E-mobility for heavy haulage
In an interview with ITJ correspondent Josef Müller, Elisabeth Andrieux, managing director of Hofmann & Neffe, identifies unjustified cost increases and explains why she sees a future in alternative drives.
Today the transport and logistics firm Hofmann & Neffe, (H & N) from St Florian in Upper Austria, looks back on a history streching over more than 100 years. It first began to handle freight transports with horse-drawn carts in 1918.
Speaking to the ITJ Elisabeth Andrieux, the company’s managing director, said that “our strength today lies in our variegated offers based on long-term business relationships, including tailor-made logistics solutions. Our clients benefit from our total commitment to the cause, and we in turn benefit from long-term and predictable contracted logistics services.”
The company with its 230 employees focuses on industries such as chemicals, automotive, steel, food and building materials. It operates mainly in its Upper Austrian domestic market, deploying its own vehicle fleet, as Andrieux underlines.
Its forwarding business also covers destinations not located in said home market, or that can be better and more efficiently served by partners. The majority of H & N’s business is made up of regional distribution solutions.
Regional business; geopolitical influences
The overall market environment isn’t easy. “We and all transport companies feel all the developments currently occurring in world politics. Since the transport industry is involved in almost every business and has to do with almost every industry, we perceive the different vibrations directly,” Andrieux said.
Since the outbreak of Corona, she believes, the industry has been more externally determined than ever before. The burning issues are uncertain supply chains and high cost increases since the beginning of the Ukraine war.
«Costs have risen sharply and unjustifiably in all areas – be it vehicles, spare parts, services – and cannot always be correctly substantiated,» is the manager’s impression. It’s true that the price always plays a central role in decision-making. «But our goal is to bring quality in all our business areas that customers are willing to pay for, and we succeed.»
Hofmann & Neffe is also convinced that the importance of combined transport will continue to grow in importance.
Sustainable solutions
The company is also very committed to alternative drives; since the beginning of 2023, all-electric, battery-powered trucks have been deployed, and H & N has made its own experiences in the field. “We’ve observed that demand for alternatively-powered vehicles has risen sharply in a very short time recently, building on the basic interest of customers that was there right from the beginning,” Andrieux believes.
The company also offers fleet outsourcing, that is to say taking over a customer’s fleet completely (or partially) and then jointly developing logistics solutions in partnership. Cooperation is always geared to the long term. “We know exactly what our customers need, our drivers are specialised operators and we have enough back-up staff and vehicles to handle short-term orders,” Andrieux elaborated.
In terms of transport policy Andrieux would like to see long-term concepts established for the tolls that emission-free vehicles have to pay. In order to counteract the shortage of personnel, that is to say specifically amongst lorry drivers, governments should make it easier to employ people from third countries as drivers, the managing director concluded.