{"id":339297,"date":"2025-12-29T19:30:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T09:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=68255"},"modified":"2025-12-29T19:30:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T09:30:39","slug":"dp-world-wins-logistics-uk-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=339297","title":{"rendered":"DP World wins Logistics UK award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dubai-headquartered international port operator DP World has been named Rail Freight Business of the Year by Logistics UK. The gong comes in recognition of its efforts to shift container traffic from road to rail and improve the commercial viability of rail freight.<\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The award highlights DP World\u2019s Modal Shift Programme, launched in 2023, and comes as rail continues to play a central role in the decarbonisation of UK freight logistics. Business group Logistics UK named DP World the Rail Freight Business of the Year at its annual awards ceremony, citing strong take-up of the operator\u2019s Modal Shift Programme and measurable carbon savings.<\/p>\n

Modal shift recognised<\/h2>\n

The modal shift programme was launched in September 2023 to tackle the underutilisation of UK rail freight. The incentive scheme pays a bounty for moving containers inland by rail instead of road. According to figures from DP World and Logistics UK, around a quarter of available capacity on intermodal trains can run empty. While moving freight by rail delivers emissions savings of up to 76% compared with diesel road haulage, higher costs have historically discouraged shippers from making the switch.<\/p>\n

However, the DP World scheme has highlighted latent demand. In its first 18 months, the initiative moved 103,475 containers by rail from DP World\u2019s Southampton hub. Rail\u2019s share of container movements increased by 10% (to over 30% of containers, with an estimated 28,200 tonnes of CO\u2082e eliminated, underlining growing industry confidence in rail-based solutions.<\/p>\n

Incentives and interport rail services<\/h2>\n

Two initiatives sit at the heart of DP World\u2019s rail freight strategy. The first is the incentive scheme at Southampton, designed to encourage import-laden containers to move inland by rail rather than road. It was by reducing the cost differential between modes, that the scheme aimed to make rail a commercially realistic option for a wider range of customers, not just those with established intermodal flows – for whom volume brings its own commercial advantages.<\/p>\n

\"Intermodal
Intermodal train at London Gateway, where a second rail terminal is under construction. Image: \u00a9 DP World<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alongside this, DP World also operates its own five-times-a-week intermodal \u201cinterport\u201d train service between its London Gateway and Southampton terminals (see WorldCargoNews.com<\/a>). The service links two of the UK\u2019s largest container ports by rail, allowing boxes to be repositioned efficiently between deep-sea hubs, supporting shipping line networks and reducing reliance on long-distance trucking. It also helps DP World operate the two port terminals as a single business unit. The terminals are roughly 120 miles (193 kilometres) apart.<\/p>\n

Industry praise<\/h2>\n

\u201cDP World has led the way in improving the commercial viability of rail, increasing rail share and helping to decarbonise UK freight logistics,\u201d said Kevin Green, Logistics UK\u2019s<\/a> Acting Chief Executive. \u201cI would like to congratulate DP World on its win. It truly is \u2018the best of the best\u2019 in the rail sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re delighted to win this award for [our] Modal Shift Programme<\/a> for our road to rail shipments,\u201d said John Trenchard, Vice President Commercial & Supply Chain, UK at DP World. \u201cIt\u2019s really nice to be recognised. A lot of people came together to get this done so I\u2019m very proud on behalf of DP World. Thanks to all our logistics partners who have decided to try something a bit new with rail, resulting in over 140,000 shipments.”<\/p>\n

Tesco highly commended<\/h2>\n

Another long-standing user of rail freight, Tesco Distribution, was highly commended in the same category. The retailer is one of the UK\u2019s largest rail freight customers, operating an extensive network of intermodal services linking ports, distribution centres and regional hubs. Tesco has worked closely with rail freight operator Direct Rail Services over many years<\/a>, using rail to move thousands of containers each week. partnership has helped remove significant volumes of heavy goods vehicle traffic from the road network, while providing reliable trunk haulage for one of the UK\u2019s most complex retail supply chains.<\/p>\n

\"Tesco
Tesco intermodal services crisscross Great Britain. Here’s a train on the Highland Main Line in the north of Scotland. Image: \u00a9 ScotRail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the country\u2019s largest supermarket group, Tesco\u2019s commitment to rail freight carries wider significance for the sector, demonstrating that rail can meet the demanding service, reliability and cost requirements of high-volume grocery retailing. The supermarket chain recently extended the movement of refrigerated containers into South Wales, in a collaboration with infrastructure agency Network Rail.<\/p>\n

Logistics UK is one of the UK\u2019s largest business groups, representing logistics businesses across road, rail, water and air, as well as major buyers of freight services. With more than seven million people directly employed in the making, selling and movement of goods, the organisation says logistics has never been more important to UK plc, particularly as decarbonisation, new technology and supply chain disruption reshape the sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dubai-headquartered international port operator DP World has been named Rail Freight Business of the Year by Logistics UK. The gong comes in recognition of its\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3032,1023,65,5519,2973,78,47,1684,85],"tags":[12634],"class_list":["post-339297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dp-world","category-england","category-intermodal","category-logistics-uk","category-london-gateway","category-rail-freight","category-rail-news","category-southampton","category-uk","tag-railfreight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=339297"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339928,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339297\/revisions\/339928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=339297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=339297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=339297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}