Global Trailer July 2020

53

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INNOVATION

BUSINESS

NEWS

VDL’s Rolling Road Facility Telematics In The Middle East Special Report: Cybersecurity Assali Stefen’s Latest Developments

Executive Interview: Gray & Adams Market Report: Spain SAF-Holland Wins PACCAR Accolade Product Spotlight: Aspöck Systems

VALX Talks Energy Axles, Future Plans Megatrends: Globalisation Hamm Specifies JOST Axle Systems Covid-19 Responses, Trailer Deliveries

Visualization coming into Reality Modular and Digital design

CIMC Vehicle’s modular and digital design beyond the existing design language allows customers to be unprecedentedly autonomous. Customers can be free to choose the configuration and appearance according to their needs and preferences.

www.cimcvehiclesgroup.com

COVER STORY

26

FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY

UK-based OEM, Gray & Adams, celebrates more than 60 years in operation and details its cold chain dominance, commitment to developing talent and producing award-winning road transport equipment.

38 IN THIS ISSUE

James Gray,

BUSINESS

30 MARKET REPORT: SPAIN

The second largest country in the European Union, located on the Iberian Peninsula, Spain, is diverse in its geography and culture – much like its truck, trailer and ancillary component market.

36 FIFTH WHEELS

Two of SAF-Holland’s plants were once again awarded with the PACCAR 10 PPM Quality Award.

50 PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Aspöck Systems continues to shine light on its advances in truck and trailer lighting technologies.

52 SPECIAL REPORT

Managing business continuity and privacy in this digital age can be extremely challenging.

FEATURES 38 VALX

Dutch manufacturing specialist, VALX, has been enhancing its axles

“GRAY & ADAMS DOMINATES THE UK COLD CHAIN FROM FARM TO FORK AND SEA TO PLATE ... THE COMPANY SUPPLIES DOUBLE DECK TRAILERS TO MOST MAJOR SUPERMARKETS, INCLUDING ALDI, ASDA, CO-OP, ICELAND, SAINSBURY’S AND TESCO, AS WELL AS BLUE-CHIP HOUSEHOLD BRANDS LIKE DPD, JOHN LEWIS WAITROSE, M&S AND WARBURTONS.” Gray & Adams

and suspension portfolio since it started business 10 years ago and shows no sign of slowing down.

42 ASSALI STEFEN

Assali Stefen CEO, Giovanni Bertagnoli, met with Global Trailer to provide an update on operations and key innovative developments.

44 GIGANT

German axle manufacturer, GIGANT, is planning a pivotal shift in its digital services including a new corporate design.

REGULARS

56 EVENTS

04 EDITOR’S NOTE

58 MEGATRENDS

06 NEWS

59 PREVIEW

46 VDL

For the past 40 years, VDL Weweler in the Netherlands has built a solid reputation for creating customer-specific solutions – setting the industry benchmark for air suspension systems worldwide.

48 JOST

German silo transport specialist, Hamm, specifies JOST axle systems to maintain an efficient and effective fleet.

42 W W W. G LO B A LT R A I L E R M AG . C O M / G L O B A L T R A I L E R / 3

EDITOR’S NOTE

PUBLISHER

John Murphy john.murphy@primecreative.com.au

MANAGING EDITOR

Luke Applebee luke.applebee@primecreative.com.au

DESIGN PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Michelle Weston michelle.weston@primecreative.com.au

ART DIRECTOR Blake Storey

DESIGN

BUCKING THE TREND AN UNPRECEDENTED FALL IN world trade is expected to occur following ongoing trade tensions between the US and China which has been further exacerbated by the widespread impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. An extensive period of world trade growth – decades of international cooperation – has been set back by these developments. So, have we witnessed globalisation at its absolute peak?

World merchandise trade, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO), is estimated to plummet between 13 and 32 per cent this year. This estimate hinges on the containment of the coronavirus and how long it will take for trade to return to pre-crisis levels.

For WTO Director-General, Roberto Azevêdo, keeping markets open and predictable as well as fostering a more generally favourable business environment will be critical to spur the renewed investment we will need. He adds that if countries work together, we will see a much faster recovery than if each country acts alone.

The general consensus seems to be accurate: We really are all in this together.

World Bank data shows that global trade volume – i.e. the sum of exports and imports of goods and services

4 / G L O B A L TR A I L E R / I SS U E 5 3

measured as a share of Gross Domestic Product – has seen uninterrupted growth from the 1970s up until the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007-08 where it has been relatively stagnating.

If you follow the trade decline as a result of the GFC, it is evident that world trade never returned to its previous growth trajectory. Will this trend repeat in the aftermath of Covid-19? There are industry experts who predict that this will be likely. Although, prominent actors in the road transport sector right now seem to be overcoming these challenges despite the odds and could set an inspiring precedent for the global community to follow.

