Freight Forwarding in Scandinavia - A Hotbed of Innovation

As home to some of the most innovativethe Port of Gothenburg. This is a process that
companies in the world - Nokia, Ericsson andallows Swedish inland terminals served by shuttle
Volvo to name but a few - it may come as notrains to handle customs clearance, storage and
surprise that Scandinavia has also led the way indocumentation of international freight.
the freight forwarding market.The first town to be integrated with the Port of
The Nordic countries have often been a hotbedGothenburg is Vaggeryd, 200 kilometres to the
where the international freight industry has testedeast.
innovative developments.RailPort Scandinavia is a means of facilitating
For example, when British Airways first testedlogistics, reducing costs and increasing capacity,
freighter flights in the nineties, they looked tothus improving the overall quality of freight
Gothenburg in Sweden rather than their majorservices for the customer.
markets.This is the latest initiative in a successful Swedish
A fleet of airlines headed for Sweden, Norway,rail freight strategy introduced in 2001 with the
Finland and Denmark, attracted not by the tinylaunch of two daily container shuttle trains that
passenger market but by the huge global potentialsaw 110,000 teu transported in its first year. In
of the freight transport market.2007, that had increased to 340,000 teu, saving
More recently there has been a slowdown in thean estimated 42,000 tons of carbon dioxide
air freight market as customers switch to roademissions.
transport for their freight forwarding. ShippingThe port of Gothenburg now has 70 train
companies have increasingly taken advantage ofdepartures a day of which 46 are operated for
Europe's highly developed road network.the oil, petroleum, chemical, paper and steel
Most cargo carriers now serve the Nordics with aindustries and the remaining 24 are container
mix of freighter lift, belly capacity or smallershuttles.
passenger planes and extensive truck networks.The port of Gothenburg started its box shuttles
In Scandinavia, the level of co-operation and jointwith just four train operators but now has ten rail
working between the various parts of thecompanies - a testament to the success of
industry is extremely high, with customersSweden having deregulated their rail industry and
benefiting from this streamlining of the logistics.its impact on freight forwarding.
Sometimes called co-modality, this is the conceptThe Gothenburg strategy provides freight shuttle
of the various modes of freight transport workinglinks to six Swedish ports. As only Gothenburg
together rather then competing with each other.has the capacity to handle the large container
The Scandinavian countries have pioneered thisvessels, this has had the effect of increasing the
model, which is now regarded as the wayfreight transport market for the smaller and inland
forward for the development of freightports.
forwarding throughout Europe.Despite the global fame of companies like Nokia
Many years ago, these were the very firstand Volvo, it's not all about cars and mobile
markets, especially in Sweden and Finland, wherephones in Scandinavia.
the so-called tripartite approach was developed.Another hot Nordic export is fresh fish from
This meant that the shipping company, freightNorway. In fact, fresh farmed salmon and trout is
company and carrier sat at the same table andNorway's largest export after oil and gas.
openly discussed how best to organise the trafficFreight forwarding carriers have invested in the
flow. This holistic approach has given rise to somestate of the art cold storage facilities needed to
innovative developments.keep the products fresh. In this aspect of freight
A good example of this is the recent launch ofservices too, Scandinavia is leading the way.
RailPort Scandinavia, now being fast tracked by