Network Rail awards DHL £40m planning centre deal
DHL Supply Chain has been awarded a four-year contract worth over £40m by Network Rail to provide a road transport planning centre in the UK. This facility will manage the day to day road haulage requirements for materials and supplies that are not suited for movement by rail.
Network Rail moves 3.68m tonnes of materials and supplies each year, of which 7% is moved by road. The deal will help Network Rail save £1.8m in the first year alone through more efficient use of road transport.
The integrated road haulage planning centre, to be based at Network Rail’s offices in Milton Keynes, will give Network Rail visibility of vehicle availability and fleet management. DHL’s will help reduce the number of road journeys by combining multi-supplier consignments, and identifying return loads. Such efficiency savings reduce vehicle movements, helping Network Rail reach sustainability objectives.
Martin Elwood, Network Rail’s national delivery service director, said: “Network Rail’s first preference is always to move our material by rail but this is not always a practical or a possible option. This contract will help us generate efficiencies in the way we manage our road haulage activities, helping us to reduce costs and hit our sustainability targets.”
Dean Partington, head of utilities and infrastructure, DHL Supply Chain UK, said: “We are proud of the standard of work that we have delivered for Network Rail to date and look forward to building on this over the coming years. Through our extensive supply chain expertise, we are confident that the new control and transport management system will create a new industrial platform for rail suppliers, delivering additional financial and environmental savings for both businesses.”
Under the agreement, DHL will manage: The movement of heavy infrastructure materials including short rail, ballast, sleepers, switches and crossings; the movement of non-heavy materials including demand for maintenance spares and inbound freight from material suppliers; demand for road freight from major programmes; ad-hoc road haulage services required by infrastructure maintenance and infrastructure investment teams.