It is interesting to observe that while global supply chains have experienced vulnerabilities this year, there are manufacturers that have doubled down on local production and material sourcing in a concerted effort to remain competitive during these uncertain and increasingly challenging times. If the international community supports each other properly we will hopefully see a buck in the world trade trend.

Kerry Pert, Madeline McCarty

INTERNATIONAL SALES

Ashley Blachford ashley.blachford@primecreative.com.au

CLIENT SUCCESS MANAGER

Justine Nardone justine.nardone@primecreative.com.au

HEAD OFFICE

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ARTICLES

All articles submitted for publication become the property of the publisher. The Editor reserves the right to adjust any article to conform with the magazine format.

COPYRIGHT

Global Trailer is owned by Prime Creative Media and published by John Murphy. All material in Global Trailer is copyright and no part may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means (graphic, electronic or mechanical including information and retrieval systems) without written permission of the publisher. The Editor welcomes contributions but reserves the right to accept or reject any material. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information, Prime Creative Media will not accept responsibility for errors or omissions or for any consequences arising from reliance on information published.

The opinions expressed in Global Trailer are not necessarily the opinions of, or endorsed by the publisher unless otherwise stated.

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NEWS INTERNATIONAL ASIA CHINA Global supply chain business, CEVA Logistics, has designed an innovative Truck-Rail-Truck (TRT) solution to keep customers’ freight moving across Asia during the Covid-19 crisis.

China and the Southeast Asian region are facing flight suspensions and reductions, space limits and operational restrictions in addition to long waits at border crossings due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

CEVA Logistics introduced TRT as a practical and innovative multi-modal transport solution to remedy these issues. Several CEVA technology customers have already taken advantage of it to keep their cargo moving over the last month.

Export documentation requirements for the TRT service are the same as an all-trucked service and Customs clearance can be achieved within three hours.

The China-Vietnam road border crossing point between Pingxiang and Lang Son currently suffers from backlogs of 2-4 days. To avoid

Voyage Series chassis frame produced by Shenzhen CIMC Special Vehicle

6 / G L O B A L TR A I L E R / I SS U E 5 3

this, shipments are picked up by CEVA across South and East China and loaded into 45’ hi-cube (HQ) containers.

They are taken by truck to the crossborder train - which operates three times a day - and into Vietnam, where they are then unloaded onto trucks and delivered to final destination.

Shipments bound for Thailand which were taking up to 8 days are now arriving in 3-4 days. The new service is also being used by CEVA customers in Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore.

“With our TRT solution, serious traffic jams at the border crossings can be avoided,” said CEVA Logistics Chief Operating Officer, Guillaume Col. “During the Covid-19 pandemic, it really is the best solution for customers wishing to move urgent shipments between China and Southeast Asia.

“As a pioneer in TRT service, we will keep exploring our road and rail network between China and Southeast Asia to further develop these services,” he said.

CHINA Chinese OEM, Shenzhen CIMC Special Vehicle, has announced it will provide 1,500 chassis frames to Jiangji Carriage, a partner of SF Express and DEPPON Logistics.

Over the past decade, the two companies have combined their chassis frames and carriages to provide equipment for the logistics service industry.

Shenzhen CIMC Special Vehicle and Guangzhou Baiyun Jiangji Carriage Factory recently held a signing ceremony in Baiyun District, Guangzhou, China.

“The reason why we chose to cooperate with CIMC is that, on the one hand, we like its excellent product quality and, on the other hand, it has fast delivery capability,” said Jiangji Carriage General Manager, Jiang Hongsheng.

During the Covid-19 outbreak, online shopping has become the first choice for people to buy living materials in China. The popularity of online shopping, according to CIMC Group, has stimulated demand for logistics equipment in the supporting logistics service industry.

The ‘Voyage Series’ chassis frames in this order are produced by Shenzhen CIMC Special Vehicle, which adopt modular design, high-strength steel structure and aluminium alloy steel ring, with lighter weight, environmental protection and durability. It is a product exclusively designed for logistics and express enterprises.

Enterprises under the CIMC Group reportedly overcame many difficulties amid Covid-19. These OEMs accelerated the pace of product design to through to production to complete their orders

NEWS

ASIA on time. This quick response and timely delivery has, according to CIMC Group, saved valuable time for customers in the fierce market competition and won unanimous praise from customers.

“At present, our major customers are very concerned about improving logistics efficiency, reducing failure rate and increasing attendance rate,” said Han Chao, Regional Director of Shenzhen CIMC Special Vehicle’s domestic sales department.

“Large capacity and rapid speed is the value point pursued by major customers. Even if the purchase cost is slightly higher, the later

maintenance cost can also be reduced.

“Jiangji Carriage is headquartered in Guangzhou, and we also have eight service stations in Guangzhou.

