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The Czech transport company VCHD Cargo has become an approved air cargo carrier. The company provides shipping in the secured regime to airports in the Czech Republic as well as other European countries for customers with the regulated agent status. The company trained 30 employees in before introducing the new service.

An air cargo carrier is an entity that provides land cargo and mail services on behalf of regulated agents, known consignors or account consignors approved by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Czech Republic. Before approval, the carrier must go through a training and certification process required by the Authority and must ensure security throughout the entire transport process from or to airport terminals. “We have trained 20 drivers, dispatch staff and several office workers in order to provide this type of land transport that is subject to special rules and regulations,”Ing. Petr Kozel, Chairman of the VCHD Cargo a. s. Board of Directors, explains, adding: “this type of land transport comes with stringent security requirements on both the consignments as such and on operation and handling at airport terminals.” The new service is currently used primarily by automotive suppliers who urgently need to send their car parts to manufacturing plants. VCHD Cargo carries incoming air consignments from all parts of the world from the Václav Havel Airport Prague and provides carriage services to Czech exports to airports in Frankfurt, Nuremberg and several other destinations. VCHD Cargo has introduced the new service in order to offer fast transport options for customers without the complication of administrative formalities at EU airports.

The transport company VCHD Cargo closed 2020 with positive results. Despite a huge drop in export volumes in the first and second quarter of last year, the company’s preliminary results indicate an overall 6.5% increase in turnover to CZK 777 mln. The growth was primarily driven by the German subsidiary VCHD Cargo GmbH. The company managed to maintain its investment strategy last year and even hired new employees. Employee health and IT were the key focus of the company’s efforts last year.

VCHD Cargo has announced its preliminary financial results for 2020, a year marked by unprecedented events on both the global and regional level. The VCHD Cargo group generated a turnover of CZK 777 mln, or 6.5% more than in the previous year. The Czech company VCHD Cargo a. s. achieved a steady financial result of CZK 729 mln (compared with CZK 725 mln in 2019) while the German-based branch VCHD Cargo GmbH increased its turnover from CZK 5 mln in 2019 to CZK 48 mln in 2020. VCHD Cargo Board Chairman Ing. Petr Kozel says: “The results reflect two facts – a drop due to a global pandemic, especially in the Czech market, in March and April 2020, followed by a massive revival in the autumn and at the end of the year. And secondly, we are now reaping the fruits of our efforts that initiated our business activity in Germany in 2019.” According to Petr Kozel, the loss of revenues in the Czech Republic during the first wave of the coronavirus epidemic was outweighed by an increase in transport volumes in the autumn and businesses’ efforts to get ready for brexit with many of them bringing in more stock in order to avoid complications expected to occur with a “hard brexit”. The company’s business in Germany focuses mainly on the domestic German market, which proved to be more stable last year and the company was, furthermore, able to attract new customers.”

VCHD Cargo continued to invest in its growth and development – specifically EUR 3,500,000. “Even during the difficult times of the Q1 marked by serious uncertainties about the future evolution of the new coronavirus pandemic we continued with our planned investments,” Petr Kozel explains and adds: “money was put into three major areas of our business – development and renovation of our branches, technology and renewal of our fleet and information technologies and, last but not least, protection of our people.” VCHD Cargo renovated its branch in Havlíčkův Brod and partly its branch in Kladno, purchased a total of 45 towing vehicles, trailers and cargo vehicles in a total value of CZK 77 mln and hired new people for middle management. Furthermore, the company was also one of the first to warn about the dangers of the pandemic as it was confronted with the reality of anti-coronavirus protection measures due to its regular cargo lines to Italy event before the fist cases of the disease appeared in the Czech Republic. “Since the start of the pandemic, we spent nearly CZK 400,000 on protective tools and items for our employees as well as disinfection and ionisation technologies for our vehicles.”

In 2021, VCHD Cargo plans ongoing additions to its team and want to attract new clients both in the Czech and German markets. The company wants to continue with major investments in new vehicles up to a total of CZK 100 mln and hopes to complete development projects in its branches in Havlíčkův Brod and Kladno. “Thanks to our wonderful team we were able to get through the difficult year 2020 with success and this year we want to focus on reinforcing our position of a reliable partner for our customers and a good employer for our staff,” Petr Kozel concludes.