Peter Pardoel (chairman Board of Directors) and Daniel ten Ham (chairman Building Block Infrastructure, Mobility and Modal Shift) at Supply Chain Valley Foundation.
Peter Pardoel Supply Chain Valley's building block 'Infrastructure, Mobility and Modal Shift' focuses on making infrastructure more efficient and sustainable. Building block chairman Daniel ten Ham: "By working together effectively, we can achieve our goal - a greener way of transport. Our organisation hopes that even more entrepreneurs in the region will join our network to think about and innovate on the topic of infrastructure."
"Modal shift is a greener way of transport that we want to realise, of containers from the deep sea ports, via inland navigation and by train towards Limburg, the region of Supply Chain Valley," says Daniel ten Ham, chairman of the building block 'Infrastructure, Mobility and Modal shift. "This does not mean fewer transport movements, but in a less stressful way, trying to reduce the share of road transport to the minimum necessary."
From his role as managing director of Hutchison Ports Venlo, Ten Ham is committed to the region, under the banner of Supply Chain Valley. He continues: "In the Netherlands, we are in a transition where currently road transport is still reasonably affordable and flexible. However, due to increasing pressure from the government, companies will have to start choosing alternative transport options and they will find these in intermodal transport." Modal shift has more benefits than CO2 reduction, according to the chairman; less road transport results in fewer traffic jams, less staff and less road maintenance is needed. Modal shift makes more efficient use of assets (the equipment we use), there is less risk of accidents and less nuisance on the road from, for example, parking trucks. Companies participating in Supply Chain Valley are aware that they need to take their corporate responsibility. "I am convinced that several companies have these ideals. I would therefore like to call on them to join us. Together, we can achieve our goals much faster and better!"
Leading
According to Ten Ham, good infrastructure is a prerequisite for efficient logistics and thus for the growth of the economy in North Limburg. "Actually, everything stagnates if the infrastructure is not in order. Supply Chain Valley wants to be a leader in how to improve infrastructure and modal shift. That is why Supply Chain Valley collects and shares information on these topics. By the way, the definition of 'infrastructure' is not only that of road, water, rail and air freight, but also that of the power grid and the digital grid."
A driving force of Supply Chain Valley in modal shift is to stimulate the important preconditions for trains to run and ships to sail: "Think of 24/7 operation of locks, sufficient shipping depth in the province of Limburg, driving paths on the rail infrastructure and shunting capacity in Venlo and Limburg. But also electrification in Venlo is central, in addition to sufficient transport capacity on our power network and sufficient power at the right time and place. In addition, the Dutch road network (both motorways, provincial and municipal roads) is also very important. To optimise this as much as possible, Supply Chain Valley works together from the companies with the government, knowledge institutions and all network operators."
For improving infrastructure, Ten Ham says there is also great emphasis on digitalisation, circularity and sustainability. "Digitalisation is largely linked to infrastructure as it ultimately leads to more transparency and efficiency. But circularity and sustainability are also of great importance, both when building pipelines, making means of transport more sustainable and when striving to reuse materials or smart application from ICT."
Preconditions determine success
"Venlo and North Limburg have several barge and rail terminals and are able to serve almost any form of transport (containers, trailers, swap bodies, cranable and non-cranable, both maritime and also continental)," says Ten Ham. Yet he says there are also challenges, such as large-scale maintenance of waterways and rail infrastructure. "That determines the continuity of operations. For instance, we want to shift freight transport from road to rail, while we already see rail terminals having capacity conflicts. Such transitions need to be thought through. As do the defining preconditions for electric driving. One such precondition is having sufficient electricity everywhere to facilitate the necessary charging infrastructure. You see that the technical solutions are increasingly available, but the preconditions will be decisive for the success and implementation of electric driving. Within Supply Chain Valley, we want to think about possible solutions together with entrepreneurs, governments and knowledge institutions."
Knowledge Square
In the future, Supply Chain Valley will set up a knowledge square, where key themes will be highlighted. Supply Chain Valley brings together various shippers and, together with these shippers, investigates whether there are opportunities to further expand rail connections to certain regions. Supply Chain Valley recently visited the Transport Logistics Munich fair, where extensive contact was made with deep sea ports and hinterland hubs. Ten Ham: "And there the question was put down whether they in turn have cargo heading towards Venlo. We are waiting, but if so, Supply Chain Valley can increase the number of connections by bringing together shippers, hinterland hubs and rail operators. As a result, there will be more road transport via rail in the future."
Supply Chain Valley
Pooling expertise and recommendations from practitioners
At Supply Chain Valley, companies, knowledge institutions and government in the (Eu)region North Limburg work closely together on projects in areas such as sustainability, labour market, energy transition, digitalisation, innovation, infrastructure structure and mobility. The guiding strategy here is: certain themes can be tackled better together than alone!
