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DSV Road, buoyed by its recent acquisition of Roadferry, says it has commissioned a report looking into the potential of using rail freight for its UK network. It believes that with increasing congestion on the UK's roads and more environmental demands from its customers, rail freight could offer a potential solution on certain routes.

René Falch Olesen, UK managing director at DSV Road, says: "We are hoping to explore the market in terms of what is available now and trends for the future.  We have to match that up against whether we see that being useful for our operation." Olesen says that there may be scope to run a rail service between ports to carry unaccompanied trailers between the two. He adds: "Rail may become part of the movement, but you will never get away from [road] entirely."

He says there will be increasing focus on the standardisation of DSV's trailer fleet in order to make rail operations possible throughout the company. However, he believes that rail will not be a viable option throughout the business and rules out its use on time-critical or groupage loads. He adds: "Typically, you don't get the speed you can by using a truck solution, that's probably the biggest problem with rail." The report is due by the end of June. DSV will begin integrating Roadferry's operations from this month.