Spedition in Duetchland

My first vocational visit was with a transportation company in Uelzen. I met with the owner, Hubert Kobernuss. His company is a family business with his older daughter starting to take a leadership role in the company. Mr. Kobernuss was very excited that she decided to join the company as he is trying to have more time away from the business. We had a long discussion about truck equipment, government regulations, driver recruiting challenges, and customer relationships.

Here are a few comparisons about trucking in U.S. and Germany. Trucks are allowed to travel 100 km/hr on the autobahn, which is 62.5 mph. Team Driving is not permitted since the truck must shut down each day. There are similar hours of service rules for driving limits per day and per week. One big distinction is all trucks must be equipped with electronic logs. Each driver has a plastic card to insert for tracking on duty time. The logs transmit times to the company and to the transportation authorities in the German government.

The trucks I observed on the autobahn were cabovers manufactured by Mercedes, Iveco, Volvo, and Scania. The box trailers are curtain side, which allows for convenient unloading from the side of the trailer with out a dock. The trucks and trailers are somewhat smaller than in the US but can still transport over 40 tons. The reason for the smaller equipment is that Europe is much more dense and narrow roads are common. The distribution networks seem to be more regionalized, which means shorter distances from shipper to customer.

I met with Wolfgang Hiller in Lunaburg and had the opportunity to test drive his Iveco cabover. It was an automatic. His company transports between Hamburg and Cologne. If one of his customers has a truckload shipment outside his lane, Hiller brokers it to another spedition (transportation) company. Both Hiller and Kobernuss also provide warehousing services to their customers.

My most recent visit was with Hahne near Goslar. Their company transports truckload, less than truckload, dumps, and has a retail fuel stop and truck wash too. Germany is currently testing larger hauling capabilities, but the transportation infrastructure is very tight in the cities. The German economy in this region of Lower Saxony seems to be doing well as all 3 companies have more opportunities than drivers. It was stated that a drop in the Euro currency will be favorable for German exports, but also results in fuel price increases.

Fuel efficiency is a top priority at these German spedition companies. Fuel metrics are posted each week for each driver. Drivers are paid a monthly salary but must earn a fuel efficiency bonus. Like in the States, the Geman managers are working to balance on time service for a profit while complying with the many regulations.

Joe Keller