• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Who is the customer that pays for intermodal trains e.g. from Felixstowe?

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

dmncf

Member
Joined
4 Sep 2012
Messages
348
I was wondering about intermodal trains that carry a variety of customers' containers on one train (rather than examples like the Tesco train that have a single customer). For example, GBRf intermodal trains from Hutchison Ports' Port of Felixstowe to Verdion's iPort in Doncaster (https://container-mag.com/2019/05/22/gb-railfreight-launches-new-service-felixstowe-doncaster/) or to Maritime Transport's Wakefield Europort (https://www.globalrailwayreview.com/news/119178/gbrf-felixstowe-wakefield-intermodal-service/).
Does the coastal port or the inland destination pay for these trains to run? Or does everyone with a container on the trains pay individually, like passengers paying for a seat on a passenger train?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Fawkes Cat

Fawkes Cat

Established Member
Joined
8 May 2017
Messages
2,980
dmncf said:
Or does everyone with a container on the trains pay individually, like passengers paying for a seat on a passenger train?
Click to expand...
I suspect that broadly, this is it. Someone (TrainCo) decides there’s money to be made by running this sort of train, so they book a slot for the train to run, so TrainCo is Network Rail (or whoever)’s customer: then companies who want to move containers (ContainerCo1, ContainerCo2 and so on) book spaces on TrainCo’s train so they are TrainCo’s customers. No doubt there are various dodges and wheezes (ContainerCo1 contracts for a dozen containers on every train and so gets a cheaper rate but doesn’t have to use every slot, ContainerCo2 pays as it goes so never pays for an unused slot but is not guaranteed a place, and so on) but I strongly suspect that that is the basic model.
 
E

endofthetunnel

Member
Joined
15 Apr 2020
Messages
316
Location
Wakefield
Having been an end user of container based shipping, this sounds basically right. Much the same as arranging a courier when shipping a parcel really.

Continuing FawkesCats model, ShippingCustomer1, ShippingCustomer2 and so on just contract a ContainerCo to move their box from A to B, and are quoted for such, usually with a variety of speeds and securities costed (air vs sea, depot to depot or end to end, possibly road vs rail etc) and choose a 'route'. Unless you're booking a whole train/plane, the ShippingCustomer gets no real say in which boat, plane or train it'll be on but you do get updates or tracking info.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top