XPO Logistics, an American provider of freight transportation services, launched a new intermodal service between France and the United Kingdom. This new service will be on behalf of Schneider Electric, a French company specialising in energy management and automation. Other than gaining more capacity on the route, the French company also expects to reduce its emissions by 46 per cent, for a total of 172 tonnes of CO2 every year.

This initiative fully embraces intermodality since it entails road, rail, and ferry transportation. As XPO pointed out, the containers will be moved by road from Schneider’s warehouse in Mions to the rail terminal in Venissieux, south of Lyon. From there, the goods will be transferred by rail and will travel all the way to the UK via the Eurotunnel.

The new initiative offers an alternative route via ferry as well. The containers can be shipped via rail to Dourges, near Lille, from where they would cross the Channel by ferry. Once in the UK, the goods will be put back on trucks to reach Schneider’s production plant in Telfort, in western England.

XPO and Schneider Electric: a long and strong partnership

Schneider Electric is planning to become carbon-neutral by 2025, hence the collaboration with XPO to find greener transportation solutions. The new service will fact ensure that over 650 kilometres of the whole route will be covered by rail or ferry. The two companies have been in a partnership for over 10 years.

XPO has been providing Schneider with full truckload, less-than-truckload, and multimodal services in France and Spain. “We are strongly committed to alternative transport solutions and will ensure that our valued partnership with Schneider Electric receives the full benefit of our innovation”, said Luis Gomez, president of XPO Europe.

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