Author Archives: klient

ADR service does not involve only tank trucks with explosive or toxic substances. VCHD Cargo’s ADR service is used for a variety of other products such as batteries, cosmetics and car cosmetics. But all applicable regulations and processes must also be observed even when dealing with your regular hair spray. The right choice of a suitable vehicle can greatly smooth your way through legal intricacies. That is why VCHD Cargo typically uses swap bodies for this type of transport. They are both cost efficient and reduce the environmental impact of road transport thanks to their greater capacity.

A swap body is an intermodular freight container with four collapsible legs. It can be detached from the tractor. Swap bodies offer many advantages for transport of hazardous goods. First, there is the efficiency of loading – swap bodies have two levels the height of which can be adjusted and allow stacking to the full height without the risk of damage to the goods. The loading principle itself is an advantage, too – the body can be disconnected from the tractor and docked at the ramp ahead of time or, once loaded, it can be used as temporary storage until the goods are shipped. Furthermore, current laws allow two swap bodies to be connected to one tractor, which increases the capacity of the entire truck up to 72 pallets. This brings savings in terms of the economic cost and the carbon footprint because more goods can be transported using fewer vehicles.

Another clear advantage is the temperature control feature of swap bodies. “20 percent of our service takes place in the temperature-control regime,” says VCHD Cargo chairman Ing. Petr Kozel, adding: “This regime is used for food products as well as ADR hazardous goods sensitive to temperature fluctuations or excessive heat or cold.” Examples include paints that could deteriorate at cold temperatures or some types of cosmetics that should avoid both freezing conditions and temperatures above +25°C.

Safety is undoubtedly another benefit offered by swap bodies. “The hard container of a swap body providers an extra packaging layer for the goods,” Petr Kozel explains and jokingly compares swap bodies to “additional cans” that protects goods from theft and damage and reduces the risk of environment contamination in the event of an accident.

The dictionary definition of “backup” is “someone or something that provides support or help” and he word is usually a typical part of IT vocabulary. But it has become increasingly important in other areas, too. What does “backup” mean in transport and why is it so important?

“Earlier this year, we could not even begin to imagine the challenges we would face these past few months,” says VCHD Cargo chairman Petr Kozel, adding: “Considering our busy business with destinations in Italy and Spain, we turned on the emergency mode due to COVID-19 at the beginning of February but our full-fledged crisis plan took shape in the last week of February. In order to safely deliver our services to customers and play our part in providing essential functions to the society, we implemented backup rules to ensure safe operation.”

VCHD Cargo organised its workflow in a way that prevented work disruptions while providing maximum protection for all employees. The following rules were put in place in all branches to ensure smooth operation as prior to the pandemic:

1. One worker = one office. To ensure the rule’s application even to open-space staff, all office spaces, including management offices, were made available for day-to-day operation.
2. No contact between driver and dispatcher = information was passed on exclusively via tablets issued to all VCHD Cargo vehicles.
3. Substitutes = every worker in the office must have a backup home office colleague and together they deal with all the relevant issues.
4. Online meetings = the management has a meeting with branch managers twice a day using the Microsoft Teems platform; branch managers have regular online meetings with their teams.
5. Maximum protection = the company provided protective equipment for all employees, drivers and office staff and the government’s distancing measures and disinfectants were made obligatory in all offices.

Thanks to these measures we have been able to send out dozens of VCHD Cargo trucks every day, carrying our customers’ goods from every corner of Europe to their own clients throughout the continent. “Every meeting starts with the most important question about the health of our drivers, dispatchers and technical staff. After all, we are always on the road to Italy, Spain, Germany …,” says Petr Kozel and concludes: “All of us hope that if we get some Covid-19 cases, they will be in the very mild category. But one thing is sure: even in such unfortunate cases our backup plan will allow us to deliver goods safely and quickly to all European destinations even in these unprecedented times.”

The current crisis has put a spotlight on the important role that food and hygiene product logistics plays in our society. VCHD Cargo has specialised in food logistics since its foundation and carries on with this service even at a time when the entire Europe is paralysed by measures to combat the spread of the new coronavirus.

“Some of our vehicles continue to bring in fruit, vegetable, yogurts as well as frozen meat from the hardest-hit parts of Spain, France and Italy,” says VCHD Cargo chairman Ing. Petr Kozel, adding: “Our customers continue to import goods and we all realize how important it is to maintain a high standard of food offer in our country.”

All food delivered from Southern Europe by VCHD Cargo, mostly refrigerated and frozen food as well as other temperature-sensitive products, is transported in temperature-controlled vehicles. This includes meat and dairy products, fruit and vegetables. All trailers are equipped with a temperature-control unit and temperature readings can be monitored online. All vehicles also have a contact thermometer. Our fleet also includes two-storey refrigeration vehicles that fit up to 66 europallets. VCHD Cargo drivers are trained in all the specific requirements on food transport including correct handling of goods. Dispatchers have proper qualifications, regularly attend training and are able to communicate with customers in English, Germany, French and Italian. Furthermore, all vehicles are monitored and their current location is always known thanks to GPS tracking.

