One Hundred New Actros for Samskip Van Dieren
Business & Logistics
In the early nineties, Henk van Dieren jumped onto the intermodal train. Today, his company Samskip Van Dieren Multimodal is a market leader in the combination of road, rail and ship transport. The new Actros Euro VI plays an important role.
The most profitable solution. 540 new Actros trucks are to join the fleet over the coming five years – then Samskip van Dieren will drive 100 percent Mercedes-Benz.
It all began in a sleepless night. More than twenty years ago, Henk van Dieren was in a remote Polish hotel and, from his bed, looked out the window. He saw a long freight train passing, loaded with containers. This gave him a brilliant idea. "At that moment I knew: This is the solution to cope with the competition in the transport sector", Samskip Van Dieren Multimodal's CEO recalls. Thus, the perhaps most interesting chapter was added to the Genemuiden forwarder's rich history.
After its establishment in 1959, Van Dieren Transport initially gained fame as a transport specialist for home textiles. In the early nineties, however, road transport proved not to be a forward-looking solution. Van Dieren: "The opening of the Russian an Eastern European markets after perestroika led to a sharp increase in the goods shipped eastwards. However, our profits evaporated due to long queue times for our trucks at the border. That had to change. At an early stage, we therefore started looking out for intermodal solutions. When we added rail transport to our services in 1992, we were real trend-setters.”
In 2002, Van Dieren Transport changed into Van Dieren Maritime and approached the marked as 'intermodal architects'. A couple of years ago, Samskip Multimodal B.V. in Rotterdam became the innovative company's sole owner. Since 2012, it operates under the name of Samskip Van Dieren Multimodal and is among the leading players in European intermodal transport. While the sector is struggling in adverse weather, Van Dieren Multimodal grows upwind. Samskip Multimodal offers short distance sea transport to destinations like the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain and Portugal, which proved to be an excellent addition to Samskip Van Dieren Multimodal's network, including thirty-five staff members in the Genemuiden control tower.
"We now have twenty years of experience in intermodal transport", Van Dieren explains. "We are continuously developing new rail services to various countries and strategic hubs. Traditionally we are strongly present in Scandinavia, but now we also have connections to Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy and Turkey. In this way we serve Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe. The risk is safely spread, since we carry a large variety of goods."
Recently, Samskip Van Dieren Multimodal started focusing his European intermodal cargo flows around his own new rail terminal in Duisburg. With its total area of 140,000 square metres, mostly for 45-foot containers and piggyback trailers, it strongly sharpens his competitive edge. The new terminal has seven tracks, each 700 metres long, where shuttle trains can be loaded and unloaded simultaneously. Currently more than fifty trains per week come and go from and to a growing number of European destinations.
For the initial and terminal road haulage, Samskip Van Dieren Multimodal has a fleet of about two hundred trucks, spread over its European locations. Mercedes-Benz delivered no less than 70 percent of these. Under a framework agreement, both parties agreed to add 540 Actros tractor trucks to the fleet over the next five years, so in the near future the number will rise to 100 percent. In 2013, no fewer than one hundred new Actros trucks with Euro VI motor entered service.
Van Dieren: “Besides the excellent product quality of the Mercedes-Benz trucks, our relationship with the dealer Wensink and Mercedes-Benz Nederland has always been excellent. During the last tender, we talked to achieve a win-win situation. The result is a remarkable five years framework agreement. What is more, Mercedes-Benz has a finely woven international service network that will always keep us mobile."
In 2012, eighty Actros 1842 LS 4x2 and twenty Actros 2542 6x2 trucks with a leading axle joined the fleet. Most of the trucks with leading axles serve for transport in Sweden and Norway, because of legal provisions concerning axle loads. All trucks have StreamSpace cabins and are equipped with FleetBoard. This enables driving style analysis, maintenance planning and remote reading of tachograph data. Through an interface it also supports the exchange of messages between the trucks and the planning department.
The new Actros trucks came with a clean and economical Euro VI motor. Van Dieren: "Apart from laws and regulations, I think it is important that we keep the world liveable for our children. The intermodal transport concept does just the same. Only in 2012, our trains covered 60 million transport kilometres, and in the next two years we will get to 75 million kilometres. In this way, we help to fulfil Brussels' wish to reduce CO₂ significantly over the coming decades. Moreover, of course our customers also ask us more and more frequently about sustainable transport solutions. In this respect too, Mercedes-Benz was just the right partner for us. At an early stage, they could deliver Euro VI trucks that were both reliable and economical. For this reason, I do not consider our investment into Euro VI to be extra cost, but an opportunity to stand out in the marketplace."
Samskip Van Dieren Multimodal's success proves that the future belongs to innovation and cooperation - with both suppliers and fellow forwarders. Without a hint of arrogance, Van Dieren says: "Let's not compete to death but jointly look for intermodal solutions in order to offer the right prices to our customers. My father taught me: it is easier to share a profit of 1 euro than a loss of 2 euros. And he was right!"
Photograph: Roger de Kok
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