We have the ability and confidence to provide follow-up services to customers,” he said.

Relying on the brand influence of CIMC Group, Shenzhen CIMC Special Vehicle deeply cultivates the South China market, provides follow-up services to major customers, and jointly develops the market with major customers, launches leading products, carries out new marketing, improves

delivery capacity and continuously expands the market share in South China. In the first quarter of 2020, orders mainly came from large logistics enterprises and the order volume increased significantly yearon-year.

“Gaining big orders is inspiring, and it is also an incentive and spur for us,” said Shenzhen CIMC Special Vehicle General Manager, Ding Zhengxiang.

He added that the cooperation between the two sides would definitely produce synergy effect and provide strong support for each other’s business development.

NEWS INTERNATIONAL XXX EUROPE

ZF Commercial Vehicle Technology division head, Fredrik Staedtler.

GERMANY ZF Friedrichshafen AG has successfully completed the acquisition of commercial vehicle technology supplier, WABCO, having gained approval from all required regulatory authorities.

WABCO shares, previously listed on the New York Stock Exchange, cease public trading with immediate effect.

Signalling the start of WABCO’s integration into ZF, the acquisition unites two industry leaders behind a shared vision to create a customerfocused powerhouse to advance commercial vehicle technology. With the addition of WABCO, ZF’s focus will be on expanding its commercial vehicle service portfolio and on operating customer business.

“The combination of these two successful enterprises will bring a new dimension of innovation and capability for commercial vehicle systems technology. Thanks to our 8 / G L O B A L TR A I L E R / I SS U E 5 3

perfectly complementary portfolios and competencies, we are able to offer unprecedented solutions and services for manufacturers and fleets globally,” said ZF CEO, WolfHenning Scheider.

“In this way, we are actively shaping the future of the changing transportation industry.

“Together, we will create added value for our customers, employees and shareholders alike. This acquisition marks a major milestone in the history of our company. With it, we are consistently continuing the transformation in the powertrain and in the field of digitalisation,” he said.

In the future, WABCO will operate as an independent division, Commercial Vehicle Control Systems, within ZF Friedrichshafen AG and become the 10th division of the Germanybased technology company. During the integration of WABCO ZF will continue to strengthen its

existing service portfolio and put its customers first.

“We are closing this acquisition in an unprecedented social and economic situation,” said Scheider with regard to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact. “We are currently focusing our efforts on protecting our employees, ramping up production, and securing our company’s liquidity.

In the long term, this thoroughly prepared acquisition will make us even stronger for the future once we have overcome the immediate effects of the pandemic.”

The new Commercial Vehicle Control Systems division employs around 12,000 people at 45 locations worldwide and will work closely with ZF’s existing Commercial Vehicle Technology division, ZF’s aftermarket division and the global development team. Jacques Esculier, Chairman and CEO of WABCO, has decided to retire from his role.

Effective today, the division will be headed by newly appointed Fredrik Staedtler. Staedtler brings significant commercial vehicle experience, gained over the past decades working in the industry, most recently as head of ZF’s Commercial Vehicle Technology division.

To the integration of WABCO, ZF links the performance promise ‘Mobilising Commercial Vehicle Intelligence’: ZF will offer customers a unique range of products and services. The extensive combined product portfolio now encompasses conventional and electric drive and chassis components, a comprehensive suite of sensors as well as fully integrated, advanced braking, steering and driver assistance systems for OEMs seeking technological differentiation

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NEWS INTERNATIONAL EUROPE for their new vehicle platforms.

Additionally, ZF can offer digital fleet management solutions and an extensive global network of aftermarket services for commercial vehicles.

ZF is reported to be fully prepared to meet the diverse requirements of a commercial vehicle sector that is increasingly driven by digitalisation: advancing road traffic safety, improving vehicle efficiency and lowering emissions, while delivering reduced total operating costs (TCO). The increasing use of digital solutions in fleet management offers the opportunity to optimise the entire system and to control the flow of goods efficiently.

GERMANY Braking system manufacturer, Knorr-Bremse, and German OEM, Schmitz Cargobull, have announced the continuation of their supply agreement in the field of wheelend applications for the Schmitz Cargobull trailer axle.

The follow-up contract underpins Knorr-Bremse’s market position in the trailer wheelend segment in Europe.

By extending this major contract worth high double-digit millions of euros, Knorr-Bremse has secured the future of its existing scope of supply to Schmitz Cargobull.

Over the next few years, KnorrBremse is to supply Schmitz Cargobull with its current ST7 trailer air disc brake technology.

The supply agreement also includes the changeover to the new trailerspecific disc brake design NEXTT following the start of production within this timeframe.

