INTERPORTO QUADRANTE EUROPE VERONA Ondrej Stopka 1 and Marián Šulgan 2 Introduction Interporto Quadrante Europe Verona Freight Village has been in operation since 1975, when it was established on the initiative of several regional companies and the local government. Its importance for the Italian economy lies mainly in an ideal location on road and rail network. Thanks to this location and also the range and quality of provided services, Interporto Quadrante Europe Verona is literally the gateway to Italy. Also therefore, Interporto Verona was evaluated between 70 other similar centers as the best public logistics center (freight village) in Europe. General facts The Quadrante Europa Freight Village, located at intersection between the Brenner (north-south) and Serenissima (east-west) turnpikes and the corresponding railroad lines, occupies an area of 2 500 000 m 2 with a future expansion up to 4 200 000 m 2. This infrastructure, conceived and managed by the Consorzio Zai with detailed plan approved by the Veneto Region, is directly connected to the Verona Villafranca airport [1]. It is an ideal meeting point for merchandise shipped by road, rail or air, whether nationally or internationally. In particular, it handles international freight coming from or going to north central Europe through the Brenner Pass and freight transport to and from Spain and France and the east European nations. More than 6 million tons of goods by rail and 20 million tons by road passed yearly through the Freight Village. In the future, the Freight Village will be connected to the sea and river canal system than joins up Milan Cremona Mantua Legnago Rovigo Po di Levante [2]. 1 Ing. Ondrej Stopka, University of Žilina, Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, Department of Road and Urban Transport, Univerzitná 8215/1, 01026 Žilina, Slovak Republic, Phone: +4215133523, E-mail: ondrej.stopka@fpedas.uniza.sk 2 Prof. Ing. Marián Šulgan, PhD., University of Žilina, Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, Department of Road and Urban Transport, Univerzitná 8215/1, 01026 Žilina, Slovak Republic, Phone: +4215133506, E-mail: marian.sulgan@fpedas.uniza.sk 460
Quadrante Europa takes concrete form in an integrated system of logistics services that are at highest level in terms of efficiency and economics together with intermodal services (semi trailers, containers, swap bodies). This particular system can be properly considered as "Park of Logistic Activities" where more than 100 companies with 10 000 employees are settled in. The Freight Village of Verona can be considered as the only logistic infrastructure supporting the production that links 3 main operator categories: production activities, forwarding agents and logistic operators. It interconnects different shipping models (rail, road, air), concentrates transport flows, and gives access to European transport corridors. It also provides high quality logistic services [2]. Freight Village also works in the network, through ASSOINTERPORTI with nationally important Italian Freight Villages and through EUROPLATFORMS with those having European wide importance. In the southern part of the Freight Village, the "Agricultural and Food Center" is under construction on a 600 000 m 2 ; this structure will be Italy's largest logistic platform for collecting, distributing and the wholesale market of agro alimentary products [2]. in Table 1. Data about handled TEUs in railroad freight transport in years 2009 2010 are shown Railroad freight transport data 2010 (Abroad Destination) Table 1 - Railroad freight transport data 2009-2010 Railroad freight transport data 2009 (Abroad Destination) Intermodal Transport Total 2010 Intermodal Transport Total 2009 TEU 480 017 TEU 428 015 Processed by the authors Provided services Provided services in the Interporto Quadrante Europe Verona Freight Village can be divided into the following categories [1]: 1. Office Center 40 offices, Customs Chemical Lab, Border veterinarian, Restaurant, Bank, Post office, Offices of international logistics operators, Meeting rooms, 2. Management services Ordinary maintenance and administration of freight, Management of TIR parking, Management of container depot, Management of 461
