The future of road transportation in the European Union: where do we, as Girteka Group, go next?

The last few years in logistics has been challenging. Undoubtedly, fundamental change to the road freight transportation industry has been happening for many reasons. We have seen many different situations in the market, each with its unique challenges. 2023 is no exception: what we are seeing is a unique situation, with inflation, rising fuel prices, and the effects of the war affecting every company involved in logistics in the European Union (EU).

It is common approach to have little doubt that these past few years will go down in history as the years that decided our future. But at the same time, no doubt that we will come out of these challenges much stronger and more resilient. As a company and a whole industry, we are becoming more sustainable, conscious of our choices, and, most importantly, responsible.

By announcing our decision to change our identity and for Girteka to become a Responsible Logistics company, we recognized the need to prepare ourselves for the future. To some degree, the future is still uncertain, as we have seen how major events can happen suddenly, changing the way we live and work at a moment’s notice.

Emphasizing our customers, colleagues, community, shareholders, and partners’ experience, we aim to become these stakeholders’ obvious first choice. The direction in which to move forward might be obvious, especially as the EU has clear climate goals that it wants to achieve collectively by 2050, as well as 2030.

Sustainability will continue to be important

And that is the direction the logistics sector will move in: becoming more sustainable. Truck manufacturers have been exploring electric, hydrogen, and other technologies that would reduce the emissions of every delivery we make on behalf of our customers. We have been one of the pioneering companies in Europe by ordering 600 Scania electric trucks and we are proud of the partnership we established with Scania to become more sustainable and provide our drivers with a better experience when working on the road, including the new Scania Super powertrain for trucks, further reducing our emissions throughout the whole fleet.

The debate is certainly interesting about which technology will win and whether hydrogen or battery-powered engines will be the leading zero-emissions technology in the next few years. However, there is little time to debate which technology to choose and whether we can wait and see the one that performs better. We have to act now, especially if we want to be a truly Responsible Logistics company. The world will not wait for industry stakeholders to test these technologies, as we are not shifting towards zero-emission trucks just because of regulations or to have a “greener” image publicly. We have a responsibility that there is a future for our children and ourselves.

But much like our sense of purpose evolved to becoming a Responsible Logistics company, so did our understanding of what is sustainable. Being sustainable no longer means reducing emissions. It also means ensuring your employees’ well-being and taking care of your local community, which should be the way forward for Girteka and the road freight transportation industry. By developing the infrastructure for the future, charging stations and hydrogen refueling stops should be complemented with safe, well-lit, and comfortable parking stops across Europe for our drivers.

There is no secret that the industry has faced a driver shortage for many years. The pandemic, hopefully far behind us, has only worsened the problem, as drivers chose to retire early. We have implemented solutions to overcome the situation and ensure that we can continue delivering on our promises but we have to make sure that the whole industry makes changes to make the work of a truck driver safer, comfortable, and more accessible to people no matter their age or gender. A more inclusive industry will help it move forward and continue ensuring that supermarket shelves are stocked with crucial and other goods on time.

A digitalized road freight transport industry

The importance of timely deliveries became visible during the COVID-19 pandemic when life-saving medicine or equipment had to be shipped throughout Europe to hospitals. Border closures also affected supply chains, which is why it was now important for shippers to see their supply chains clearly.

Once they were able to see their supply chains, they could make adjustments to ensure that production could continue or that shelves still had enough items on them for shoppers to buy. That desire to have a fully transparent supply chain, including transportation, has remained. We began working with SAP just before the first wave of the pandemic. But it did not stop us from only accelerating the digitalization at our company. That way we can be ahead of our competition and become an even more customer-centric logistics company. Leveraging our asset-based model, digitalization will allow us to be more efficient, sustainable, and transparent for our customers.

Digitalization will be more widespread in the industry sooner rather than later. Being one of the first companies to go through a significant business digitalization transformation, using Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based tools, we hope we will be known as the of the pioneers in the industry to move forward with digital tools. Going forward, challenges will remain. AI continues gaining traction in our lives and we will have to learn how to continue integrating these solutions, including autonomous trucks when the time comes. Automation and digitalization will change every link in the supply chain and we will have to continue adapting to the changes that will be brought forward by the technologies of tomorrow.

Integrating hydrogen or electric trucks will also force us to adapt and make changes in our processes. That future is just around the corner and we have to prepare for it and make sure our customers can expect a smooth transition away from diesel-powered trucks. The infrastructure to refuel zero-emissions trucks will be different and the industry will have to adapt to that change. Digitalization will only help in the transition and make sure that no matter if a load is delivered with a diesel-powered truck or a vehicle that has no emissions, it will arrive on time and the customer will remain satisfied with the time and quality of the delivery.

Tailored customer solutions

With digitalization will come more tailored solutions, which means that as we look toward the industry’s future, customer-centric logistics will be more and more important.

This is why we think being an early adopter of digitalization will help logistics companies listen to their customers’ needs better and develop road freight transport solutions according to their requirements, deploying effective and tailored solutions without much delay. Speed has always been important in this industry and digitalization will help us make decisions quicker, including implementing various solutions that our customers will find useful. We will need to pay attention to our customers’ specifications and be active in responding to their feedback, whether it would be positive or negative.

With digitalization, we will be able to make our current solutions more efficient. For example, intermodal rail network will benefit from digitalization as well. We will be able to make intermodal solutions better, allowing us to offer more accessible intermodal solutions throughout Europe. Infrastructure will have to be developed for the whole industry to offer more zero-emissions rail transportation, as it has been a key bottleneck for the development of intermodal rail solutions.

A customer-centric approach is nothing new in the logistics industry. The importance of our customers’ satisfaction with transportation services will only grow but thanks to digitalization, we can expect it to be easier to offer new and tailored solutions for various shipments. The important part will be to listen, communicate, and ensure we understand what our customers want, which will always be important, now and in the future, to become more responsible companies.