An anti-crisis Cocktail: Customers, Hauliers, Laws
Over 100 customers and transport and logistics services providers attended, together with representatives of the authorities, to the conference organized by Ziua Cargo magazine on the 3rd and 4th of June at Iaki Hotel in Mamaia. The meeting between the three parties wanted to be a cocktail with anti-crisis properties, which would break down the barriers generated by the lack of communication.
There are laws, cooperation possibilities; there are intelligent solutions of cost reduction. All of these were underlined during two days of discussions, focused on identifying concrete modalities to develop the transport business on healthy basis, but also on informing the participants regarding the trends for the near future.
Who is the "Romanian Transport Company of the Year"?
The conference in Mamaia represented the best moment for Ziua Cargo to launch the national contest of "Romanian Transport Company of the Year", whose winner will represent our country in the European contest, where Ziua Cargo is a member of jury. The national competition follows the steps of the European one and it comprises the completing of a file covering all the important segments of the transport business, as well as an interview taken by a jury of specialists in the field of transports, finances and insurance. The rules of the contest, whose winners will be designated this fall, and the members of the jury will be announced in the July issue of Ziua Cargo.
The story of a Romanian success in Europe
As proof that the Romanians can have great performance in Europe, the representatives of International Lazar Company presented their experience in the "European Transport Company of the Year" contest, in which they finished third, in front of companies from countries with long tradition in transports, like Germany or the Netherlands.
"In February 2010, we represented Romania in the European Transport Company of the Year 2010, in Brussels. There was a very important competition, where the jury was formed by representatives of specialized press from several countries. This helped us to start cooperation with West-European companies and share our expertise. We think that the 3rd place is an honorable place for us. We shared the podium with Great Britain and Belgium, and Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands followed us. We were the only company from the Eastern Europe among the finalists, although there were other Eastern companies in the competition. We are inviting the Romanian transport companies to participate and we are convinced that it will be as good of experience for you as it was for us", said Dana Midvichi, commercial manager of International Lazar Company.
"We filled in and subscribed a file until the 22nd of December 2009, made by the chiefs of several departments in our company, then PriceWaterhouseCoopers made a financial analysis. There was also a questionnaire regarding the customer's satisfaction, filled in by 5 of our customers, designated by us. It seems that the feed-back was good, because this was one of our strongest points within the competition. An interview with the 7 finalists followed, in Brussels, where we were the first to be interviewed. We made a presentation of the company and we answered some questions. In the same evening, there was the award ceremony, where the surprise was great. Even if Romania has a member in the jury, Radu Borcescu, the editor-in-chief of Ziua Cargo, we didn't know the result until 23:30, when they announced it in the microphone. Practically, it was a surprise for everybody. 1200 participants were present, from media, transports, logistic companies, but also truck manufacturers", Dana Midvichi explained. She also underlined the fact that in the Western Europe the communication between the transport companies is much easier. "We can say that the advantages of our participation are already showing and, in addition to the evaluation we made for ourselves, the image gain of the company cannot be denied, as well as the expertise we gained through the contacts we had with transport companies from other countries. I want to underline the fact that we established new contacts during the award festivity", concluded Dana Midvichi.
Solutions to be competitive
For the ones who want to be competitive, the conference in Mamaia represented an additional opportunity to identify intelligent solutions of cost reduction, on several of the most important segments of the business: fuel, tires, professional training of drivers etc.
Take over the control on fuel
Vlad Pacea, marketing manager of Oscar Downstream, the biggest independent importer of diesel fuel in Romania and promoter of company gas stations in our country, presented the Dieselpoint service, which offers important advantages to the users, like savings, control of fueling, quality fuel, flexibility and promptitude. The company gas station implies zero renting costs and it is equipped with an electronic application for stocking and managing the information regarding the fuel. Assistance and maintenance are, also, free of charge. The fuel is provided by Oscar Downstream by means of its own tank fleet and the payment terms are flexible.
Use efficient tires!
Adrian Gaina, sales representative for truck tires within the Sales Department of Continental AP Romania, presented to the transport companies the advantages of the new profiles of the Continental truck tires for regional and long distance transport, launched as result of the market analyze. "Our brand promises the lowest overall travel costs. We ensure this by means of combining the most important 4 factors, separately for each segment of customers, for instance regional transport or highway traffic", showed Adrian Gaina, adding that the profitability of the transport business is influenced by several factors. "The central aspects aren't only the performance per km and the fuel economy, but also the retread ability of the tire and the services provided. All of those factors lead to obtaining the lowest costs", he said.
Train your drivers for real!
Sandor Gabor, the president of the Professional Training Institute in Road Transports (IFPTR), underlined the integrate system of continuous training of the drivers that could bring important benefits to the transport company, which could be translated into lower costs and important safety gains. "You have to understand that the training won't be made only because it's compulsory by law, but if you really feel the need to do it. Currently, around half of the people who need certificates obtain them through illegal ways, although the transport companies don't need these kind of people, but competent professionals who work hard", explained the president of IFPTR.
IFPTR is the leader of the market in this field, covering around 70% of the professional training needs in the road transports in Romania.
Benone Lazar invited the transport companies to participate in the Romanian Transport Company of the Year competition:
"I use this occasion to invite my colleagues from the field of transports to join the competition this year. We are supporting you. International Lazar Company looked for its own place in the market, not to fight against others, not to eat each other. In the future, we will adopt a new strategy and we are inviting you to do the same. In Europe, everybody focuses on the environment protection and we will concentrate more on the intermodal transport. Our geographic position helped us to win an intermodal transport contract on six years with a very important company worldwide. We took advantage of this situation and we want to build a railway terminal to create a connection between the trucks and containers. We are inviting you to join forces to do actions that will allow us all to be more competitive, because I had serious problems with the Western competition. In the beginning, they came to test me, to ask for advice... to see if I am healthy. They tried to give me 7 million in exchange for my company, then 14 million, then even 22 million. I told them that maybe later, because now I can still work. We have to join forces to be competitive."
More images and presentations from the conference you can find on www.ziuacargo.ro, in the Events section.
Meda BORCESCU
meda.borcescu@ziuacargo.ro
Publicat in revista Ziua Cargo din June 2010
