Rail-Flow selected by Europe’s leading rail forwarder – VTG Rail Logistics – as digital service provider for its entire process chain

VTG Rail Logistics is standardizing and accelerating its core processes with immediate effect – these range from purchasing, sales and planning, through order and transport management, to invoicing. Rail-Flow’s digital ecosystem makes this possible. The contract covers the adaptation and further development of Rail-Flow products, their provision to VTG Rail Logistics users, and 24/7 support.

VTG Rail Logistics relies on Rail Flow’s proven Procurement & Tender Management (PTM) platform for the purchase and sale of transport services. The rollout of PTM is starting immediately in all national companies of VTG Rail Logistics. Following the conclusion of contracts with customers and service providers, the processing of rail logistics services before, during and after transport will in future be controlled by Rail TMS throughout Europe in real-time. This software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution sets new standards in terms of professional completeness, automation, user-friendliness and portals & interfaces. Simple administrative tasks are automated. This allows VTG Rail Logistics’ employees to focus on proactive management of train traffic and exchanges with customers and partners. The first rollout will take place this summer. The Europe-wide rollout will be completed by the mid-2023. In addition to block train transports and complex logistics concepts, classic single wagon transports will then also be handled via Rail TMS.

Thanks to Rail-Flow’s digital solutions, VTG Rail Logistics‘ processes will be harmonized across Europe and commercial and operational activities will be managed holistically. Customers benefit from increased quality in processing and an accelerated information flow.

"For the renewal of our IT landscape, we needed a provider with IT and rail expertise who could support us in enabling an efficient and uniform process for all national companies. In doing so, the digital solution should be the link between the contractual agreements and operational as well as administrative process steps for each individual customer. Rail-Flow offered us this complete package and we are looking forward to working together," says Andrea Weichert, Chief Financial Officer VTG Rail Logistics.

Since its founding in May 2020, Rail-Flow has established itself as a key digital solutions provider in the European rail freight and intermodal market.

Dominik Fürste (CEO & Co-Founder of Rail-Flow) elaborates: "We are very proud of the milestone we have reached and the trust VTG Rail Logistics has placed in us."

"With our end-to-end approach, we have several unique selling propositions that will support other market players with similar digitization challenges in the coming years," underlines Osman Akdemir (COO & Co-Founder Rail-Flow).

About VTG:
VTG AG, headquartered in Hamburg, is a global asset and logistics company with a focus on rail. In addition to hiring out rail freight cars and tank containers, the group offers multimodal logistics services and integrated digital solutions. The company’s fleet includes around 88,500 rail freight cars, mainly tank cars, intermodal cars, standard freight cars and sliding wall cars, as well as around 5,000 tank containers.

With its diversified portfolio of services, VTG offers its customers a high-performance platform for the international transport of goods and develops individually tailored logistics solutions across all sectors. Its long-standing and specific expertise covers the entire transport chain supported by smart technology. The group has many years of experience and specific know-how, especially in the transport of liquid and sensitive goods. Its customers include a large number of renowned companies from almost all sectors of industry, such as the chemical, petroleum, automotive, agri-cultural and paper industries.

In financial year 2020, VTG generated revenue of €1.2 billion and an operating profit (EBITDA) of €492 million. The company has a presence primarily in Europe, North America, Russia, and Asia via subsidiaries and associated companies. As of December 31, 2020, VTG employed around 2,100 people worlwide.