TMA Logistics, CTU and VCL will collaborate to establish the North West Central Corridor. This cargo consolidation aims to lead to a more reliable barge product, more sustainable transport and less handling delays at the terminals. The initiative is supported by the deep sea container terminals in Rotterdam, Port of Amsterdam, the Port of Rotterdam Authority and the sustainable logistics programme Lean & Green Europe.
Inland shipping is vital for the transportation of containers on the Amsterdam-Utrecht-Rotterdam route. In fact, 250,000 containers are transported every year through this route. Since February 18th, cargo is specifically bundled. The new partnership means that vessels will consolidate at least 150 to 200 containers at the various terminals for one deep sea container terminal in Rotterdam (RWG, APMT, ECT Delta, ECT Euromax). To begin, seven inland vessels will make seventeen departures per week, transporting about 5,000 containers.
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Commenting on the collaboration, Etienne Morrien, Director of CTU, stated that as ‘hinterland’ they need to adapt to the growth in cargo, using innovative solutions to keep inland shipping competitive and reliable. In addition, Rens Rohde, CFO TMA Holding, believes that bundling will cause lower demurrage and detention costs, as well as less containers to be transported by road.
The North West Central Corridor complies with the cargo transport corridor programme approach, in which the Ministry of Infrastructure & Water Management, provinces, port authorities, the Top Sector Logistics and business community cooperate on so-called ‘Top Corridors’. Namely, the West-Brabant Corridor started last year and works in a similar way, as it connects the ports of Tilburg, Oosterhout and Moerdijk with Rotterdam.
Rob Smit, Hinterland Manager at the Port of Amsterdam, mentioned:
We wholeheartedly support these kinds of projects in which the sector’s interests come first. Good handling of inland container shipping is vital to the development of the Netherlands as Europe’s most efficient and reliable logistics hub
