Amazon operates a vast logistics network in Europe, and over the past few years it has embraced intermodal transport, especially for routes over 500 kilometres. Amazon now moves twice as many loads in Europe via sea and rail as compared to three years ago, reducing carbon by almost 50%.
James Moulds, Sustainable Logistics Commercial Leader at Amazon Freight shared with RailFreight.com how the rise of intermodal can only continue under a collaborative effort. Amazon Freight is Amazon’s road freight service for business shippers in the UK and EU. It offers full truckload and less-than-truckload transportation across the UK and continental Europe through a network of more than 9,200 owned trailers and 10,000 contracted carrier partners, with GPS tracking and 24/7 operational monitoring.
“No single company can achieve this progress alone, which is also why Amazon is supporting the Combined Transport for Europe (CT4EU) campaign”, Moulds pointed out. Partnerships like the CT4EU Campaign are essential to everyone working to advance combined transport and the modal shift. Some challenges persist, including restrictions on the railways due to infrastructure works and limited terminal capacity, for example.
Rail needs to work hand in hand with road
Still, “we see a lot of use cases where intermodal is very strong”, Moulds continued, “we thought about an intermodal network where speed is one of the core components”. In Amazon’s view, road transport will continue to remain an important transport mode. That is why Amazon is continuing to invest in decarbonising its European road transportation network alongside increasing intermodal volumes. For this Amazon has now more than 100 electric heavy trucks operational in its transportation network across Europe, and is on track to more than double its fleet in Europe by the end of 2026.
As intermodal reduces carbon by almost 50% versus road transportation, Amazon is aiming to grow its use where it makes sense. This is focusing our efforts on long-haul lanes.
Semi-trailers lead the way
To this day, more than 35% of the inventory transfers routes in Europe that are over 500 kilometres are intermodal, with semi-trailers being the main loading unit. “The flexibility they provide will keep them as the main asset that we use”, he added. Amazon has thousands of units across Europe and starting from last year we have also started to add craneable units in order to gain access to a greater network that is closer to our facilities.“
On the other hand, some of the Amazon fulfilment centres are also equipped to handle containers, especially for goods coming from our vendors while trailers is the dominant equipment type in our network.
Minimise empty runs
Another key aspect on which Amazon Freight is focussing is reducing the number of empty journeys to the bare minimum. By using advanced network optimisation technology and blending internal Amazon demand with the demand of external shippers through Amazon Freight “we are able to create the density and balance needed to run a more effective and more frequent intermodal network at scale”, Moulds highlighted.
