Hot News on DAC: We Know Who Will Implement the European Fleet Registration

The introduction of DAC in Europe is a little closer again. Europe is about to see a major inventory of all trucks.

The DACFIT consortium has won the project to carry out the largest inventory of rail freight wagons in Europe. It is led by DB Cargo, but it will be assisted by six other entities. The intention is to get the planned introduction of Digital Automatic Couplers (DAC) into rail freight transport underway. Alongside the technical developments, the focus is on the pan-European migration of DAC into the existing fleet and its workshop implementation. From 2028, DAC is to be installed in around 500,000 freight wagons across Europe.

First, however, a basic overview of the current state of the European rail freight fleet is necessary. Railway workshops must also be analyzed. The DACFIT consortium is, therefore, tasked with analyzing the existing fleets of freight carriers as well as individual workshops so that the time and capacity options for migrating to DAC across Europe can be evaluated.

The DAC FIT consortium is also receiving financial support from Europe's Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-Rail) for this purpose. "I am delighted that so many competent partners have been recruited for this project," says Andreas Lipka, Head of DAC Migration at DB Cargo AG and also head of the 'Migration' work package in the European DAC program.

In addition to DB Cargo, the following companies are part of the DAC FIT consortium: k+v (Germany), Instytut Kolejnictwa (Poland), VÚKV (Czech Republic), and BME ITS (Hungary), as well as VPI European Rail Service GmbH (VERS) and the Fraunhofer Institute.

DB Cargo, in cooperation with k+v, Instytut Kolejnictwa, VÚKV, and BME ITS, will focus primarily on the inventory of freight railway locomotives and wagons. Meanwhile, VPI VERS will focus on European railway workshops, both workshops and mobile workshops. In Europe, more than 280 entities have been certified.

VERS senior managers Heiko Radke and Joachim Wirtgen stress: "Thanks to our network, we have the necessary knowledge base and experience of how workshops need to be prepared for DAC migration."

"We are not only supporting this project within IT, but we also have an extensive expert base in the 'first and last mile' on many sidings and industrial tracks," explains Dr. Agnes Eiband from Fraunhofer IML.