2021/2 Newstrailer
PDF for download: VTL-Newstrailer-21-2-ePaper-EN
Introduction
Consistency in a changing world
Over the last few months, Corona has shown us that change can arise suddenly and does not have to be limited to a certain region but acts globally! Change may result in the deconstruction of culture, society the economy, it may put everything back together and create new business models, added value and forms of behaviour.
A crisis, no matter how difficult and uncomfortable it may appear, can encourage new beginnings by triggering a sustainable process of rethinking leading to change. A growth in terms of economic as well as personal growth is only feasible if we constantly challenge ourselves.
This quote by Nelson Mandela fits in with it: „It always seems impossible until it is done.“
This change we have been experiencing now for 1.5 years because of the pandemic, gives us a boost. We want to profit from the tailwind we have gained to take the general cargo network VTL to the next level – since just because the general cargo network works well every day does not mean that no further improvement will be feasible: creativity and success arise through movement – that‘s why our answer to this challenge is „Yes“!
We started our journey together more than 20 years ago. And we defined our visions, objectives and values in a clear manner. From all first start, our business model has been based on the three pillars of sustainability. Together as CargoFamily, we live the cooperation idea.
However, there is also the change which can be planned.
After 16 years, in January 2022, there will be a change in the management. The long-time managing director Andreas Jäschke is leaving us because he is retiring. As his successor, Johanna Broese will take over the management and steer the destiny of the company. Johanna Broese is supported by an experienced, strong team in the system headquarters.
In the course of the past few months, VTL has prepared for its sudden, but also predictable, change. Together we have set the course for the construction of a modern and innovative network so that we can look to the future with confidence.
The company VTL is now ready to face new challenges!
Thank you for 16 years
A stable network, satisfied partners, and secure jobs – Andreas Jäschke can look back on this with pride. With a good intuition, negotiating skills and the power of persuasion, he has taken new paths with courage. This has made VTL strong and a leading general cargo cooperation that is always able to hold its own inchanging market situations.
“Andreas Jäschke and the company VTL – one unit. We have known each other for many years now, to be precise, since 1996. In January 1997, Andreas Jäschke became the managing director of the company Spedition 2000. In 2005, the company Spedition 2000 merged with VTL. Mr. Jäschke played a key role in shaping this merger as well as the whole further development of VTL. In this context, he was always striving to the implementation of innovations. During the long years of collaboration, I got to know and appreciate him as a very determined person with a strong strategic orientation. Even beyond his professional life, Mr. Jäschke will stay in touch with VTL. We would like to thank him for his decades of commitment and hope that he gets the chance to pursue his hobbies in good health for many years to come.“
Herbert Rothschild, Chairman of the VTL Supervisory Board
“In 2005 Andreas Jäschke was appointed managing director of VTL. As the captain, together with his crew, he always manoeuvred VTL safely through all areas. Andreas was well-organised and always expected the same structured approach from his team to master every weather. Both in his private life and as a leisure skipper, I wish him a hand‘s breadth of water under the keel.“
Heinz Hintzen, Managing Director Hintzen Logistik and VTL shareholder
“Dearest Mr. Jäschke, we have had the chance to work closely together for over 14 years now, and during this time, I have greatly appreciated your optimism and your ability to assert yourself in the course of the years. Thanks to your consistent work, you have been able to put the company VTL on a sound financial footing. Even in times facing particular challenges, such as during the financial and economic crisis of 2009/2010, you have manoeuvred VTL with great prudence. What remain in my special memory, are your excellent communication and negotiating skills. I thank you for your commitment to the benefit of VTL and wish you not only good health for the future, but always a hand‘s breadth of water under the keel. Ahoy and all best.“
Joachim Berends, Board of Bentheimer Eisenbahn
“Andreas Jäschke has accompanied me for 28 years of my professional life, starting with the appointment at Wohlfarth Spedition in Offenbach, through Spedition 2000 in Rodgau, to the final merger with the company VTL in Fulda. From the first beginning, his cooperation with him was characterised by absolute trust and loyalty, and we became a well-coordinated team. It is a time I do not want to miss because I learnt a lot from him. I particularly appreciate his confident manner and humour and the fact that he always keeps a clear head even when we are in crisis situations. Enjoy your new phase of life. Thank you for your many years of support.“
Claudia Moege, Secretary
“After many years, the moment of farewell has come. Thanks to your zeal, foresight, and rigour, you have decisively shaped VTL by making of it the successful company it is today. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of our hearts since you were a great boss, and we will miss you so much. As everywhere, there are good and bad experiences. They are all part of it. However, all the beautiful experiences we had with you will remain and we will be happy to remember them. Now it‘s your turn to finally do what you always wanted to do without having the time to do it. Therefore we would like to congratulate you on your well-deserved retirement.“
Peter Welker und Kerstin Welker, Employees in the night transhipment
Shape the future. Sustainable objectives
VTL – a strong network, with strong partners!
