Logistics Project of the Year 2019 – Operail’s multimodal freight transport

Yesterday, at the Annual Logistics Conference, Operail’s project for multimodal freight transport was declared winner of the Logistics Project of the Year competition organised by the logistics news department of Äripäev and the supply chain association PROLOG.

“We launched multimodal freight    transport in late august 2018 to increase domestic railway transport and I am glad this project has taken off so well and proven its worth. It also pleases me that our efforts are seen and recognised,” said Raul Toomsalu, Chairman of the Board of Operail. “Within the past 12 months, we have transported nearly 4,300 containers on both the Muuga and Sillamäe lines.”

The competition, which took place for the eighteenth time this year, received more than ten nominations from companies as well as members of the jury, from among which the jury picked the top three. The winner was determined from among the finalists by adding up the results of the jury and the public vote. In addition to Operail’s multimodal freight transport, the top three included Citybee’s minute-based smart rental services and Alexela’s LNG filling station and the world’s first energy department store.

According to Toomsalu, the multimodal freight    transport project helps to increase traffic safety and reduce environmental pollution in the transport sector. “In a year, we have redirected 8,600 trips of freight trucks from the main roads in the country and thereby made an important contribution to increasing traffic safety. We also help the environment, as transporting goods on railways reduces the required amount of fuel by three to four times.”

At the end of summer 2018, Operail launched multimodal transportation on the Muuga–Tartu line with export containers. In February 2019, the Sillamäe–Tartu line was added. New groups of goods were added gradually: crushed stone was delivered to Tartu in containers from April and grain was transported from Southern Estonia to the ports from August. “In 2020, we plan to remove 26,000 freight trucks from traffic and transport 26,000 tonnes of goods in a month,” said the head of Operail regarding the future plans of multimodal freight transport.