Once Again Intermodal Logistics is the Secret Hidden Behind the FIFA World Cup

RUSSIA – With all eyes on the FIFA World Cup this month once again the intermodal talents of the ‘forgotten industry’ helped make it all possible. Doubtless there were many last minute panics to have everything ready for what has proved an undoubtedly successful event, and one example came to light when RZD Logistics, an arm of the country’s rail freight carrier RZD, received an official letter of gratitude from the Moscow Branch of Match Hospitality AG, the Hospitality Rights Holder for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

It seems the delivery of furniture and fittings destined to grace the hospitality suites of the stadiums ranged across the vast country were running a little too close to schedule. Now this was never going to be just a few tables and chairs, and so it proved. RZD was charged with organising and delivering to the lounges and other points around the stadiums forty eight 40 foot containers, twenty truck loads plus forty four tonnes of air freight.

The consignments were collated from far afield in Russia and Europe and the bulk initially was moved by rail and then intermodal transport on to the stadiums of Volgograd, Ekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saint Petersburg, Saransk, Sochi and Rostov-on-Don as well as the two Moscow stadiums of Luzhniki and Spartak.

Everything having arrived on time and in good order organised by the LCL/LTL cargo transport section of RZD Express, the letter from Match Hospitality thanked the company for keeping to such a tight schedule and referred to the professionalism and attitude of the JSC Russian Railways Logistics staff up to the 'last mile'.

Photo: The spectacular Rostov Arena with the River Don in the background.