UK: A curtain-sided container with a raising roof which is designed to transport double-stacked palletised products by rail has been unveiled by Nestlé UK & Ireland.
The company said the railway network’s height constraints compared to road meant rail ‘had not been a winning option for Nestlé until now’.
The container has a hydraulic mechanism which raises the roof to enable food and drink products to be double-stacked to maximise capacity. The roof is then lowered to just above the height of the load, to fit within railway clearances.
Nestlé has worked with Oxford Rail Strategies, Bootle Containers and Marine Container Test Services to design and build the container.
Later this year trials are to be undertaken between London, Hams Hall and East Midlands Gateway in partnership with Network Rail, Maritime Transport, WH Malcom Group and Freightliner, and customer Tesco.
‘This project has been three years in the making’, said Sally Wright, Head of Delivery at Nestlé UK & Ireland. ‘This project could have a profound impact on reducing the number of trucks that Nestlé puts on the roads.’
