SMEs have a future — but only if they do their homework

Medium-sized transport companies definitely have a future in Germany, but they must continue to develop. This was the conclusion reached yesterday afternoon by participants in a panel discussion entitled ‘Medium-Sized Transport Companies: Discontinued or Future Model?’ organised by the trade journal ‘Verkehrsrundschau’.

Prof. Dirk Lohre (Heilbronn University) identified secure access to transport capacity — taking into account changing drive types — as well as high capacity utilisation to improve the cost base, and high-quality capacity management in the face of volatile volumes, as decisive factors. He also recommended that medium-sized companies should not focus on standard orders, but specialise and thus make themselves difficult to replace.

Shipper Frank Ratter, Logistics Buyer for Europe at household appliance manufacturer BSH, emphasised the importance of working with volatile volumes. ‘It works better with medium-sized companies,’ he says. One reason for this is that large corporations work with a lot of standardised transport processes.

However, although the market demands secure capacities, entrepreneurs do not currently want to pay for them, complains the businessman, who therefore relies on a combination of his own and external fleets. Despite the tense situation and currently low margins, Heiß is convinced that his future lies in the transport business. “That will turn around,” he says, also in view of the increasing shortage of drivers. BTK will therefore continue to rely on its own fleet of vehicles and the transport business, but it has also established a second mainstay in contract logistics.

By contrast, the Mannheim-based freight forwarder Alpensped, which operates primarily in international transport, does not own any vehicles. Even if transport scientist Lohre believes that such ‘sofa forwarders’ will struggle in future, Managing Director Christian Faggin intends to stick to this model. ‘We want to develop further as a digital freight forwarder because logistics and IT are merging,’ he says. Alpensped aims to provide its customers with interfaces that Eastern European freight forwarders cannot offer in this form. Faggin relies primarily on contractually bound companies that ‘we treat properly’.

With a fleet of over 1,800 trucks, 5,400 swap bodies and 1,600 trailers, L.I.T., based in Brake, is one of Germany’s largest medium-sized transport companies. However, owner and CEO Fokke Fels admits that it is currently ‘very, very difficult to earn money’ in national FTL transport. ‘We have to get through this phase.’ Nevertheless, he believes that the fundamental value of lorry transport will endure, which is why he considers his own vehicles to be important. Nevertheless, he believes that the company must develop further, which includes more efficient administration and IT, among other things. (la)