OREANDA-NEWS. October 20, 2009. German logistics company DB Schenker and TransContainer have signed an agreement to build a container depot in Latvia. Under the agreement, a container and wagon park belonging to TransContainer will be located in the compound of the logistics complex in Riga. The main goal of cooperation is to streamline container freight traffic from Europe to Russia via Latvia and back. The desired results can be achieved thanks to the availability of a depot of accessible empty containers and flatcars of various types belonging to TransContainer. This means that carriers will no longer have to wait for empty flatcars to arrive from Russia to be loaded. This arrangement will slash the time needed for bringing the goods to their destination, and cut freight transportation costs.

The two parties hope that overhauling their global multimodal services with transhipment in Riga will lure containerized freight to rail transport.

Karl Nutzinger, member of the Board of Directors of Schenker AG, commented on the agreement thus:”Since this is the first cooperation agreement between a German logistics company and a Russian Railways subsidiary in this region, we would like to attain maximum results from the novel experience of providing more attractive services to consignors.
TransContainer's General Director Petr Baskakov noted after signing the agreement: “This project signifies a qualitatively higher level of long-term cooperation between TransContainer and DB Schenker: It extends Russian-German relations towards the Baltic States and Scandinavia.”