Luſthansa ANA deal brings quicker connections


32


With Luſthansa Cargo halfway through implementing its agreement with Japan’s ANA, the German carrier sees “many opportunities in our partnership approach,” says director of sales in Frankfurt, Markus Burchard. These include “more and faster


connections, more capacity, flexibility and time saving are some of the benefits that our customers enjoy from our cooperation. For example, we now have London and Tokyo connected directly with an ANA Boeing 777.” Aſter an extraordinary good


start in 2015 to Luſthansa’s UK business, he adds, “we recognize


again an increasing pressure in the market. All in all we can be satisfied with the first half of the year, however we expect to have a challenging second half ahead of us.” Luſthansa is continuously


improving its standard product and optimising special services, as well as rolling out a new IT platform and further digitising processes. Luſthansa has been one of the


few carriers to introduce new freighter aircraſt on a large scale, and has already introduced five 777Fs. But while it holds an option to buy a sixth Boeing 777F, “we have recently decided to develop


a long term fleet strategy in favour of buying single aircraſt,” says Markus Burchard. The carrier recently added


the Brazilian city of Natal to its network and is offering flights via Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam this summer. “We keep our network as flexible as possible to meet the demands of our customers,” Burchard states. Meanwhile, Luſthansa Cargo is trying hard to protect its customers from any negative effects from the ongoing and long- running pilot’s strike. At the time of writing, it was unclear if the union would call for further strike actions.


Calais in crisis – Continent cut off


Everything in the garden would be lovely for groupage operator Europa Worldwide’s fast developing services to Germany except for one thing – the Calais crisis. Operations director Dan Cook told FBJ in mid-August that while the problem had abated, there was no guarantee that this would be sustained and the problems could flare up again at any moment. “Calais really has been


crucifying us, with delays of four hours, but maybe more – up to about 24 hours.” Despite the problems, Europa has been managing to operate roughly two thirds of its scheduled services, and customers have been pretty understanding, partly because the problems have had very wide publicity in the national media. But the situation has driven


up costs and created major uncertainty. The problems on the


Dover/Calais ferry and Eurotunnel have hit services to Germany particularly hard. Geographically, there really is now no alternative to the short sea Dover crossing or the Tunnel for that part of Europe. Services such as Europa Ferries from Ramsgate to Ostend or Folkestone-Boulogne that might have offered an alternative in the past have closed down. All the other remaining routes


are much longer in terms of crossing time, involve longer road trips at either or both ends of the route and in any cases lack the capacity to handle much of the displaced business. And as Dan Cook points out, many of the longer crossings are in any case geared mainly for unaccompanied trailers, which would suit a groupage operator like Europa. All that said, Europa’s


services to Germany, via its new international hub in Dartford, are developing nicely, he says. “We now have twice daily services to Dusseldorf, and daily services to Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Ense (in the north-east Ruhr) and Rothlein (near Nuremburg.” There are also twice-weekly services Hanover, Hamburg, Nuremburg and Munich. Future growth could see these twice weekly services stepped up to daily too, although all points can already be served


daily via one of the other hubs. Germany has been one of


Europa’s fastest developing markets, continues Dan Cook, who points out: “Two years ago, we only had one daily service to Dusseldorf.” The reason for the large


number of daily direct services is the fact that Germany is a very regionalised country, and that the market demands it. With so much competition, it is not really possible to serve Germany with a slower hub-and-spoke system, Dan Cook argues. “You need multiple points in which to inject cargo into the country and, also, the level of demand allows you to do that,” he told FBJ. Europa’s German routes were


to some extend set up on a ‘build it and they will come’ basis but it hasn’t taken too long to build up the necessary volume, he says. Reflecting Germany’s regional nature, Europa works with a


