Vans bring time-critical shipments to destinations throughout Europe

As trade is increasing again, truck capacities could become short in autumn. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy now expects a V-shaped recovery following the Corona-related slump in trade in the euro zone. It is difficult to predict how this will affect truck availability – according to current tolling data, heavy goods traffic is increasing again. However, a. hartrodt's customers can rely on punctual delivery by road, especially for time-critical shipments: "We organize special transportation with the appropriate equipment," says Hans-Joachim Koske, who is responsible for the land transportation division as General Manager at a. hartrodt in Hamburg.

Narrow time frame between production and sales

In Hamburg, a. hartrodt has set up a team for special transportation by road. The experts have to find more and more often solutions for very urgent goods – not only because of Corona. "Many products come out of production too late," Koske gives as the main reason. Example: A book delivery that could only be loaded in Austria on Sunday had to be available on Monday in sales outlets throughout Spain. "We offer deliveries at a European level usually within 24 hours," says Koske.

Cooperation for European land transport

"We load up to a shipment weight of approximately 1,000 kilograms into vehicles with a total weight of up to 3.5 tons," explains Florian Woebb, Team Leader Haulage national and international at a. hartrodt in Hamburg. "We can provide vans within one hour for special transportation throughout Germany, and within two hours throughout Europe," says Woebb, who works closely with land transport experts at a. hartrodt in Italy, Poland and Hungary. According to Woebb, special transportation is also interesting for high-value products such as laser systems, "because they must not be reloaded and are time-critical".

Since air cargo capacities have shrunk due to Corona, there has also been an increased demand for special transportation as road feeder service. "For air freight from Indonesia to Portugal via Frankfurt, for example, we are currently organizing onward carriage by road," says Woebb.