Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), the bottler of Coca-Cola drinks, is making the switch from road to rail for the distribution of the soft drinks to warehouse locations across London and Yorkshire. In partnership with Maritime Transport and GB RailFreight, a train will run daily to deliver some 2.5 million cans and bottles with each journey.

The soft drinks of Coca Cola have up till now been delivered by road, but the bottler wants to make a shift to rail transport, considering the carbon emission savings that can be made. The switch will save a total of almost 4 million road miles per year and remove a total of 15,000 lorry journeys from some of the UK’s busiest roads. When running at full capacity 31% of CCEP’s total product volume destined for Yorkshire will now be distributed via rail.

First domestic intermodal service

The rail service represents Maritime’s first domestic intermodal service, which will see the movement of 34’ x 45’ heavily modified containers by rail six days per week. Maritime’s distribution fleet will deliver the bottles to the final destination: the CCEP’s warehousing sites.

The new service means an expansion of Maritime and CCEP’s existing partnership. Maritime has provided the bottler with distribution services since 2017. “As a business, we know that to reduce our overall carbon emissions, we need to work with our supply chain partners to continue making meaningful strides towards our business goals”, commented Francisco Javier Sanchez Gandarias, vice president Customer Service and Supply Chain at Coca- Cola Europacific Partners Great Britain.