“We are very pleased that we were 10 / G L O B A L TR A I L E R / I SS U E 5 3

able to win this follow-up contract,” said Dr. Jürgen Steinberger, Member of the Management Board of Knorr-Bremse Commercial Vehicle Systems. “The new supply agreement also marks a further milestone in our long-standing collaboration with Schmitz Cargobull.

Knorr-Bremse and Schmitz Cargobull have been working together as partners for many years in the field of wheelend applications as well as brake control and chassis management.”

Schmitz Cargobull has been a customer of Knorr-Bremse for almost 20 years and is among the first customers for the introduction of NEXTT. The new trailer-specific disc brake design has been developed in response to specific customer needs. NEXTT is not only more compact and lighter but also more flexible in terms of its adaptability to different regional requirements.

GERMANY The SAF-Holland Group has released its financial figures for the first quarter of 2020.

Alexander Geis, CEO of SAFHolland, said the first quarter, in terms of sales and earnings development, has generally run according to budget, in spite of a very challenging market environment, particularly in North America.

“Without a doubt, the second quarter will present a particular challenge also for our company, all of our employees and the management team,” he said. “However, we are now benefitting from the fact that we initiated a global program to reduce our selling and administrative costs at the end of September 2019 already – after adjusting our

forecast for the previous year. In addition, we were able to conclude a supplementary agreement to the collective agreement for the Bessenbach location that came into force on March 1, 2020.”

Group sales are reported to be below the previous year due to market conditions; adjusted EBIT margin of 6.5 per cent Group sales in the first quarter of 2020 came to €283.4 million, roughly 18.1 per cent down on the comparable figure in the previous year of €346.0 million. The additional sales contributed by the entities acquired since January 2019 come to €1.6 million. The exchange rate gains, most of which originate from the appreciation of the USD against the EUR, amounted to €1.9 million.

Consequently, after eliminating the effects of exchange rates and acquisitions, sales decreased by 19.1 per cent to €279.9 million.

Adjusted EBIT amounted to €18.4 million in the first quarter of 2020 (previous year: €24.8 million).

The adjusted EBIT margin amounted to 6.5 per cent (previous year: 7.2 per cent). A factor burdening the margin was the relatively slow decrease of 7.6 per cent in adjusted selling and administrative expenses to €30.2 million (previous year: €32.7 million) as not all savings measures initiated in all regions have developed their full effect yet.

The adjusted net profit for the first quarter of 2020 of €11.3 million (previous year: €16.4 million) lies 31.1 per cent below the previous year’s level. Based on approximately 45.4 million ordinary shares outstanding, unchanged on the previous year, adjusted basic earnings per share for the reporting

NEWS

EUROPE region, €3.8 million (previous year: €6.6 million) for the Americas region and €0.8 million (previous year: €3.2 million) for the APAC region. The focus of investing activities was on the further automation of production processes at various locations in the Americas region and Germany.

Headcount is reported to be noticeably declining As of 31 March 2020 SAF-Holland employed 3,428 people worldwide (previous year: 3,899 employees).

Compared to the previous year, the number of employees has therefore decreased by 12.1 per cent. The reduction in the headcount was

spread over all regions in order to address the change in the market conditions. The headcount at the end of April came to 3,194.

Clearly positive operating free cash flow.

The cash flow from operating activities in the first quarter of 2020 came to €32.0 million, significantly above the level of the previous year’s quarter of €8.6 million. This improvement is largely due to the significant progress made in working capital management. The cash flow from investing activities in property, plant and equipment and intangible assets of €-6.3 million is €7.9

9376

period from January to March 2020 amounted to €0.25 (previous year: €0.36) and adjusted diluted earnings per share amounted to €0.21 (previous year: €0.31).

Investments focus on optimising processes and workflows according to SAF-Holland.

Additions to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, including capitalised development costs of €1.0 million (previous year: €0.9 million), totalled €6.7 million in the first quarter of 2020 (previous year: €14.4 million). This breaks down into €2.1 million (previous year: €4.7 million) for the EMEA

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NEWS INTERNATIONAL EUROPE

SAF-Holland reports solid Q1 2020.

million, or 55.6 per cent, below the comparable prior-year figure.

The operating free cash flow improved markedly, from €-5.7 million to €25.7 million. The total free cash flow of €4.1 million (previous year: €-18.1 million) was affected by the cash outflow associated with the purchase of the remaining shares in V.Orlandi of €21.6 million.

Net financial debt (including lease liabilities) increased slightly by €4.5 million to €256.2 million as of 31 March 2020 compared to the reporting date of 31 December 2019. As of 31 March 2020 SAFHolland carries cash and cash equivalents of €319.4 million (31 December 2019: €131.2 million).

“With the new promissory note loan we have significantly improved our maturity profile and at the same time are fully financed through to the year 2023,” said SAF-Holland CFO, Dr Matthias Heiden.

