
However, Amazon also struggles to commit fully to rail. There are strong fluctuations in demand for particular destinations. These fluctuations can reach up to 20 per cent. For that reason, it is difficult for Amazon to commit a particular volume to rail.
In light of decarbonisation efforts and truck driver shortages, the person in charge of Amazon’s logistics platform in Zaragoza expressed confidence that the train “will gain weight” in the short or medium term at a global level, and has opened the door to using multi-client trains for container transportation from its facility if “the relevant synergies are developed” with other interested shippers.
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