'Golden Environment Rail' for Schulze-Freyberg of Polzug

Walter Schulze-Freyberg, Managing Director of Polzug Intermodal GmbH, has been awarded its Logistics Prize by BF Bahnen (the Federation of Managers of German Rail Companies). The Federation confers its ‘Golden Environment Rail’ on personalities from the business, political and academic worlds for outstanding services to rail transport.

Schulze-Freyberg has headed Polzug Intermodal GmbH since it was founded in 1991. Now 56, he has made a major contribution to building up Polzug as a leading supplier of rapid, sustainable rail transport between the Northern European container ports and Central and Eastern Europe. Polzug is a joint venture between Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA), PKP Polish State Railways and Deutsche Bahn AG. Schulze-Freyberg is the first HHLA manager to receive the ‘Golden Environment Rail’. “This award is a tremendous honour for me. I am absolutely delighted about it,” commented Polzug’s Managing Director.

The Federation of Managers of German Rail Companies bestowed the ‘Golden Envi-ronment Rail’ on Schulze-Freyberg during a ceremony held in Hamburg on 16 October under the motto ‘Rail Transport – Contributing to Climate Protection’.
Polzug was the first private rail company to develop block container train links between ports in Northern Europe and Poland. Today its transport services extend well beyond Poland, into the CIS States, the Caucasus and as far as Central Asia. Polzug accord-ingly plays a crucial part in transporting rapidly growing quantities of goods from the North Sea ports of Hamburg, Bremerhaven and Rotterdam to the emerging national economies of Eastern Europe in a way that conserves the climate. Since being founded, Polzug has already managed to save altogether around 200,000 tons of cli-mate-harmful carbon dioxide.

Along with Metrans and Transfracht, as part of Intermodal, the second largest HHLA Group field of business, Polzug is one of the three rail operating companies that net-work container handling at the overseas ports with the hinterland. In Poland as its key market, Polzug Intermodal is already serving eight terminals in leading industrial cen-tres, with the four in Pruszkow (Warsaw), Wroclaw, Gadki and in Slawkow near Ka-towice in Polzug ownership.

Schulze-Freyberg as the holder of important posts was deeply involved in developing and implementing the business idea for Polzug. Now 56, after studying he commenced his career with the DDG “Hansa” shipping company as a cargo officer on board its heavy cargo freighters. In 1987 this graduate industrial engineer in sea transport and deck officer with a captain’s patent for the great trades joined the port logistics group HHLA as a senior consultant in its consultancy subsidiary HPC Hamburg Port Consult-ing. Prior to this post as a consultant, from 1981 until 1987 he worked as a logistics expert and adviser to the Executive Board at plant manufacturer Deutsche Babcock AG in Oberhausen, a company operating worldwide.

Source: Transportweekly