“With the inception of our ‘Cash Is King’ project, which primarily addresses overdue receivables and the management of our inventories, we will free up additional cash by the 12 / G L O B A L TR A I L E R / I SS U E 5 3

end of the year and be able to keep the company on a stable course through these troubled times. This assessment has been confirmed

by Euler Hermes Rating GmbH, which has recently confirmed our investment grade rating,” he said.

EMEA region: Adjusted EBIT margin relatively stable.

Sales in the EMEA region fell 10.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 and came to €157.2 million (previous year: €176.1 million). The entities acquired since January 2019 contributed an additional €1.6 million to sales. Organic sales decreased by 11.7 per cent to €155.6 million.

The EMEA region generated an adjusted EBIT of €14.8 million in the reporting period from January to March 2020 (previous year: €17.1 million) and an adjusted EBIT margin of 9.4 per cent (previous year: 9.7 per cent).

Americas region: Earnings situation dimmed due to lower volume.

Sales in the Americas region fell 20.0 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 and came to €105.1 million (previous year: €131.3 million). After

eliminating the effects of exchange rates, sales decreased by 21.5 per cent to €103.1 million.

Adjusted EBIT of €4.1 million was significantly down on the figure of the previous year of €6.8 million.

The adjusted EBIT margin came to 3.9 per cent (previous year: 5.2 per cent). The spare parts business had a positive impact on the gross margin whereas the OEM business had a negative impact.

APAC region: Sustained slump in customer demand burdens results.

The APAC region generated sales of €21.1 million in the first quarter of 2020 (previous year: €38.5 million).

After eliminating the effects of exchange rates, sales decreased by 44.8 per cent to €21.3 million. The main reason for this sharp slump in sales was the ongoing weakness of demand from customers in India.

In addition, the New Year’s festival and the closures due to Covid-19 in China resulted in a sharp fall in sales in the months of March and February.

Adjusted EBIT of €-0.5 million was well down on the result of the previous year of €0.9 million. The adjusted EBIT margin amounted to -2.4 per cent (previous year: 2.4 per cent).

Outlook for the 2020 financial year.

In light of the macroeconomic environment and the sector-specific framework conditions and after weighing up the risk and opportunity potentials (including the currently foreseeable impact on business from the corona pandemic) the Group Management Board of SAF-Holland anticipates a decrease in Group sales of 20 to 30 per cent for the 2020 financial year compared to 2019.

Under this assumption, SAF-Holland

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NEWS INTERNATIONAL EUROPE is projecting an adjusted EBIT margin of between 3.0 per cent and 5.0 per cent for the 2020 financial year. The higher shares of sales accounted for by the spare parts business is helping to stabilise the margin. On the other hand, factors burdening the margin are the OEM business and the relatively slow decline in selling and administrative expenses as the savings measures that have been initiated will develop their full effect until the remaining course of the year.

In order to support the strategic objectives, SAF-Holland is planning investments of approximately 3.0 per cent of Group sales in the 2020 financial year (previous year: 4.1 per cent). These will focus primarily on continuing the introduction of a Global Manufacturing Platform, further automation and program FORWARD. The exact commercial impact of the current Covid-19 pandemic on SAF-Holland however can still not be precisely identified or reliably quantified.

GERMANY German logistics company, Schmidbauer, specified SCHEUERLE Self Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs) for reliable and precise means to move a bridge (1,500 tonnes, 130 metres in length) via a motorway to reach its final destination.

The transport combination weighed a total of 2,000 tonnes.

Stefan Schmidbauer, Technical Manager of the Large Crane/Heavy Lifting Division and Managing Director of the Schmidbauer Group, and his team are experienced heavy lift experts. They opted to 14 / G L O B A L TR A I L E R / I SS U E 5 3

use SPMTs from SCHEUERLE Fahrzeugfabrik, a subsidiary of the Transporter Industry International Group (TII Group).

During the evenings on 2 and 3 May 2020, Schmidbauer took charge of the bridge transport operations.

For this, Schmidbauer had to realise the transfer from the pre-assembly site in a field near the A8 motorway to the point of installation where it had to be positioned and set down precisely on four piers. Project planning and construction of the bridge took a total of seven years while the planning of the bridge transport itself took one year.

The team had to move quickly during the night to Sunday because the traffic was expected to flow again on the Monday morning.

“Basically nothing could be allowed to go wrong during transportation,” said Stefan Schmidbauer. “This is why we opted for SPMT axle lines from SCHEUERLE.” A total of 56 axle lines were required in order to distribute the load of the bridge, support beams and substructure as well as SPMT modules totalling 2,000 tonnes over the 224 wheels so that the load on the ground was kept to an absolute minimum. In order to guarantee

safe transportation of the bridge, Schmidbauer formed four individual transport platforms using the individual SPMT modules, each with 14 axle lines which were then driven using in a loose coupling mode formation. Four power packs from SCHEUERLE with a total output of around 2,000 horsepower provided the drive.

