What is a Freight Village?

Freight villages are defined as logistics centres, where the cargoes from different transport modes can be reloaded, compiled and prepared for transportation. That place links and brings together different transport modes (road, rail), transport companies (forwarders, warehousing), supplementary transport service (vehicle services, consultancy services) as well as industrial and trading companies. The spatial proximity promotes cooperation and division of labor of the enterprises on site.

The main function of the freight villages is the management of politically promoted combined transport and the shifting of cargo traffic from road to rail. The cooperation of the companies on site makes it possible to realise high truck capacity utilisation especially in the region (see also City-Logistics). Due to synergistic effects the economic efficiency and activity of the enterprises on site can be improved (clustering).

In an ideal case, the freight village should be located near urban agglomerations and have a quick access to regional and long-distance traffic.

Freight villages are characterized by the following features:

Location of transport economical companies, logistic operators and industrial and trading companies on the same industrial estate
Access to at least two transport modes, in particular to road and rail (intermodal terminal)
Management of the local freight village companies, which also initiate and facilitate cooperative activities