The advantages of intermodal transport using food containers

Intermodal transport via food tank containers represents an excellent transport solution for businesses that need to ship and transfer their product with efficiency, safety and quality, but also for businesses attentive to issues like sustainability and respect for the environment.

In fact, intermodal transportation is a way of transferring goods using containers (standardised units for shipping) which can easily be moved from one form of transport to another to reach their destination via the most convenient means in terms of time and costs (sea, road or rail). The product is loaded onto containers in the company and is not tampered with during transfers from one means of transport to another. Whether shipped by sea or delivered by road or rail, the product is never transferred and also benefits from the characteristics of the container itself.

Nowadays, doing business means effectively coordinating different parameters and aspects: production, workforce, logistics and transport. Transporting goods while guaranteeing quality and safety means, first and foremost, dispatching your products quickly, at the right cost, without compromising on product quality. Transporting food liquids, in particular, requires close attention to be paid to all these aspects. Speed, safety, reliability and flexibility are all requirements that are fully satisfied by multimodal transport. The use of resources (including economic resources) is therefore optimised and the product can complete its journey, as long or short as it may be, without any risks.

No intermediate reloading: intermodal transportation is a guarantee of quality

Avoiding intermediate reloading is perhaps the biggest mark of efficiency because it provides the shipping company with the peace of mind that the product’s integrity is ensured. Tank containers also bring down loading and unloading costs while further reducing the overall delivery time. In fact, the trailers have been designed and produced to allow operators to climb onto the rear of the tank and access the discharge valve as well as easily inspect the tank containers. All of these are equipped with a Ground Control, which allows opening from below, without the operator having to climb onto the tank.

Rubino Rs specialises in transporting food liquids with our own road tankers and bi-modal tank containers. This type of transportation is more environmentally compatible and economically convenient. Indeed, in recent years, the growing importance of eco-sustainability has persuaded top management to make a series of significant investments so that Rubino Rs is able to guarantee high levels of efficiency and reliability. Until now, our investments have focused primarily on identifying an alternative to traditional road transport. We offer our clients multimodal transportation solutions that improve safety and sustainability, also making our 100% next-generation fleet of vehicles, all with euro 5 and euro 6 emission standards, available for their use.

Proprietary tank containers and traceability: high quality intermodal transportation

Deliveries are extremely quick and punctual thanks to the interconnection between proprietary units (180 single-compartment tank containers from 28,000 to 35,000 litres, which can be divided into sub-compartments and can transport all food liquids also in accordance with the ATP regime, heated and at pressure, with ground control, i.e., loading-unloading from below), permanent traceability and excellent levels of organisation, and the service provided in partnership with Transiberiana for the internal cleaning of tanks, steam heating and storage.

In fact, that which others might regard as a limitation of intermodal transportation is actually a major plus for us. The ability to organise logistics, the instrumental and precise approach of intermodality and the individual shipments, the customer assistance to guarantee flexibility in operations can be regarded disadvantages. Yet Rubino Rs rightly regards them as aspects to be proud of. Furthermore, in this period the use of this transport method has been extremely useful, as it has allowed to limit the movement of drivers, allowing the goods to travel regularly on the various carriers prepared for intermodality.

As mentioned, although there are numerous benefits to intermodal transportation, the decision to use it for your product must be taken on the basis of the characteristics of the product and whether you need to transport food liquids. When evaluating this type of option, Rubino Rs also assists the customer in the consultation phase and in choosing the best method, relying on our “family” experience in the sector since the 1960s. From the first shipments of food liquids, which mainly consisted of extra virgin olive oil, through to its specialisation in the transport of food liquids like wine, seed and palm oil, juice, glucose, milk and molasses: all of Rubino Rs’s activities have always been founded on its advanced capacity for evaluation and organisation. Parameters that enable us to guarantee safety, speed and traceability.

In short, multimodal transportation in tank containers is highly recommended whenever it is necessary to transport a perishable product with high standards of hygiene. A solution which is improving in Italy also in terms of infrastructure. In any case, Rubino Rs is able to alleviate and remove any shortcomings in domestic internal transport and that towards Europe with direct solutions.

Intermodal transportation in tank containers also proved to be very useful during periods of Covid restrictions because it enabled increasingly large numbers of goods and food liquids to be moved in large quantities, over long distances, using a limited number of staff who could easily be monitored from a health perspective. By rail for long distances, on the road for the final stretch, but always with systems and human resources that are easy to control, track and regulate. As a result, the measures introduced to control the spread of Coronavirus have also led to an increase in the use of multimodal transport.

Italy is one of the biggest users of intermodal transportation in Europe, particularly as regards shipments abroad. An aspect that obliges businesses to select, in an increasingly globalised market, reliable partners that are used to working in international contexts and who know how to simplify delivery operations.

In fact, multimodal transport is essential for shipping goods to Europe (the Alps, for example, represent a physical barrier to road transport but not to intermodal transportation): optimising the management of intermodal services, combining the protection of the product with quality services and more sustainable levels of environmental impact, is the mission of Rubino Rs.

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