Although the distance from the preassembly area to the jobsite was only around 150 metres, the construction management team had calculated that a two-hour drive was required.

“The biggest challenge on route was to drive absolutely synchronously with the four SPMT transport platforms in a loose coupling mode,” said Stefan Schmidbauer.”

He explained the centre distance between the platforms was 80 metres while the width between the transport modules measured seven metres. The route was previously paved but the SPMT transporters still had to compensate for height differences in both the longitudinal and transverse directions to the road.

“In particular, we had to make sure that the transport did not move into an inclined position due to the difference in height between the two lanes,” said Stefan Schmidbauer.

Schmidbauer moves 1,500-tonne bridge with SCHEUERLE SPMTs.

NEWS

XXX EUROPE GERMANY The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) has confirmed the cancellation of the IAA Commercial Vehicles Show that was due to be held in Hannover from September 24-30.

VDA said in a statement the health risks of the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures taken to contain it have fundamentally changed the backdrop for the IAA Commercial Vehicles Show.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has indeed shown the general public very clearly just how essential commercial vehicles are for maintaining public food supplies, but it is having an

unprecedented impact on business in the sector and also the IAA,” a VDA spokesperson said.

“Many countries have travel restrictions that will remain in force for several months to come. Large events have been prohibited over the coming months in nearly all European countries. Given the situation with the corona pandemic, face-to-face meetings can no longer be held at a trade fair and particularly at the IAA.” The event organisers said it was a difficult decision to cancel the event.

VDA has informed many exhibitors who had registered for IAA 2020 of the cancellation as well as service providers, Deutsche Messe AG and all

political and business partners.

“The exhibitors and service providers have been informed of the cancellation at this early stage in order to keep the economic consequences for the companies to a minimum,” said VDA. “The next IAA Commercial Vehicles will take place in September 2022.”

The IAA Commercial Vehicles Show is the world’s leading platform for transport, logistics and mobility. As a global meeting place for experts and decision-makers from the entire transport and logistics sector, its strength is its international range of both exhibitors and visitors. Direct personal contacts are at the heart of the show.

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SDC Trailers on moving forward together.

UK Paul Bratton, President of SDC Trailers, released a statement in May on the OEM’s Covid-19 response to customers, suppliers and colleagues.

Bratton has outlined new measures to continue to support SDC Trailers’ business operations.

“In line with H&S guidance, we have adapted our workshops to allow for physical distancing, while increasing hygiene practices, temperature screening and PPE. Our Parts division offers non-contact collection and delivery services and we are encouraging the use of digital communication channels where possible,” said Bratton.

“Our production facilities and services are fully operational, and our teams have put enormous amounts of time and effort into preparing for various contingencies going forward.

As always, the health and safety of our employees is our highest priority and we are doing our utmost to 16 / G L O B A L TR A I L E R / I SS U E 5 3

‘stop the spread’ while maintaining business continuity so that our customers don’t have to worry about theirs.

“Despite many new challenges that businesses and society face, one thing remains certain, the transport and logistics supply chain plays a crucial role in our everyday lives.

We’re proud to support these essential services with complete lifecycle trailer solutions. With 42 years’ experience, SDC has the expertise, scope and scale to adapt and respond to new challenges that we are all facing together. Please know that the entire SDC Trailers Group is doing our part and are here for you, as and when required. We remain confident in the power of our people, and of our collective ability to come out stronger.”

THE NETHERLANDS Plant nursery business, Dekker Chrysanten, has taken delivery of a

B-double LHV from Van Eck. In order to be able to serve the growers with fresh cuttings from the head office in North Holland, the six Dekker Chrysanten trucks drive almost round the clock.

“We have six trucks, 12 trailers and 14 drivers because we do not prefer to leave trucks stationary,” said Dekker Chrysanten Head of Logistics, Aschwin Hooyboer. He added that two trucks are now being used as LHV. “This allows us to carry more block pallets. A total of 42 pallets will be carried in the LHV. So with both long combinations, we get three trailer combinations off the road.”

Van Eck built a new front part for Dekker Chrysanten to which the standard trailer is coupled. However, this part was also equipped with a slider lift.

“We do this because we cannot unload at a dock by every grower,” said Hooyboer.

Both LHVs operate exclusively

NEWS

EUROPE within the Netherlands. Van Eck has prepared the equipment for the transport of flower carts.

“That way, we can also recharge effectively and our combinations run empty less often,” said Hooyboer.

Dekker Chrysanten does not go far enough to reduce the number of trucks on the road while maintaining a consistent transport performance.

“We will start using the first LNG trucks during the year to further reduce the environmental footprint of our transport performance,” said Hooyboer.

