Italian Multimodal Service COVID-19

During recent weeks we have seen many drivers no longer willing to enter or exit Italy, which has caused many importers/ exporters to convert their shipments from road movements to multimodal / rail service via container.As a result, there has been a peak in multimodal service activities leading to thousands of multimodal containers arriving full and being dropped at rail terminals during the last few weeks.In conjunction with this, many trains to and from Italy have been cancelled to reduce the impact of COVID-19 spreading.The Italian rail terminals are now congested, in some cases this is so severe that the terminals no longer have enough space on the premises to off-load units from the trailers arriving.This morning the main Piacenza Rail Terminal nearby the Modena/Sassuolo region informed that they can no longer accept units until the end of March at the earliest.This decision was necessary in order to allow the terminal to try and clear as many containers from the backlog as possible. Many Italian importers are also no longer accepting cargo, hence their containers are contributing to the congestion by either being held in terminals already on Italian soil or due to arrive into Italy.Whilst other rail terminals are still currently accepting units, we expect all terminals to soon be similarly affected. Effectively bringing a halt or at the very least drastically reducing the ability to move container orders via the multimodal service.Regrettably, this situation is beyond our control and unfortunately, we expect the situation to worsen over the coming days.It is extremely difficult to predict what will happen in the next few days in regard to planned loadings and also the impact this will have on the transit times of orders already loaded.There are many factors to be taken into consideration, however we will endeavor to keep you posted with further information during these testing times and keep you fully informed should any of your units be directly affected.