Respect, appreciation, and an excellent co-operation – these are the values of the general cargo cooperation of the company VTL. They are a building block for a strong community and serve as a foundation for the implementation of the extensive objectives because the company VTL has big plans by 2025. A special focus is on the network with its partners, on a high level of quality, on innovative digitization projects and sustainable processes.
The topic of the network alignment plays a decisive role in this context. The focus continues to be on the network security and on the reliable area coverage in Germany so to be able to guarantee a close-knit network and the stability of the individual partners by permitting our adaptation to the market requirements at short notice. In addition, the company VTL plans the expansion and rebuilding of the line network. The limited capacities available in Fulda shall be cushioned by restructuring and expanding the main route traffic and by increasing the capacity use of the regional hubs. In addition, the establishment of further regional hubs is being examined.
Network stability as well as fair partnership are the top priorities of all these projects. In this context, the objective is the focus on the service concept, which manifests itself in reliability and adherence to deadlines both internally at VTL and towards customers.
The necessary process and cost optimisation is also supported by digitalisation. The constant further development of myVTL, which is the digital heart of the strong partner network, is and will remain an essential aspect of the future agenda. The same applies to the endeavour to treat the environment carefully and responsibly. Also in this field, VTL has lots of plans.
For details on the topics, you can visit the following pages of our NewsTrailer.
Quality
Quality has many facets
Quality is a task which can only be achieved together. In a network in particular, every single partner is part of the whole. At VTL, we discussed this aspect with the Head of Quality Management/Service, Robert Rasenberger and with Mirsad Omeragic, the Head of the HUB.
Mr. Rasenberger, in which way would you like to approach this task?
„We need to make adjustments on several fronts. To this purpose, we will improve the communication by involving all partners and our employees more closely.”
Could you explain this in detail?
„Yes, on the one hand this should be achieved through the digital process optimisation. The continuous monitoring with ‚quality alarm‘ will put all partners into the position to identify problems as early as possible via myVTL so to deduct the suitable measures and improvements at short notice. The advantage is that the partners do not have to wait for the monthly ranking results to be able to make the initial adjustments in the operational processing. Furthermore, we will make the contact between the QM department and our more than 120 partners closer to permit an intensive exchange of experiences.”
How do you imagine all this will work?
„What we want is to build up a network within the network. This should be a network in which underperforming depots learn and benefit from the powerful and additionally consult us more closely at the system headquarters. Not only our partners, but also we as the system centre are on the test bench and strive to our continuous personal development. For this purpose, we are currently developing an extensive system of key figures in close cooperation with the night shift and adapting our processes and structures to new circumstances. The main objective for example consists of the reduction of the departure delays and of the improvement of the forwarding rate.“
Mr. Rasenberger, quality is made by people. Operations in particular require many employees. How is VTL positioned in this area?
„In order to achieve the desired quality in nighttime transhipment, we have repositioned ourselves in terms of personnel. In July, our HUB manager, Mirsad Omeragic – who has been with VTL for over 20 years now – received reinforcement from Thomas Kluck (Support HUB). The team also includes Thomas Straka, in his function as assistant to the HUB management, as well as three HUB controllers for the night shift and one HUB controller for the operations during the day.“
Is the company VTL affected by a personnel shortage in the area of commercial employees? And how do you deal with this shortage in the central hub, Mr. Omeragic?
„Yes, VTL is affected by the staff shortage as well. And this is a challenging aspect. Since quality depends on the employees and on how smoothly the handling works.
We try to counteract this shortage by motivational enhancement and improvement in terms of communication. Now there are regular information events together with the management and the hub management so that everybody knows about the common path and can identify with the company VTL. Small gifts, such as an invitation to a coffee or a pizza, but also the chance to win attractive prizes at the
employee party or the award of particularly committed employees, serves as motivational enhancement in daily life.
We are all aware that ups and downs are part and parcel of everything. And this is precisely the reason why it is our objective that employees, regardless of their position, feel comfortable in our „CargoFamily“, enjoy their job at VTL and communicate this to the outside world. To find new personnel, for example, we use the support offered by our colleagues. As a thank you for every employee referral for the commercial sector, the employees obtain a bonus payment as part of our program „Mitarbeiter werben Mitarbeiter“ („Employees recruit employees“) whereby this applies provided that the new employee has been employed at the nighttime transhipment for a period of at least three months.
