The transport sector is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in Germany. As a result, drinks manufacturer Coca-Cola is making increased use of rail transport between its locations.
DB Cargo is its logistics partner. New routes have been connected to the rail network in February. This work is ongoing so that by the middle of the year there will be a nationwide rail freight network for Coca-Cola that encompasses 13 locations. By shifting to rail, Coca-Cola will save around 1,900 tons of carbon emission s every year. Freight trains will replace around three million lorry kilometres annually.
“You drink Coca-Cola cool. And what's cool for the climate is that drinks manufactured by Coca-Cola are transported by rail over long distances in Germany.
“For consumer goods the mix of long rail journeys and the last mile by lorry to the customer is ideal. We have realised a logistics network together with Coca-Cola that reaches 13 locations – that's unique in Germany in the consumer goods industry.”
DB Cargo hopes to convince even more customers in Europe of the advantages of rail freight logistics.
Coca-Cola and DB Cargo embarked on a pilot project in 2016, which involved shifting long-distance transports on to rail. Since then the number of trips and the destinations have been steadily expanded.
“We largely manufacture regionally and have predominantly short transport routes. Where that isn't possible we're banking increasingly on rail. That's why we're building a network with 19 routes between our locations with DB Cargo this year.
“That's possible in large part because we can book rail freight transports just as spontaneously as by road, in just three days. Since it happens regularly that demand fluctuates, this flexibility is particularly important to us as a consumer goods business. That helps us shift to rail and reach our ambitious goal of becoming a climate-neutral business by 2040.”
Coca-Cola has set itself the goal of reducing its absolute greenhouse gas emissions across its entire value chain by 30 percent by 2030 compared to 2019 figures and to become climate-neutral by 2040.
- Since 2016 Coca-Cola has used DB Cargo to transport goods long-distance in Germany
- 2020: savings of 1.7 million lorry kilometres and 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide
- 2019: savings of 1.4 million lorry kilometres and 700 tons of carbon dioxide
- 2018–2020: doubling of the locations that are connected to the rail network from five to eleven
- 2018–2020: doubling of the routes on the rail network from four to nine
