Due to sharply rising costs, trans-o-flex freight prices were adjusted by 4.9 % as of 1 January 2020. “The cost increase that we are thus passing on is mainly driven by higher personnel expenses,” says Wolfgang P. Albeck, CEO of trans-o-flex. “Additional cost drivers include energy and insurance, and last but not least investments in the universally demanded digitisation of logistics. According to Albeck, IT investments have a particularly strong impact on trans-o-flex because the company makes very consistent use of the possibilities offered by digitisation, from quality assurance and temperature documentation to modern and mobile track-and-trace solutions. “This enables us to achieve higher quality and transparency for our customers and to offer new services”.

In terms of the workforce, the shortage of drivers, which is now clearly noticeable throughout the entire transport industry in Germany, is driving up costs. According to estimates by professional associations in the transport industry, there will be a shortage of around 150,000 drivers in Germany by 2020. And this situation is expected to worsen in the coming years.

“At trans-o-flex we do everything we can to retain good drivers and to attract new ones,” says the company boss. “Not least for this reason, we founded our own company in 2019, which is responsible for the training and further development of our employees, but mainly for the qualification of driving personnel. According to Albeck, however, all initiatives to address the shortage of qualified drivers are associated with additional costs. There is also a relatively new trend in personnel expenses. These are also rising at an above-average rate because service providers such as trans-o-flex with their modern, IT-driven logistics solutions, for example, are dependent on the equally rare and highly qualified IT specialists.