Supermarkets' use of rail freight

[rabb]

JG Russell operate the Tesco contract in Scotland. They took that contract from Stobart (Culina) last year. They also handle rail freight for Mars, Sainsburys, Costco, Amazon, Highland Spring (From their Blackford freight terminal) and LNG gas containers for SGN to name a few from Coatbridge.
They acquired the Freightliner terminal in Coatbridge this year. They contract DRS to run the freight from the Russell freight terminal in Daventry to Coatbridge and vice versa. Mossend (Maritime) is no longer used for Tesco as from September this year. Russell Road also do DTS (Direct to store) for Tesco where the containers are run direct from the railhead in Coatbridge to local(ish) stores as well as "Last Mile" for Sainsburys DC, Costco, Amazon DC etc. It's a huge operation and set to grow further soon.
Russell ran around 15-20 containers a day for Morrisons too but they moved over to Culina last year and went back to road freight. I believe they are going back to rail soon though as they realised it wasn't cost effective by road.

As an aside, Russell also operate a railhead in Inverness. They run about 10-15 containers up there every night for Tesco and gas ISO's for SGN. Those Inverness containers are DTS (Direct to store) where they are collected by Russell Road and delivered direct to stores in the Highlands. Once emptied, they are re-loaded with empty cages from the stores as well as wood products etc from other businesses and run back to Coatbridge where they are then delivered locally or sent southbound.
BTW, Tesco run a mix of Ambient and chilled containers with Russell which allows them to run ambient, fresh and frozen produce by rail. Russell run the refrigerated containers from Coatbridge to Tesco Livingston by road daily.
It's certainly a growing sector again as more and more businesses look to reduce their carbon footprint.

 

[railfan99]

Those Inverness containers are DTS (Direct to store) where they are collected by Russell Road and delivered direct to stores in the Highlands. Once emptied, they are re-loaded with empty cages from the stores as well as wood products etc from other businesses and run back to Coatbridge where they are then delivered locally or sent southbound.

It's surprising that food grade containers are also used for wood products.

Greta information; thank you!

 

[rabb]

It's pretty standard practice globally throughout the industry. Empty containers aren't paying any fare. Moving empty boxes is a cardinal sin!
The name on the side of them often belie what's inside In my time working in the industry, I've saw everything in containers from Whisky to cars (yes cars) to TV's and everything in-between.
I would best describe Intermodal transport as a well organised free for all. I could drop off a container of Whisky to our railhead bound for Australia and the box would appear back there 6 months later full of Teddy Bears from China.
It's a fascinating industry.

 

[Adrian1980uk]

It's surprising that food grade containers are also used for wood products.

Greta information; thank you!

It's similar to road transport, you don't have hgv trailer specific to food, I've loaded freezer trailers with electronic goods (freezer unit switched off I'd course).

 

[Kilopylae]

It's pretty standard practice globally throughout the industry. Empty containers aren't paying any fare. Moving empty boxes is a cardinal sin!
The name on the side of them often belie what's inside In my time working in the industry, I've saw everything in containers from Whisky to cars (yes cars) to TV's and everything in-between.
I would best describe Intermodal transport as a well organised free for all. I could drop off a container of Whisky to our railhead bound for Australia and the box would appear back there 6 months later full of Teddy Bears from China.
It's a fascinating industry.

amazing that it doesn't all grind to a halt more often than it does!

 

[En]

They do for containers in from ports. There were more elaborate plans for their big DC at Castle Donnington but sadly became too expensive.

Castle Conington had a lot of elaborate plans, it is my understanding that certain 3PLs are still being used 10 years later becasue the System and Castle CDonington could not cope with certain types of produts ( Bras in particular)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Sep 2024 ==

It's similar to road transport, you don't have hgv trailer specific to food, I've loaded freezer trailers with electronic goods (freezer unit switched off I'd course).

normally as back loads
used to work for a 3PL and there wasa regualr run of duvets for a high st store that come to the warehouse i worked in , 99% of the time they came in fridge trailers , as it was a nice back load for the fridges and meant that the trailers didn;t need ot be cleanedout again ( only swpt out) once they returned to base

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Sep 2024 ==

It's pretty standard practice globally throughout the industry. Empty containers aren't paying any fare. Moving empty boxes is a cardinal sin!
The name on the side of them often belie what's inside In my time working in the industry, I've saw everything in containers from Whisky to cars (yes cars) to TV's and everything in-between.
I would best describe Intermodal transport as a well organised free for all. I could drop off a container of Whisky to our railhead bound for Australia and the box would appear back there 6 months later full of Teddy Bears from China.
It's a fascinating industry.

this is why 'one trip' 20 and 40 foot containers are so relatively cheap in the UK and Europe as there isn;t the same volumes heading back to India / SE Asia / China as there is coming to europe / UK from those destinations as an empty container costs the same to ship back as a full one and it can be cheaper to adminster if you just buy new boxes each time