IT
New partnership signed for green logistics 2.0
- Between the FS Group, Poste Italiane, Mercitalia Logistics and sennder to develop sustainable and digitalized logistics
- With the aim of improving the competitive offer of companies, offering intermodal logistics solutions in Europe, taking advantage of new opportunities offered by artificial intelligence technologies
Rome, 14 March 2024 - Developing sustainable and digitalized freight mobility to expand the logistics network of intermodal freight transport on a European scale.
This is the main objective of the partnership established in a LoI, Letter of Intent, signed today by Luigi Ferraris, CEO of FS Group, Matteo Del Fante, CEO of Poste Italiane, Sabrina De Filippis, CEO of Mercitalia Logistics, lead company of the FS Italiane Group's Logistics Hub, and David Nothacker, CEO and co-founder of sennder, a German company active in the digitalization of road freight transport.
Every year Mercitalia Logistics and sennder transport over 53 million tons of goods, of which 41 million through 100,000 trains and 12 million tons with 1 million loads managed by road. The collaboration aims to offer Italian companies innovative and sustainable intermodal logistics solutions that combine rail services with first-last mile road services throughout Europe. A highly computerized transport experience capable of optimizing costs, flows, distances traveled, and emissions. An advantage for actors in various production chains who will thus be able to fully exploit the potential of the European Railway Network of the Logistics Hub by combining the first and last mile by road offered by sennder with green vehicles, using low-emission fuels such as HVO and electric motors.
"The leading European digital freight forwarder and the leading Logistics Hub of the FS Group join forces for an innovative project that optimizes import/export transport flows with a lower environmental impact – stated Sabrina De Filippis, CEO of Mercitalia Logistics. The collaboration will indeed allow for more efficient and sustainable logistics thanks to advanced technologies, monitoring and managing shipping loads digitally, reducing CO₂ emissions". "After our Joint Venture with Poste Italiane, which created the main digital road freight operator in Italy, we now have the opportunity to collaborate with one of the main logistics companies to fully enhance intermodal transport, thus accelerating our mission to reduce CO₂ emissions from transport, which represent a significant portion of total emissions in Europe. – stated David Nothacker, CEO and co-founder of sennder.
The technologies and algorithms based on artificial intelligence developed by sennder will support not only the digitalization of intermodal operations but also the increase in efficiency through the reduction of empty kilometers traveled". The rapprochement of the two Groups was stimulated by Poste Italiane, a leading company in Italy for the transport and widespread distribution of packaged goods, which has been collaborating with sennder since 2019, entrusting it with all complete road transport in our country. The agreement is part of the FS Group's strategy that sees innovation and digitalization as key factors in its industrial plan.
A process already underway that involves the adoption of cutting-edge technologies to significantly reduce the environmental impact of logistics operations, while ensuring a high-quality service. In future forecasts, based on a technical-economic feasibility study, the possibility of establishing a NewCo with the birth of a European "Multimodal Operator" capable of offering the logistics market innovative and sustainable "rail-road" intermodal transport solutions will be evaluated.