Man and machine
Demand for logistics services is high, which has also benefited railfreight operators. In an interview in Salzburg recently, SETG founder and CEO Gunther Pitterka told Christian Doepgen how the private railway operator is increasing its capacities.
How did business develop for SETG in the first half of 2021, Mr Pitterka? Has strong demand continued and have you recorded further growth?
Overall, we’ve registered slight growth, which would have been greater if there hadn’t been repeated route blockages in the DB rail network. In February the operator once again couldn’t cope with the amount of snow that fell – even though it was actually not at all out of the ordinary.
A large proportion of the transport and logistics industry’s capacities are fully utilised these days. How can you make sure man and machine remain on board with SETG for your clients?
Getting good operating experts on board actually represents a continuous challenge for us. We overcome it by running our own in-house rail academy. For three years now we’ve trained engine drivers for Germany and Austria in our own operational Vectron driving simulator, and have also provided our staff with further training. We haven’t got any shortage of locomotives, and we’ve got 100% of our wagon fleet of around 900 units in continuous action.
SETG’s rail academy is a USP, isn’t it?
Absolutely. At our corporate headquarters in Salzburg engine drivers are trained in two classes, one for Austria and one for Germany. We keep classes small, limiting them, for educational reasons, to a maximum of ten trainees. SETG receives no support for this training at all.
You invested no less than EUR 135,000 in your Vectron simulator for training courses. How important is the unit?
The simulator serves our driving staff for their annual training courses, and is also used for monitoring activities. It ensures that we provide the best possible safety and security levels.
How are you planning to expand your fleet of rolling stock? Will you also bank on e-mobility in the future?
We’ve just signed up for the biggest investment in our corporate history. Over the next three years we’re set to spend approximately EUR 29 million on the multi-system version of new locomotives (BR 193 / Vectrons) and on new wagons.
What are the advantages of the workshop operations (all four ECM stages) that you are planning to introduce?
The decision to bring workshop activities for diesel locomotives in-house was prompted by interfaces with an unclear contractual basis (AVV, for example), by partially contradictory interests, as well as by capacity bottlenecks. It has provided us with a greater availability of our engines. We thus started out by having all the stages of the ECM certified. As a railway enterprise we’ve chosen the path that includes managing our own wagons, to reduce interface costs.
In which transport segments have you ascertained the greatest potential for future railfreight activities?
Definitely in intermodal operations, mainly, but naturally also in our core business, which is the highly-demanding timber market.