Although European markets have started to recover a little bit over the past few weeks, production shutdowns in big industrial export companies have resulted in a lack of export shipments that are usually paired with food imports in the other direction. Transport companies are, therefore, left with imports only that can pose a lot of problems due to low utilisation of the vehicle’s capacity. “As a transport company, this can be a problem for us. The shutdown of the automotive industry and reduced production in other industries mean that there is very little to export to areas that are an important source of imports, primarily Spain and Italy but also the Benelux,” says Petr Kozel, explaining: “For now, we accept export transport from the Czech Republic to Germany, followed by shipments from Germany to areas where we have import deals. Despite the best efforts of our dispatchers, sometimes our trucks have to go to Spain empty, sometimes as far as 600 km. At the moment, we and our trucks are driven by the high quality of our services and our long-term vision. We want to be a company that our customers can rely on even in hard times and we are confident that they will appreciate our strategy based on quality and long-term relations.”

Everybody assumes that the current extraordinary situation will, sooner, or later, blow over and business including transport will once again find its usual rhythm. What are the overall forces affecting 21^st century transport, what trends can we see in the industry and how they might be impacted by the current situation? We talk to Ing. Petr Kozel about this and much more.

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What technological trends do you expect to emerge in the transport industry in the near future? Are there any technologies that, in your opinion, will take over the business in a more distant future? 

Land transport is still the most widely used form of good transportation in Europe. Growing demand and ever increasing requirements in terms of high-quality shopping have for many years put significant pressure on seamless and quick deliveries. Many trends have been widely discussed, usually in the context of environment protection and traffic collapse in city centres. Criticisms of diesel delivery vehicles and gigantic investments in electric mobility have become political arguments.

Despite intense debates in the media, alternative drive technologies for long-distance freight, be they electrical, hydrogen or fuel-cell vehicles, are still in very early stages of development and large-scale deployment of trucks with alternative engines cannot be expected any time soon.

The only viable solution for environment protection and alleviation of congested cities lies in optimisation of conventional transport. Although transport companies and their customers have been working on transport optimisation for many years, there is still a lot of room for improvement. I expect growing pressure to consolidate goods and use the full capacity of vehicles as well as increased precision of arrival for loading and unloading. I think companies will more extensively use swap bodies and mega trailers and, if EU-level laws are adequately amended, they will be able to use gigaliners even for cross-border freight. In the very near future, we will definitely see big logistic and transport companies expand their use of GPS monitoring of transport units.

In the medium-term, if technology and legislation manage to find a reasonable middle ground, we might see the dawns of platooning.

What is your opinion on pressure to move freight from roads to trains? Where it the biggest pressure coming from (European Union, public, green activities, etc.)?

There are virtually no links in the entire supply chain that would not support a greater use of railways, at least in theory. In practice, however, rail freight has been going down and reasonable customers do not even ask for this alternative. Requirements on faster delivery times are simply in favour of truck rather than train transport. A fundamental prerequisite for a more massive use of rail transport is a sufficiently dense network of trans-shipment stations and high-speed railway routes. This would require huge investments and since isolated solutions make no sense in the European context such a project would exceed the borders of a single country. Rail freight does not have much future without a back bone network including efficient and fast end-point reloading of goods with technologies for loading on trailers and swap bodies that can continue on the last-mile road stretch. Given the fast turnover of Czech Transport Ministers, there hasn’t been much progress as this segment of logistics requires a continuous, long-term collaboration between the state and transport/logistics companies. So no, I do not feel a lot of pressure to use the railways.

In your opinion, how will the coronavirus crisis impact the transport market?

As COVID-19 is not likely to leave Europe any time soon, so certain of the measures are here to stay, too. The strongest medium-term effect will be weaker consumer demand. Despite all measures to maintain employment rates adopted up to date and billions invested in boosting sales, I still believe that that sales will drop, primarily for two reasons. Firstly, many consumers are starting to realize that they need a financial buffer to weather difficult times like this (this sort of pressure may also lead to deflation) and secondly, movement across Europe will remain limited.

Of course, some companies will see a dramatic growth, for example those providing logistics for e-shops but the whole industry overall will decline. If I can make a prediction, I would guess that revenues from land transport will drop by 5-10% this year. Such a huge drop can lead to serious consequences because many Czech transport companies have no financial reserves whatsoever and some of them will try to compete through lower prices rather than through higher quality.

Furthermore, there is one crucial long-term risk. Eventually, somebody will have to pay for today’s generous handouts. While our governments maintained a budget deficit during rich times, at least there was no pressure to increase taxes. In the future, many cabinets might be tempted to increase taxes as a simple solution to budget balancing and transport companies would be an easy target. Highway tolls, road taxes, excise tax on diesel and VAT – all bring a quick buck for the state. Transport companies find it difficult to reflect these taxes in their prices, so the result is further reduction in their already small margins and cash flow issues. If the Czech state decides to take this approach, it would only benefit foreign competitors from countries further to the east. As a consequence, the transport market could become completely dependent on foreign companies and the smallest shock (maybe in the form of a new crisis) could totally paralyse the Czech market.

Can companies in your line of business actually prepare for unexpected events such as pandemics, natural disasters, civil unrest, etc.?

There are two factors – the probability of an event occurring and the cost of preparing for it, which should not interfere with the company’s financial results too much. Each company should, therefore, use common sense and “shopkeeper” calculation in its decision-making and define simple principles of sustainability. These principles must include protection of the environment, long-term relationship with customers and employees and, above all, responsible financial management – including a financial reserve to cover 3-6 months of lower revenues. After all, computer viruses are a common feature of our life, too. You cannot prepare for them in advance and firewall software will always only play catch-up. Each pandemic and natural disaster is unique and you cannot reasonably prepare for them ahead of time – but strong and confident companies that can act with certain flexibility will be able to make it through.