Telematics network, Management of track serving and forwarding agents, Import and export procedures, 3. Sports and recreational park, 4. Customs Phytopathological services, Customs formalities, 5. Railroad system Covering 310 000 m 2, 18 rail track on 150 000 m 2 of intermodal terminal "Gate Terminal", Combined transport terminal on 160 000 m 2 with 12 rail track each 650 m long "Compact Terminal", 7 km of railways sidings entering the Warehouses, Future increase railroad area on 490 000 m 2, 6. Logistics terminal Traditional storage, Cold and refrigerated (freeze) storage, Handling, Packaging, Picking, Terminal handling, Customs storage, Containers and swap bodies storage, Integrated storage and management, Complex logistics services, 7. Forwarding agent center 80 000 m 2 of connected warehouses, Import and export groupage, Collection, Distribution, Insurance assistance, Custom assistance, Shipment by sea, Shipment by air, 8. Vehicle services 14 000 m 2 of maintenance, repair, washing center for trucks, semi trailers, containers and swap bodies, 30 000 m 2 of semi trailers and swap bodies depot, 9. Logistics center 220 000 m 2 of railroad connected area, 150 000 m 2 occupied by Volkswagen Group Italia Spa. Very distinguished European Combined transport terminal located in Interporto Quadrante Europe Verona Freight Village is shown in Figure 1. Fig. 1 Combined transport terminal in Interporto Quadrante Europe Verona [2] 462
Combined transport terminal ("Compact Terminal") Part of the Interporto Quadrante Europe Verona is one of the most important Italian combined transport terminals, in which daily dozens of trains are headed primarily from Germany and domestic destinations. For combined transport, from the late of 70ies of 20th century, Interporto Quadrante Europe has two reloading modules operated by combined transport operator CEMAT and 12 rail tracks and 4 rail gantry cranes. At the turn of 2006 and 2007, the terminal reached its capacity limits. It was not possible to meet the growing demands of customers and there was possible threat of their departure to other localities [1]. Compact Terminal technology is based on the separation of transport units reloading from road and rail vehicles into separate modules. Among them, the units are moved automatically by so called "ground movers". Actual reloading of transport units from/to vehicles is ensured by bridge cranes moving on a pair of crane tracks located in this case at a height of 10 m on the trusses. The terminal consists of a module for reloading from road vehicles, a module for temporary storage of transport units and a classic module for units reloading from/to rail wagons [1]. Operator Compact Terminal in Interporto Quadrante Europe Verona Freight Village is the Termináli Itália Company - joint venture of RFI (85%) and combined transport operator CEMAT. Termináli Itália also took from CEMAT the operation of other public terminals in Italy. The purpose is primarily to ensure the non-discriminatory access to the terminals for all customers, as required by EU legislation. New module in Verona called "Gate Terminal" was officially opened in October 2009 [3]. Conclusion In the developed European countries, including Italy, Germany, Great Britain, and etc, relatively well-developed network of public multimodal logistics centers (GVZ - German, Freight Villages - English) is in operation, based on a regional principle. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, such a system of public logistics centers still lacks. "Public logistics centers and the concept of logistics support from public sources" in the Czech Republic is focused on determination of principles of a similar network establishment of public logistics centers in the Czech Republic and its connection to the European network. Logistics with public support, based on a regional principle, will have an impact on regional development and will help to solve fundamental problems in the transport sector. Logistics services offer in the public logistics centers network should support the regional 463
development and especially small and medium enterprises in industry and business, for which the logistics services are hardly available, and its competitiveness outside the region depends on them. This contribution/publication is the result of the project implementation: Centre of excellence for systems and services of intelligent transport II., ITMS 26220120050 supported by the Research & Development Operational Programme funded by the ERDF. "Podporujeme výskumné aktivity na Slovensku/Projekt je spolufinancovaný zo zdrojov EÚ" Reference: [1] SOUKUP, L.: Kompaktní terminál ve Veroně, In: LOGISTIKA Mesačník hospodárskych novín, March 2010. Year: XVII, Number: 3, 2010, Published: Economia, ISSN 1211-0957. [2] Interporto Quadrante Europa official website of Interporto Quadrante Europa Verona Freight Village. [electronic source]. [Quote: 2012-10-20]. Available on: <http://www.quadranteeuropa.it/en/interporto_en.php>. [3] STOPKA, O.: Písomná práca k dizertačnej skúške: Interakcia moderných logistických centier a intermodálnych terminálov v kontexte zvyšovania kvality logistických a dopravných služieb, Žilinská univerzita v Žiline, 2011 Referee: Doc. Ing. Jarmila Sosedová, PhD., University of Žilina, Žilina Enter to publishing: October 21, 2012 464