Inland freight transport in Spain: Comparative

freight transport terrestre en Espana: Comparativa between el transporte ferroviario y el transporte by road

The data shown by the studies that have been carried out on the inland transport of goods en Espana en los ultimos years, reflejan un claro predominio of the transporte by road frente to the transporte ferroviario.

According to statistical data, although in land transport of people, trains are used much more than roads, this trend changes when it comes to freight. In fact, according to the latest report presented by the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC), in 2016, the railways had a specific weight of 5% on the total land transport of goods in Spain, accumulating a decrease in the first six months of 2017 of 9.5% of activity. This gives the supremacy to road transport, which accounts for the remaining 95 per cent.

Road Freight Transport of Goods

In order to understand why road freight transport takes precedence over rail freight transport, it is necessary to analyse the main characteristics of road and rail transport.

Characteristics of inland rail freight transport

Advantages:

• It allows the transport of a very high volume of goods when the journey is very long
• The costs de cada operacion se reducen, ya that the costs fijos se distribuyen between un mayor volumen de goods.
• It allows the transport of very different types of goods on the same route.
• The incidencia de accidentes es muy baja, ya that the ternes modernos cuentan con numerosas medidas de safety.
• Producen una baja contaminacion, especially modern electric trains.
• Se evita los problemas de congestion de trafico that do occur on the roads are avoided.
• It offers the alternative of intermodal coordination with other modes of transport.

Disadvantages

• Depende de la infraestructura ferroviaria que haya instalada, not reaching all places. This limits the capillarity of the service, requiring the complement of road transport to reach the centers where the train does not reach.
• There is a limitation when it comes to international rail transport, since the track gauge in Spain is different from the rest of Europe, so it is necessary to make a transhipment when the destination is Europe.
• No se puede acceder hasta the destino final de the cargo, such as warehouses or other delivery points. In these cases, road transport support is still required to complete the journey.
• The costs of having to transship goods are quite high, so, in general terms, the cost per operation is higher.

In reality, land transport by rail is a means of transport that will always or almost always require the support of road transport.

Characteristics of the inland transport of goods by road

Advantages:

• Above all , the cost of this means is the most economical,, por eso the gran mayoria de goods se transportan by road.
• It allows gran flexibilidad a the hora de transportar cualquier type of goods, even dangerous goods, in compliance with the relevant requirements.
• It is the most direct means, precisamente por the enorme infraestructura de carreteras that existe, that llega a cualquier lugar of the pais.
• Muy recomendado para transportar goods peligrosas o para el transport of special goods.

Disadvantages

• La siniestralidad es mas elevada that en otros mediosprecisely because it is the most widely used.
• There may be congestion problems, which slow down delivery times, although with modern route planning systems alternative routes can be found in real time.
• Historicamente ha sido the medio de transporte mas contaminante, although in recent years research has been carried out in this direction, with the development of new truck engines that are much more efficient and less polluting.

El volumen de carga that cabe en un lorry es mas reducido que el que pueda contener un tren.

El panorama europeo y the nuevos retos en the freight transport terrestre en Espana

Undoubtedly, in Spain we still have some unresolved issues to resolve in land freight transport.

According to statistical data, in the rest of Europe rail freight accounts for 15-18% of total land transport. Factors such as the extensive rail infrastructure network are probably one of the most important arguments for understanding this figure.

For its part, el freight transport by road debe aprovechar the auge that is viviendo and apply the latest advances in innovation and development to make, for convertirlo en un medio de transporte transport..

In short, no medium is 100% good or 100% bad. The important thing, and what is really interesting, is to try to take advantage of the synergies that can be found between them. In fact, as we pointed out earlier, inland freight transport by rail is highly intermodal, which is precisely why it is a good option for covering large parts of the journey which then ends with road transport to the final destination.

Phone:
+34 674 346 912

Email:
info@transvolando.com

Address:
C/ Empleo, 28 Nave 10 28906 Getafe (Madrid – España)
How to get there?

Do you need anything else…?

Sometimes we need the unwritten. If we can answer your questions about our services, get in touch us and we will get back to you as soon as we can!

Budget

If you are here, it is because you need a freight forwarding service and we are sure we can do it!

Request your quote in under 3 minutes with a single click click.