Kiloutou, a major player in the rental of equipment for construction sites, is diversifying its position by becoming the first rental company to open up the rental model to railway maintenance equipment. Thanks to these tools, which have been selected and tested at its Test Centre, Kiloutou intends to bring the benefits of the sharing economy to this activity of the future, which is vital to the performance of mobility.
Kiloutou’s expertise at the service of railway maintenance sites
Railway maintenance sites share certain similarities with those in the construction and public works sector: the need for efficiency and adherence to deadlines, the notion of the site’s acceptability to local residents, the presence of major construction and public works companies via their dedicated rail branches, and also the management of equipment fleets that were previously owned and shared between several service providers.
With this in mind, Kiloutou is putting its expert know-how, its network and the strength of its sharing economy model at the service of rail maintenance. The benefits of rental are economic, environmental and organisational:
- By opting for rental, companies reduce their investment in equipment purchases, as well as the costs associated with storing, transporting and maintaining it, thereby lowering their cost structure.
- Hire allows them to benefit from the latest high-performance equipment, while reducing the carbon footprint of their worksites. Leased equipment emits half as much carbon over its lifecycle as owned equipment. What’s more, future rail customers will have access to electric alternatives – which emit less carbon and fine particles.
- Finally, under a rental contract, the equipment is dedicated to one site and one service provider, thereby improving traceability and limiting unintentional borrowing between service providers and losses that hamper the efficiency of sites.
A range of railway maintenance tools selected and tested to meet the requirements of the sector
Prior to developing this range, Kiloutou consulted the main companies in the sector, such as ETF (Vinci Group), Eiffage Rail, Colas Rail and TSO (NGE Group), and worked with them to identify the tools they needed for their worksites. 10 references of equipment approved (and/or authorised) by the SNCF were selected from suppliers Geismar and Cembre.
The equipment was then subjected to rigorous testing at Kiloutou’s test centre to ensure that it met the Group’s performance and safety criteria.
- Thermal bolt gun
- Thermal rail drilling machine
- Thermal sleeper drill
- Thermal rail cutter with fixing arm
- Thermal clipper for inserting and extracting PC & FX fast-clips
- Portable thermal tamping and vibrating machine for tamping and compacting ballast and permanently correcting track alignment defects
- Thermal tamping machine for easily fixing and releasing screws on the track thanks to the tightening torque
- Transport trolley: for transporting heavy loads on the track
The bolt gun and drill are also available in battery-electric versions, to help reduce the carbon footprint of maintenance work.
Gradual deployment to support essential mobility infrastructure
The range is currently available in the Centre-Val de Loire, Hauts-de-France and Île-de-France regions. Kiloutou is planning a gradual roll-out throughout France, in response to the need for maintenance of the rail network, an essential infrastructure for the mobility of today and tomorrow.
Kiloutou’s entry into this business segment also involved training its team members beforehand. Their expertise is being steadily built up, in line with the company’s plans to roll out the range nationwide.
Kiloutou is the first rental company to offer a high-performance solution for the rental of track maintenance equipment. More than a simple alternative, it is a real lever for transformation, enabling our customers to remain competitive and agile in a constantly changing environment. As partners in our customers‘ performance, we are committed to playing an active part in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions – the structural benefit of rental – while guaranteeing irreproachable operational efficiency, where safety and reliability are the key words’.
Pierre Knoché, Managing Director France, Kiloutou
Key figures for the rail network in France
- 30,000 km of lines
- 2,600 km of high-speed lines
- 15,000 level crossings