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Issue 7 2014 - Freight Business Journal


///GERMANY Double celebrations at Quick Cargo


It’s a double anniversary for Germany forwarder Quick Cargo this year. Not only is the company itself 40 years old, but founder Dieter Haltmayer celebrates his 80th birthday at the end of October. He is still closely involved


with the company he set up four decades


very much a family affair


ago, which remains –


though he is reportedly thinking for slowing down and working just three days a week. But an ageing workforce is a


problem for the wider German freight industry says his son, Quick Cargo’s managing director, Stephan Haltmayer. Just as in the UK, it can be hard to attract youngsters into the industry when there are so many other enticing alternatives these days. “We have an ageing industry profile,” he confirms. “And we haven’t seen the peak yet.” The industry needs to do


more to make itself an enticing prospect


for young people.


It’s not a question of salaries, but rather the wider package


of social benefits, the image of the industry and career development prospects. Unlike the UK, most people


involved in freight will have had formal education in the subject, either at apprentice or degree level. At any one time, around 12-15% of Quick Cargo’s staff will be doing an apprenticeship, Bachelor’s or even Masters degree and Haltmayer estimates that “at least 85%” of people involved in German freight have a qualification. “It’s still a must in Germany,” Haltmayer. “People here


says


don’t change their profession much, and qualifications help them retain their knowledge and know-how. It also gives people an incentive to stay with the company.” The German forwarding


market is fiercely competitive and offering top quality service is important to Quick – vindicated by three Luſthansa awards in a row. “Our service is our trump card,” explains Haltmayer. “The big forwarders can undercut on


major industrial and population centres. These include its head office in Frankfurt, plus Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Duisburg, Cologne, Hanover and Berlin. More German offices may be


rates but they can never beat our service.” Quick’s customers tend to be


medium sized or small firms. Not VW or Mercedes Benz, perhaps, but the suppliers to those major companies. Quick Cargo also services a lot of niche areas, like ships’ spares or pharmaceuticals. Haltmayer reckons that


Quick has an advantage over the multinational forwarders in that it can choose its overseas agent, whereas the big operators have to make do with their local office, however good – or bad – it


is. “Around 60% of our business is overseas controlled,” he points out, so Quick chooses its agents carefully. Seafreight is now important


for the forwarder, accounting for around 45% of its business. It has a dedicated seafreight office in Hamburg, but Haltmayer says that one advantage it can offer is that, unlike many other German seafreight companies, it is not in just one location – typically, Hamburg or Bremen – but can draw on its network of around ten offices in Germany, located in all the


Anything and everything to everywhere


Dachser UK’s German business is growing steadily despite the undoubtedly stiff competition to the UK’s biggest European trading partner, says managing director Nick Lowe. “We’re a German-owned company, so it’s no surprise that Germany is an important part of our pan- European business.” Around six daily groupage


departures link Dachser’s three UK hubs at Rochdale, Dartford and Rochdale to around ten different German platforms each night – the exact destinations vary according to traffic levels. But even where there is no direct truck, Dachser’s comprehensive network of intra-German services can get consignments to all parts of the country within 48 hours of leaving the UK – and vice-versa. The number of direct services


is increasing, and direct services to Dachser’s 30 or so German platforms are increasing all the time, says Lowe. He adds: “Our export business is up 12% over last year and I think it will be boosted even further. It’s a very competitive market, but we have advantages like barcode and


online tracking for customers. And we drive efficiency by optimising traffic flows.” German is quite a high-cost for


country trucking, so it is


important to maximise the use of trucks and avoid empty space as far as possible. One challenge is that the UK as a nation still imports more in volume terms from Germany than it exports, so Dachser UK is constantly striving to increase its market share of UK exports. “We are closing the gap – but import volumes remain important, naturally,” Lowe explains. UK exports to Germany are


a real mix, and include office products, some machinery – though much more comes the other way – DIY materials, cosmetics and consumer goods of all types. There is also a lot of e-commerce business


in both


directions; many retailers ask Dachser to split consignments between traditional stores and their e-fulfillment centres. Dachser’s contract logistics arm is also doing increasing amounts of e-fulfillment work. Germany is also a vital kingpin in Dachser’s pan-European


operations. One of its three designated ‘Eurohubs’ is at Überherrn, near Saarbrucken on the French-German border, and serves parts of France and Luxembourg as well as Germany. There are 130 outbound service lines from Überherrn to the rest


of Dachser’s European system and it is a favoured transshipment hub for those parts of eastern Europe not served by direct trailers. Dachser’s other two Eurohubs are at Bratislava in Slovakia and Clermont-Ferrand in central France.


added in time, perhaps in the East, but Quick now has its sights firmly set on wider European expansion. It already has offices in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Poland, for example while in the UK, it owns a 49% stake in Quick Cargo at Colnbrook, near Heathrow. This was originally set up as an independent company by a family friend and is today 51% owned by Rachel Harding. The UK airfreight market is


rather different from Germany’s, Haltmayer believes. In the former, it is overwhelmingly concentrated on London, but Germany’s is much more diffused throughout the country, although airfreight capacity itself is still very firmly centred


on Frankfurt. With


Quick’s office network and Germany’s fast autobahns, it is


easy for the regional offices to feed consolidated airfreight to Frankfurt. Quick has also been one of


the main driving forces behind the IGLU freight forwarders’ airfreight buying group. This came about at about the turn of the century when the major airlines were grappling with the problem of how to serve their smaller customers more cost-effectively; a group of 24 forwarders clubbed together to set up an airfreight buying group. Possibly unique, IGLU is different from consolidators – the nearest comparable organisations – in that it is purely a buying group and, funded as it is by monthly membership fees, is a non-profit organisation and so can offer keener prices, says Haltmayer. IGLU wasn’t the only such to


organisation emerge in


Germany, but it has stood the test of time better says Haltmayer, partly because it did not make the mistake of allowing members to view each other’s shipment information.


News from Neuss


European container logistics network Contargo is to double its capacity in Neuss am Rhein, Germany with a second barge terminal. The company also plans further expansion at the location. From October, Contargo


will use the former Rhenania terminal, now renamed Neuss Trimodal-Terminal. With the 26,200sq m site offering space for 3,000teu and existing capacity at the Flosshafenstrasse site, Contargo’s total depot capacity in Neuss will increase to 6,300teu with three cranes and four berths at the two sites. Until 30 September,


Contargo used the Neuss terminal as a forwarding partner of Neuss Trimodal GmbH. On that date Rhenus, the parent company of the Contargo Group, sold its shares to the other participators (Kombiverkehr, Neuss- Düsseldorfer Häfen and


Ambrogio). The Neuss Trimodal sites have now been divided into two independent terminals. Contargo has further


ambitions, planning to almost treble terminal area at Flosshafenstrasse by the end of 2016. By then, Contargo will be operating with five cranes at Neuss, with a total capacity of more than 150,000teu. With an annual transport


volume of 2 million teu, Contargo is one of the largest container logistics networks in Europe, offering transport between the western seaports, the German North Sea ports and the European hinterland. It has 25 container terminals at its disposal in Germany, France, Switzerland and the Czech Republic with offices at seven additional locations in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Japan. It also operates its own barge and rail services.


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