The continuous improvement of the processes matters to us so that we can continue to master future challenges well.“
Quality has its price – the manner VTL deals with the rising production costs
The current situation clearly shows us that general cost increases are to be expected, which there is no way around. To put VTL into the position to continue to offer good quality also in the future, the decision was made to adjust the local transport tariff as of 1 January 2022. In this context, the general cargo cooperation works with Prof. Dr. Dirk Lohre of the Institute Forlogic. For the creation of the new local transport tariff, publicly available cost, and production conditions as well as parameters of the DSLV general cargo index for the years 2019/2020, but also current data from the first semester of the year 2021, are used. In addition, the regional differences of individual partner areas, recorded in a local transport analysis, were considered.
Simplification of the notification process
Deliver whenever and the way which suits you!
With the new offer „Wunschliefertag“ (“Preferred Delivery Day”), VTL wants to simplify the delivery to private customers for its partners. For this purpose, VTL and Wunschliefertag signed a framework agreement in October to offer the non-bureaucratic and voluntary use to the network partners. The VTL headquarters is reacting to the enormous increase in the number of consignments subject to notification. Most of them come from the B2C customer segment. The result is the significant increase of the workload for delivery.
In this context, Wunschliefertag (the product of the Gras Group) has the solution by taking over the notifications by SMS, e-mail, or phone and by suggesting the delivery dates for selection.
Thanks to the outsourcing of the notification process the workload in the depots can be reduced enormously. The specialist staff can focus on their core competencies. The VTL partners are connected to Wunschliefertag through an interface. It makes no difference whether the notification shipments are your own shipments or the shipments coming the VTL network. To offer its support to its partners, VTL even make its contribution to their connection costs.
For more information, please get in touch with Fabienne.Kempf@vtl.de.
Reduce and compensate
Sustainable strategy for climate-friendly logistics
By 2030, the VTL system centre wants to reduce the produced greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent and offset 100 percent of the non-reducible emissions in climate protecti-on projects. For this purpose, the supervisory board and management rely on green solutions and climate-friendly logistics – on the transport routes as well as in the transhipment companies.
To achieve this objective, the office building and the hall of the system centre will be designed to be climate neutral. In addition, the proportion of e-vehicles in the company vehicle fleet will be gradually increased. At the same time, the proportion of sustainable industrial trucks in the HUB will be increased. A comprehensive portfolio of green products will be offered to partners as well as to customers.
economical – a worthwhile investment, in particular if you consider the rising energy prices.
The implementation has started …
More independence with photovoltaic
For the sustainable supply of buildings, for example, the company VTL relies on its own photovoltaic plant, put into operation at the system headquarters in Fulda at the end of September. The photovoltaic plant of 500 square metres on the roof of the Europahalle covers the entire electricity requirement of 700 square meters of administration and 9,000 square meters of hall space during the daily operations.The electricity generated here is used, for example, directly to charge the electric forklift trucks, which are then used for the nighttime transshipment. In addition, a wall box for two e-cars is fed, for example for the new company car, an ID3 at disposal of the employees since October.
The new project manager for sustainability
In order to assess further reduction potentials and to sensitize the employees to green logistics, the topic of sustainability is becoming an integral part of everyday life at VTL. For this purpose, the initiative „Umweltschutz in der Systemzentrale“ (“Environmental Protection in the System Headquarters”) was launched. In addition, the new position of the project manager for sustainability was created. This position was filled in October 2021 by Christian Grubmüller, who has been with VTL for over twelve years. Among other things, he has been responsible for technology, vehicle fleet and building management at the system head- quarters in Fulda. His future tasks will include the process analyses and the implementation of benchmarks in order to determine potential savings (in terms of CO2e, water, electricity, waste) and to advise the management on the further measures to be implemented.
The system partners offer their motivation and support
Thanks to these measures, VTL wants to motivate its partners to become active as well and to make their own contribution to a sustainable network. In addition, the VTL depots should receive support in the form of advisory services and grants in the implementation of their own measures in order to make their own processes and transport on the road more environmentally friendly.
System meeting. Consistency in a changing world
System meeting. Consistency in a changing world
The face-to-face event held on 1 October 2021 in Hamburg counted around 85 participants. Under strict control of the applicable Corona regulations, the network event informed the managing directors about the development of the network as well as about quality, sustainability, and the new products. In the lecture focussing on the future objectives of the general cargo cooperation, Johanna Broese took the participants on a visionary journey. This year, too, the PartnerAwards were introduced, and anniversaries were honoured for their partnership of 10 and 20 years.
