At the 10th International Economic Forum in Katowice, Roman Matys moderated a discussion on transport as the backbone of the economy. Together with founders and executives of international and Polish logistics companies (Hegelmann Transporte, Northgate Logistics, Hansped, BK Logistyka, MaWo Group, Jumper Polska, Express Car Rental), he tried to identify the industry’s main problems and outline its prospects.
It was one of the most heated debates of the forum, and the speakers did not mince their words. They talked about taxes, about unequal legal conditions compared with carriers from other EU countries, about market fragmentation and the lack of consolidation, and about the lack of government support on the Mobility Package. Almost every participant spoke on almost every issue, and the assessments were mostly critical.
Summing up, Roman Matys set out to identify the problems that affect every single player in the logistics market. There turned out to be two.
Problem one: technology
Logistics in the European Union relies above all on road transport, which carries the main supply chains. New rules tied to the sustainable economy require a switch to vehicles running on alternative fuels. The problems are already clear, but the solutions are not. Replacing fleets with electric trucks in such a short time is technically impossible. There are neither the vehicles from manufacturers nor the financial instruments for a transformation of this scale. On top of that, there is no charging infrastructure for so many vehicles, and it is obvious the problem cannot be solved by the announced deadlines.
Against this background, hydrogen looks like a simpler and faster option: the trucks are easier to build, refuelling is faster than charging, and the infrastructure can build on today’s diesel network. But it is not without problems either. There is no infrastructure yet, not even in its infancy, and producing hydrogen requires very large amounts of water, which raises doubts about how green it really is. So the industry looks with complete bewilderment at deadlines for switching to vehicles that do not yet exist, with no idea where they are supposed to come from.
Problem two: people
The second problem is even harder, and as usual it concerns human resources. As usual, because people are the common thread in every discussion about every sector of the economy.
Attitudes to work have changed significantly in logistics. Drivers are rethinking their job as a source of income, and work-life balance has reached them too. They want to spend weekends with their families, have the best possible conditions on the road and, of course, keep their current pay. For companies that is a real challenge.
Until recently, high wages were seen as compensation for the drawbacks of a driver’s life: long trips, poor facilities, personal responsibility for the cargo. Now companies have to plan routes so that drivers are on the road only during the working week, which sometimes means empty runs. Or they have to invest in new, comfortable trucks that are starting to resemble spaceships. Without this, people lose interest in the profession, and that is one of the industry’s biggest challenges: it is an employee’s market, not an employer’s.