“Ultimately, we also intend to drive the LHV with LNG trucks in front of it.

“An additional advantage is that these

Van Eck delivers B-Double LHV to Dekker Chrysanten.

trucks are more comfortable for the driver and that they will use this gas economically. This is how we make our

transport activity in the Netherlands more sustainable, which we can safely call intensive,” he said.

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NEWS INTERNATIONAL XXX EUROPE order, cleanliness and customer focus. “In addition to our drivers, our equipment is also our company’s calling card,” he said. “With Kässbohrer we have found the desired partner in this.”

TTAS invests in Kässbohrer reefers.

THE NETHERLANDS Dutch trucking company, Teunissen Transport and Auto Service (TTAS), has expanded its fleet with three Kässbohrer refrigerated trailers.

TTAS founding Director, Wilfried Teunissen, told Kässbohrer that the business operates internationally however these particular reefers will travel within the Netherlands.

TTAS was founded in 2002 and Teunissen was able to experience steady growth of his company from the outset.

“It started with trucking, but soon our customers asked for total logistics services,” he said.

TTAS currently has a 2,500-square metre storage facility, a fleet of 34 trailers and 22 towing units and often operates throughout the Benelux and the north of France.

“In principle, now that things are clearly not going as well, we just keep on driving, because we have many customers in the food sector,” said Teunissen. “And a crucial sector, where companies like ours must be counted on.”

TTAS specifies Kässbohrer for their reliability.

“That is why we have been a customer of Kässbohrer for about 18 / G L O B A L TR A I L E R / I SS U E 5 3

seven years,” said Teunissen. “The curtainsider and box trailers that we like from this company are excellent.

So, when our customers asked for conditioned transport, we did not hesitate and let Kässbohrer be the first to make an offer.”

Teunissen decided to purchase three Kässbohrer K.SRI reefer vehicles equipped with data logging so that customers can always verify the quality of the load.

The vehicle, according to the OEM, is offered with 1st axle lifting. The axles are equipped with disc brakes and the latest Electronic Braking System (EBS) electronics.

The chassis of the K.SRI vehicle is also KTL coated.

“Thanks to the durable composite technology of the side wall panels and the rear doors, perfect insulation is guaranteed,” Kässbohrer said in a statement. “FRC, HACPP and Pharma certifications are of course available, the trailers are approved for this.”

Teunissen aims to use the new trailers for at least eight to nine years, mainly for the transportation of fresh food.

Teunissen emphasises that TTAS stands for proper representation,

THE NETHERLANDS Three VDL companies are working hard on the production of hundreds of artificial respiration systems for Demcon, a supplier of high-end technology products and systems.

Within three weeks, Demcon, with the help of VDL, managed to develop, manufacture and test a complete artificial respiration system in the Netherlands that can be used for artificial respiration for coronavirus patients in intensive care units.

The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport will distribute the artificial respiration equipment across the hospitals. This month, the first of more than 500 artificial respiration systems via Demcon will be delivered.

Due to a sharp rise in demand for artificial respiration equipment, following the Covid-19 pandemic, Demcon ramped up production considerably. To that end, the number of production lines was scaled up, among other things, and it intensified its collaboration with suppliers such as VDL Group.

During the past few weeks, employees of VDL ETG Precision, VDL Laktechniek and VDL Industrial Modules worked hard on parts of Demcair, as the system is called. VDL ETG Precision manufactured all of the required precision turning and milling parts and this VDL company also helps out with the assembly of the systems at Demcon. VDL Industrial Modules took care of metal sheet engineering and in a very short space

NEWS

EUROPE of time, it also took on the design, prototype and industrialisation of various subsequent series. VDL Laktechniek, experts in applying specialist coatings, will apply various finishes on the stainless steel casing and it also printed logos and names of various connections by means of serigraphy.

“Our contribution to Demcon’s artificial respiration systems is a wonderful example of strength through cooperation”, said VDL Group President and CEO, Willem van der Leegte.

“Thanks to all our in-house expertise, our companies have contributed to the fantastically fast deliveries to the

hospitals. Apart from that, it is, of course, also magnificent to make such an important contribution to systems that have a big impact on the recovery of patients who are hit hard by the coronavirus.”

Normally, the manufacturing process of medical equipment, including clinical research and certification, would take a year, according to VDL Group. There were just over three weeks between Demcon starting its preparations, the ministry’s instruction to supply the first 500 devices, successful clinical tests on several patients in three different hospitals and the delivery of the first devices. The first version of the entire

system was relatively simple for the sake of such high demand. Currently, engineers are working on a second, more comprehensive version that offers more treatment options.

Demcon’s entire artificial respiration system contains more than 200 different components, including the central module.

