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SPECIAL REPORT
USING ONLINE FREIGHT EXCHANGES TO SOURCE TRUCKING CAPACITY IS AN EVERYDAY PRACTICE FOR BUSINESSES ACROSS EUROPE. WHILST MOST DELIVERIES ARE COMPLETED AS PLANNED, USING SUCH PLATFORMS IS NOT WITHOUT RISKS…
As this issue of Vigilant went to press, German confectionery giant Haribo was issuing a warning to British consumers that it is struggling to deliver its sweets to shops in the UK because of a shortage of lorry drivers. To anyone in some way or another connected to the supply chain industry, this will obviously come as no surprise. This is a common and growing situation for businesses across Europe.
Demand for qualified truck drivers in Europe has never been greater and the gap between supply and demand is growing. In the UK, the Road Haulage Association estimates a shortfall of 100,000 drivers – a situation not helped by Brexit – while in Germany and France, corresponding figures of 45,000 and 20,000 too few drivers for the work available have also been widely reported. An already dire recruitment challenge has, not surprisingly, been further exacerbated by Covid lockdowns. In the UK alone, 30,000 HGV driving tests did not take place in the last year due to lockdown restrictions. Worse still, in its latest 2021 Driver Shortage Survey, IRU, the international road transport union, says road transport companies expect a 10% rise in driver shortages this year.
This disruption is having a far-reaching impact. As the IRU’s Secretary General, Umberto de Pretto, puts it: “Driver shortage threatens the functioning of road transport, supply chains, trade, the economy, and ultimately employment and citizens’ welfare.”
the risks that can arise for companies that fail to conduct proper due diligence.
With truck drivers and, therefore, truck capacity in such short supply, more and more companies are naturally turning to online freight exchanges to find available and affordable ways to move their goods, and the vast majority are not disappointed. The major online marketplaces for Full Truck Load (FTL) and Less Than Truck Load (LTL) road transport capacity are awash with opportunities for companies to source much-needed truck space on routes across Europe. To say ‘awash’ is no exaggeration. On 15 December 2020, one leading freight exchange made available one million freight and vehicle space ‘offers’ in a single day.
It must be clearly and fairly stated that booking capacity through online freight exchanges works very successfully for nearly all users. But, as is the case in all dynamic, fast-moving business environments involving massive movements of money or goods, there is always a small minority of cases in which companies fall victim to rogue operators, and this has been the experience of several TAPA EMEA members. This is why, five years after our last major report in Vigilant looking at ‘Who’s carrying your cargo?’ we are returning to the topic of using online freight exchanges and
‘Now, as we start to emerge from lockdown and markets become freer, we have all that backlog of freight to deal with. If you combine this with the underlying issues around truck and driver availability, you almost have the perfect storm of opportunity for organised crime.’
In compiling this report, Vigilant spoke to one of the latest TAPA EMEA members to suffer losses of goods after their logistics provider subcontracted loads to third parties found on freight exchanges. Whilst wishing to remain anonymous, they want to share their experience to revise the debate on the potential risks, as a warning to other companies, and to identify best practice recommendations that will support the safe use of online freight exchanges, which are clearly playing an increasingly important role in supply chains across Europe.
This is not a ‘finger-pointing’ exercise aimed at discrediting freight exchanges. It is to recognise that all stakeholders must play their part to avoid potential losses.
The following comments are from a senior security manager within the company:
“Covid has played a significant part in the reemergence of this type of crime. In the last 6-12 months, there has been a significant decrease in goods being made and shipped out. Now, as we start to emerge from lockdown and markets become freer, we have all that backlog of freight to deal with. If you combine this with the underlying issues around truck and driver availability, you almost have the perfect storm of opportunity for organised crime.
“The freight platforms say they do all they can do to protect companies, but the harsh reality is that it’s not just down to them. It’s also the responsibility of carriers and shippers/ manufacturers to ensure they do sufficient due diligence before they assign a load. The reality, of course, is because everything is commercially driven, it is all about getting the product out and getting it shipped rather than thinking about any of the due diligence work that should be going on in the background.
“Criminals are entrepreneurial and no different to traditional business leaders, they just have a different agenda. They are constantly evolving and evaluating what they do.
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