Unique concept in European network design
28 September 2011 – Überherrn, Bratislava and now Clermont-Ferrand: Dachser’s three-hub concept is at the heart of a pan-European network design that is unique in the logistics world. In declaring its third Eurohub open for business in France – after Überherrn in Germany and Bratislava in Slovakia – Dachser has put the finishing touches to this concept. The logistics company has invested ten million euros in the transshipment centre, where it has also created 100 new jobs.
The new Eurohub is situated in the municipality of Combronde, around 30 kilometres from the French city of Clermont-Ferrand. It acts as a central logistics platform to which all of the branch offices in the French network are linked. Every night around 60 trucks converge on the 98 loading bays. From there the shipments are forwarded on directly to their target destinations.
Thanks to the hub Dachser can operate daily services within France. All of the French branch offices can be reached within a maximum of 48 hours, while France’s economic centres benefit from direct links. In the near future there will also be daily services between France and Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain and Portugal. By intelligently consolidating direct and hub services Dachser can dispense with expensive express services.
“Thanks to targeted and systematic consolidation of consignments at the three Eurohubs, we can offset imbalances in European traffic flows using national and regional freight. This enables us to achieve better capacity utilization rates, increasing the economic efficiency and reducing the environmental impact of our forwarding services,” says Bernhard Simon, head of Dachser’s management board.
The location of Clermont-Ferrand was a deliberate choice according to Simon: “It is true that France’s economic centre is Paris, but its geographical centre is actually Combronde,” explains the head of Dachser’s management board. At this geographical centre, on a 60,600-square-metre site, Dachser has constructed a 7,000-square-metre transit terminal and a three-storey office building, measuring around 1,600 square metres. Both buildings reflect Dachser’s policy of sustainability: 3,000 square metres of the transit terminal’s roof have been fitted with solar panels and the office building has been constructed to low-energy building standards.
The logistics company is using double-deck swap bodies both at the Eurohub and at many other locations in France. In so doing, Dachser is playing a pioneering role in the French groupage market. The “road container” offers the following advantages:
- High payload – double-deck loading provides space for 38 europallets in one swap body.
- Flexible goods transshipment – fewer transshipment processes optimize goods flows.
- Increased level of load security thanks to modern stowage systems.
In 2010 Dachser generated total revenue of EUR 3.8 billion. 19,250 staff working in 310 profit centres worldwide handled 46.2 million consignments weighing a total of 35.5 million tonnes.