Dascher has invested 10m euros in a site near Clermont-Ferrand in France which will be the third of the “Eurohubs” around which it is building its European network.
It has already opened sites at Überherrn in Germany and Bratislava in Slovakia.
The 60,600 sq m site at Combronde, around 30 km from Clermont-Ferrand acts as a central logistics platform to which all of the branch offices in the French network are linked. It has built a 7,000 sq m transit terminal. Some 3,000 sq m of the roof has been fitted with solar panels.
Every night around 60 trucks deliver into the depot which has 98 loading bays and employs 100 people. From there the shipments are forwarded on directly to their target destinations.
All of the French branch offices can be reached within 48 hours. In the near future there will also be daily services between France and Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
Bernhard Simon, head of Dachser’s management board, said: “Thanks to targeted and systematic consolidation of consignments at the three Eurohubs, we can offset imbalances in European traffic flows using national and regional freight. This enables us to achieve better capacity utilization rates, increasing the economic efficiency and reducing the environmental impact of our forwarding services.
The location of Clermont-Ferrand was a deliberate choice. “It is true that France’s economic centre is Paris, but its geographical centre is actually Combronde,” said Simon.
The company is using double-deck swap bodies both at the Eurohub and at many other locations in France.