Issue 6 2015 - Freight Business Journal


///GERMANY


Exact Logistics: getting systems right is crucial


Running a transport business these days is as much about systems and soſtware as it is about diesel and drivers’ hours. Adam Shuter, managing director of Rugby-based Germany delivery specialist, Exact Logistics, is currently in the midst of a project to integrate proof of delivery and tracking information back into its transport partners’ systems. Like all such IT projects, it is


proving quite complex, but the results of initial tests have been quite encouraging, says Shuter. The effort will be worthwhile,


Shuter firmly believes. If transporters and customers can log on to the system and find out where their consignments are – almost in real time – it will cut out a lot of the routine, time- consuming phone calls. “It’s not that we don’t want to talk to our customers – we really do – but this will free us up to deal with real service issues and make improvements.” Exact Logistics has a large


number of partners, both in Germany and the UK. It offers German hauliers a ‘last-mile’ delivery of smaller loads to UK customers, allowing them to drop off at one of its depots smaller consignments that it would be uneconomic for them to deliver on wheels themselves, or those not immediately required by the consignee. It also joined the pan-German CTL hauliers’ network about two years ago, which has 100- plus members covering the whole country, while in the UK Exact is a member of the Pall-Ex pallet network. (it used to be a member of Palletways too until May this year, but Exact is now concentrating on delivering for Pall-Ex only). The Pall-Ex network’s size


and coverage is ideally suited to Exact’s own needs, he continues. “We found in many cases that the service level to be enhanced, and it allows us to


number of different partners there – Panalpina in Dusseldorf, Stuttgart,


Nuremburg and


Munich, Schaeflein in Rothlein, NTG in Ense, Insa in Frankfurt and Navis in Hamburg and Hanover. “Again, it’s because Germany is very regionalised. A partner who offers an excellent service in one part of the country


concentrate on developing our international network.” In time, Exact’s comprehensive coverage of Germany should be of interest to the other Pall-Ex members. While the network does have its own international offering it does not have its own operation in Germany itself. CTL also has a good system,


with which Exact currently links through a manual process, but the plan is to be able to pull data out of this system and upload it


direct, giving its customers


access to exactly the same information. Shuter comments: “As


ever with IT, it’s never as straightforward as you might think. There are a lot of different data formats, and when you get into it, you find out all sorts of little wrinkles that need ironing out. For example, in the UK, if you have two pallets that are part of the same consignment, they will be given the same consignment note number. But Germany uses something called NVE numbers, and under their system each pallet would have a different one.” Exact can also link with the


Pall-Ex system by feeding data in and out of its own Mandata transport management system (TMS). “All in all, I think systems are


going to become critical over the next few years,” Shuter comments. Business between the UK


may be less effective in another,” says Dan Cook. The German freight market as a whole is very biased towards imports into the UK, which outnumber this country’s exports by about three to one. The currently weak Euro is exacerbating the imbalance. However, Europa itself says that


and Germany is meanwhile developing nicely, although the strength of the Pound against the Euro has blunted outbound growth somewhat. In the other direction, the 20% fall in the Euro against the Pound compared with a year ago has encouraged UK buyers to heavily restock and volumes in this direction are very healthy. Consignment sizes are also creeping up. The UK imports anything


and everything from Germany, including car parts, tiles, chemicals, plastics and blankets. Not all these goods will be made in Germany itself, but sourcing through the country seems to be very cost-effective for a lot of products. Despite the Pound’s strength,


the UK does does still manage to sell a reasonable amount and range of goods to Germany. Buyers there prefer to buy ex- works – it gives them greater control of costs – so having a sales presence in Germany is important, says Shuter. Exact Logistics already offers


pretty comprehensive coverage of the whole of Germany. The latest piece of the jigsaw has been to step up services to the south of Germany. This region’s distance from the UK and the relative thinning out of population and industry – though it is growing fast - has meant that relatively few UK freight operators offer frequent services to this part of the country.


its own flows are pretty much in balance, at least at the moment, partly because its


sales force


have been aggressively targeting UK exporters. As far as exports are concerned, there really is no one dominant product or commodity, says Dan Cook - “like most groupage, it really is everything and anything.”


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