Partner Awards for growth and quality
Biggest international growth: SD EUROPA, Mollem (Belgium)
Biggest national growth: RS Logistik GmbH, Appen
Best quality: Spedition Steinhart GmbH & Co. KG, Sigmaringendorf
New partners in the network
Barsan Global Logistik GmbH
Barsan, with its location in Maisach, has been a partner in the VTL network since May 2021. The company Barsan was founded in 1982 by Kamil Barlın as a custom’s advisory office in Karaköy, Istanbul. Now the company is a global brand offering integrated logistics services with 74 logistics centres in 38 countries in a vast geographic area from the United States to China and from Europe to Asia.
Barsan describes his company philosophy and convictions by calling it „logistics at the speed of thinking“.
Christian Carstensen GmbH & Co. KG
- VTL partner since October 2021 (Handewitt)
- 5th generation; a history of more than 125 years
- General cargo distribution through DK + SE
- Total 150x trucks (packed and loose)
- 70,000 square meters of storage space
- Railway siding
Grieshaber Logistik GmbH
With its 700 employees, 16 logistics centres and more than 140 pulling units, the company Grieshaber is one of the largest freight forwarders and logistics companies all over Germany. Over the course of seven decades, Grieshaber has developed from a small transport company to an internationally well-positioned logistics company. During that period, it has expanded the area of contract logistics by focussing on pharmaceutical, food, automotive, paper, chemical and metal.
In July 2021 it became a partner of the VTL network. For the logistics company based in Weingarten, this is the logical step in the direction of expanding its general cargo offer. The objective is to further drive growth in this segment and to expand the portfolio.
https://www.grieshaberlog.com/
With its site in Leipzig, Emons has been represented in the VTL network with the 10th branch since October.
Forwarding & logistics. Worldwide. Since 1928. The company Emons Spedition transports its goods over land, water, and air by combining the transport routes of its cargo in a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly manner. With around 100 locations, the company has gained an exceptional international position. As a one-stop shopping service provider among freight forwarders, the company Emons offers all services for transport and logistics from a single source, nationally and internationally. The Emons networks in Germany, Europe and worldwide are an important basis for this high performance
More new network partners:
Systempo Spedition & Logistik GmbH,
Ansfelden (AT), VTL-Start: July 2021
Weliver LD Logistik GmbH
Mannheim, VTL-Start: September 2021
Sustainability
Click for the environment
On the way to a sustainable future, avoiding greenhouse gas emissions is the main priority of the agenda. Unavoidable CO2e emissions can be offset by means of voluntary compensation payments at VTL.
But how many emissions are generated by the transport of a shipment in the national VTL network? To find this out, a survey was carried out in the partners‘ local transport and an analysis of the main routes in the network was carried out. On the basis of this analysis and the criteria according to the standard DIN EN 16528, a corresponding CO2e shipment table was developed. It enables the exact reading of the CO2e emissions per shipment based on the parameters distance (km) and weight (kg). It was integrated into the ERP system myVTL and serves as the basis for future equalisation compensations.
With the service offer „Klick für die Umwelt“ (“Click for the Environment”), the headquarters makes it very easy for its partners and customers to take responsibility for the environment and to show that it is of great importance to them. In order to get an overview, the expected costs for the compensation of a shipment can be calculated in the calculation tool of myVTL. For the actual booking, simply tick the box next to „climate-compensated“ when registering for the shipment. Then the emissions resulting from the respective transport will be voluntarily offset. A retroactive compensation is also feasible upon request.
Further information for the VTL partners is available in myVTL DownloadCenter under „Grüne Logistik“ („Green Logistics“) or on our website.
For the compensation, the system centre has entered into a cooperation with myClimate. In this context, the certified project „Wiederaufforstung in Nicaragua“ (“Reforestation in Nicaragua”) was selected. Also because it takes into account 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.
Anniversaries 2021
10 years
- Emons Spedition GmbH Neubrandenburg, Spornitz, Uhrsleben, Nyramy (CZ) /1
- Gebr. Sauels GmbH & Co. KG, Nettetal /2
- TTM GmbH Internationale Spedition, Edingen-Neckarhausen
- De Vreese Logistik NV, Petegem (BE)
- BTG D.O.O Maribor (SI) /3
20 years
- Spedition Steinhart GmbH & Co. KG, Sigmaringendorf /4
