Sustainable logistics – la Repubblica

The roadmap is set: to double rail freight traffic in Europe by 2030 and triple it by 2050. It is written in the European Green Deal and has been reaffirmed in the “Fit for 55” package. The EU goal is to reduce polluting emissions from transport in the Old Continent by 90%.

However, to achieve the goal, the logistics system must be able to make the various players in the supply chain communicate and collaborate with each other and to integrate the different modes of goods transport. Road, sea and rail are faces of the same organism which, in order to function, must be able to use a single load unit, such as the container, to optimize the strengths of each mode in terms of flexibility, speed, costs and environmental performance.

There has been progress in this direction since the 1990s, when people began to talk more systematically about intermodality in Europe and in Italy. However, the European Court of Auditors, in its latest report on intermodality published in April, points out that at the moment these progresses have not changed the balance of power with the other modes of transport given that almost 80% of the handling of goods in Europe remains the prerogative of rubber. Therefore, the Court of Auditors invites the Member States to take much more important steps to achieve the objectives set by the EU on decarbonisation.

Intermodality is, in fact, an indispensable element in Community policies on environmental and economic sustainability. For some (few) European countries such as Germany and Austria the path is downhill. For others, like Italy, the goal is much more difficult to achieve. But not impossible. Today, our rail cargo market share is 11-12% against an EU average of 19-20%. It is therefore clear that if we want to reach the 30% threshold by 2030, as Brussels requires us, we must run.