DP World's Modal Shift Programme in Southampton has taken 64,300 lorry journeys off the UK's roads and reduced carbon emissions by more than 17,000 tonnes in its first year. The programme is a major step forward in making logistics more sustainable in the country.
The Modal Shift Programme was launched in September 2023 to improve the commercial viability of rail transport for import laden containers. Under the Programme, customers are incentivised for each container shipped from DP World Southampton to a railhead within 140 miles of DP World Southampton by using rail.
The programme, which is funded by a small charge on all inbound containers passing through the container port, has so far increased DP World Southampton's share of rail freight from 21% to over 30%, with ambitions to increase this further towards 40% by 2026.
In the first 12 months of the scheme, four new rail freight services were launched to give DP World customers more options, including routes between Southampton and Birmingham, Cardiff, East Midlands Gateway and Doncaster.
Last month, DP World launched a second rail service between its Southampton and London Gateway logistics hubs, doubling rail freight capacity between two of the UK's largest container ports. This will give customers even more opportunities to benefit from connections off the UK's congested road network, with the potential to remove up to one million road miles a year.
„With this significant increase in rail freight volume, equivalent to the transfer of approximately 6 million road miles to rail, we are giving more of our customers the opportunity to explore the benefits of rail to the sustainability and resilience of their containerised supply chains,“ commented John Trenchard, Vice President – Commercial & Supply Chain, DP World in the UK.
