SCANDIC TRANS 30 YEARS 12

Scandic Trans – three decades in the rear-view mirror

With three decades in the rearview mirror, Scandic Trans is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Of the five individual hauliers who joined forces and founded the company in 1990 there are two remaining, with some 30 new shareholders who are active hauliers in the company at the same time. The cornerstones of the company’s operation are the same as 30 years ago: to make sure, with the help of a well-oiled vehicle fleet, that the goods reach their destination in the same condition as when loaded up – on time and in full. But society has changed a lot, and this becomes clear when hearing stories about the company’s start-up phase and the subsequent years. Here are some gems from their archive of memories.

I was doing my weekend shopping at Prisma when I happened upon swedish cakes in the freezer for the first time. I of course wondered who had handled the transport. We contacted the Swedish seller and the following Friday it was us who loaded them up for transport to Finland.

Göran Sandås

I remember when I was coming from Moscow and was to continue on to Flen in Sweden during the Ice Hockey World Championships finals in the spring of 1995. All the cars lined up at the Skatudden Terminal in Helsinki honked their horns in unison every time someone scored a goal, and who could ever forget the final score of 4-1.

Jan Gullans

Back when we used NMT there was no way of contacting your loved ones at home when you were in Russia – the phones didn’t work there. That was except for one location on the lay-by outside Novgorod, where we by chance discovered that we could phone home – via Denmark. How it was possible remained a mystery, but everybody knew about it.

Johan Rosenqvist

We did a really good thing starting up the terminal in Turku – it was the best thing that ever happened to the company. We got a prime location and everyone knows where it is. We bought the first typewriters for the office in Raisio and I can still remember the time when I had to change flags after the Independence Day celebrations. I managed to hoist the Scandic flag the wrong way so that the eagle was upside down – but it flew, nevertheless.

Veijo Kitula

A dramatic start to something big

The year was 1989. The fur business was in crisis and Ostrobotnia Päls had decided to sell its transport company. Some of the hauliers had mutually decided to place an offer. Suddenly all plans were thrown when one of the hauliers bought their mutual workplace on their own.

The country faced a slump without precedent, but the determined hauliers didn’t let this fact, nor the failed company acquisition, stand in their way and instead they decided to go into business on their own.

“Scandic Trans was founded on the 3rd of August 1990, and when we were shortly thereafter offered the opportunity to buy Sand Trans with its entire vehicle fleet, new possibilities opened up”, Kurt Löfqvist recalls.

He became the first CEO of Scandic Trans and his former colleague, Veijo Kitula, who lost his job in Turku at their previous, mutual workplace due to the change of ownership, was appointed office manager.

“We also got Kerstin Berg from Ostrobotnia Päls onboard”, Löfqvist continues. Kerstin handled all the finances.

Buying Sand Trans became decisive for the start-up period.

“The Swedish market opened up thanks to the vehicles we took over from Sand Trans. Later the decision to invest in five vehicles equipped for transporting frozen goods also became very important; today Scandic Trans is specialized in foodstuffs transport”, continues Göran Sandås, one of the original founding members of Scandic Trans.

Despite the depression and two devaluations in a row, the mood in the newly founded company was optimistic. The first export of their own went to KWH in Denmark, and thanks to haulage for NTC in Nykarleby and the advance received from them, they managed to stay afloat.

“Quite early on Scandic Trans signed contracts with shipping and fuel companies. This was also an important contributing factor”, Kerstin Berg points out.

She remembers the time as both intense and enjoyable.

“There were many late nights handling invoices, and more than two weeks vacation in a row was unheard of.”

Thanks to the contact with dispatchers in Sweden, new markets opened up with time, and it was also during the depression that the Russian traffic got rolling.

“We sat in my office with my ”dispatch bible” making phone calls and jotting down notes on squared paper – we started from scratch”, Sandås remembers.

Also Veijo Kitula smiles at the memories of the early years.

“When we heard that Gigantti was coming to Finland, I called them and asked if we could make them an offer. They accepted, and later the chain opened more and more stores in the country. Electrolux was also an important and big client of ours.”

From a vehicle fleet of ten trucks, the number has grown to nine times that during the last three decades, and more shareholders have joined along the way. Just like in the beginning, the company’s cornerstones are active hauliers with a focus on well-functioning transport and satisfied customers.

A group of Scandic Trans veterans have gathered to discuss mutual memories. From the top left Veijo Kitula, Jan Gullans, Kenneth Sandås, Kurt Löfqvist and Johan Rosenqvist. In the bottom row from the left - Göran Sandås and Kerstin Berg.

Russian traffic – an unforgettable era

Lasse Södergård cherishes many memories from the road, and especially the Norwegian and Russian ones. In the picture you can see one of his vehicles, and although he has reached retirement age Lasse still works part time every fall and spring.

A lot can happen in three decades, and many of the first drivers at Scandic Trans characterise the nineties in a special way. That was when the Russian traffic peaked. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, eastbound exports really started rolling and a seemingly never-ending stream of delicacies were transported every week to Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Sometimes the trips were more exciting than usual; Lasse Södergård, Jan Gullans, Johan Rosenqvist, Göran Sandås and Kurt Löfqvist among others can testify to that. They were there ”from the get-go” and the anecdotes from those times are many.

“Once, a few days before Christmas, one of our hauliers happened upon fake customs officers who demanded that he pay 60 000 Finnish Marks,” begins Kurt Löfqvist, one of the founders of Scandic Trans and also the company’s first CEO. “The whole thing was resolved before I got there with the check, but when we went to pick up the vehicle the goods were gone. The vehicle was seized, and it wasn’t until after long and difficult negotiations that we got it out of Russia the following early spring.”

Besides margarine and chocolate, ice cream was also very sought after on the Russian market. Many Russians were newly rich and could afford to spend money.

“There was no shortage of work,” Lasse Södergård, nowadays retired after 43 years behind the wheel, recalls.

The Russian era lasted from 1991 to 1999 and ended with the collapse of the rouble, when much of the buying power vanished. Södergård remembers these years as the highlight of his career.

“The collapse of the rouble and bigger competition were not the only reasons why the traffic finished,” Kurt Löfqvist continues. “A crucial reason was the threat that a Scandic Trans truck that crossed the Russian border would be seized, since they felt that a vehicle, once seized, would be taken illegally out of the country.

So sure, there were also disadvantages in this period.

“The waiting time at the border was always unknown and the longest we stood lined up was 38 hours. In the worst case the line started directly after Kotka,” Lasse Södergård continues.

The waiting time was mainly passed playing cards at the terminal or resting in the cab.

“The system worked so that the two kilometre long stretch in no man’s land was filled up once it became