“We buy them from a large number of suppliers,” said Demcon Executive Vice President, Dennis Schipper. “Like our other suppliers, VDL has used all its creativity to ensure a steady supply of components under immense time pressure. The support we’ve received from everyone is heart-warming.”

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NEWS INTERNATIONAL NORTH AMERICA XXX

JOST International establishes training and troubleshooting platform.

US JOST International opened a sales support studio at its headquarters and landing gear operations in Grand Haven, Michigan, in May. The equipment specialist is scheduling live interactive sales and training sessions for landing gear and fifth wheel wheel product lines.

“During this time of restricted travel and limited face to face interactions we are looking for ways to stay in touch and connected to one of the most important parts of our business – the customer,” said Brian Moynihan of JOST International.

“This new studio gives us a resource to present solutions, introduce new products, and help to trouble shoot any issues in the field.

“While we look forward to getting back in front of our customers, we will use this tool to the best of our ability to stay connected,” he said.

JOST International designs and manufactures fifth wheels, landing gear, kingpins, turntables, hydraulic cylinders and aerodynamic devices for the road transportation market from two manufacturing plants and distribution centres in North America.

The company’s corporate headquarters in Grand Haven, Michigan, also serves as the manufacturing facility for landing gear and king pin product lines which operates under third party ISO9001 certification. JOST International manufactures fifth wheels in 20 / G L O B A L TR A I L E R / I SS U E 5 3

Greeneville, Tennessee, and have been awarded certifications in TS16949 as well as ISO14000.

US International shipping company, DHL Express, is partnering with North American logistics hub operator, REEF Technology, to pilot the use of new RYTLE electric-assist e-Cargo MOVRs for deliveries across Miami.

The three-wheeled cycles are equipped with innovative swappable cargo boxes and are capable of pulling up to 400 pounds (approx. 181kg) or 60 cubic feet (approx. 1.7m) in volume.

An implemented state-of-the-art telematics and data system will allow all partners to increase efficiency. Starting to run the integrated solution in Miami is RYTLE’s next step in the US-market, who is already partnering with Portland based professional commercial vehicle manufacturer, SilverEagle.

Each MOVR deployed enables DHL to take one conventional delivery van off the road, reducing road traffic, noise and pollution while still providing fast efficient deliveries for customers.

DHL and REEF Technology pilot RYTLE.

By leveraging the power of proximity, REEF Technology reimagining parking facilities by creating last-block mobility and logistical hubs that serve the needs of cities, residents and businesses.

The parking specialist manages the hubs that will serve as the home base for the e-Cargo Cycles that DHL is using during this pilot. A straight truck equipped with a customised trailer will carry up to nine cargo boxes for the e-Cargo Cycles. The boxes are delivered to parking garage, where they will be quickly connected to the e-Cargo Cycles for last-mile inner-city deliveries in the morning and will be reloaded for outbound shipments in the afternoon.

An annual reduction of 101,000kg of CO2 is expected by the usage of the four RYTLE MOVRs in Miami Downtown.

“We are excited to partner with DHL and the City of Miami to shape the future of last-block delivery,” said REEF Technology CEO, Ari Ojalvo.

“We are thrilled to be leveraging the REEF ecosystem and deploy these new environmentally-friendly vehicles not only to support our emissionsreduction efforts, but also significantly reduce the challenges associated with urban business deliveries, improving safety, productivity and costs,” said DHL Express US CEO, Greg Hewitt.

RYTLE is a German joint venture which was founded in 2017 to revolutionise city logistics.

NEWS

AMERICAS

Randon manufactures face shield components in response to Covid-19.

BRAZIL Randon Companies has partnered with the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) to manufacture two fundamental pieces in bulk for the assembly of face protection masks.

About 50,000 units of each piece will be produced in the first batch and sent to health and safety professionals who are working on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Part of Controil’s plastic injection process, controlled by Fras-le, one of Randon’s companies, was adapted for the production of the polyamide front support and thermoplastic elastics, used in the assembly of the protectors.

Located in São Leopoldo (RS) and operating in hydraulic and polymer brake systems, the unit is the only one in the group with the necessary technology for the production of plastic or rubber parts. Recyclable materials will be used to make the front and elastic supports. The adaptation of Controil’s manufacturing line counted on a partnership with the company IMER, from Porto Alegre (RS), which carried out the tooling that allows the manufacture of parts for the mask free of charge.

The front and elastic supports produced by Controil are sent to other partner companies of the project, which carry out the assembly of face protection masks with voluntary support from the Armed Forces. The finished products, which total about 190 thousand pieces, are being donated to hospital institutions and to the Civil Defense of the State of Rio Grande do Sul. LATIN AMERICA Global supply chain business, CEVA Logistics, has mobilised to deliver medical supplies throughout Latin America in partnership with other companies.

CEVA Logistics has worked in partnership with General Motors in Brazil to recover and deliver damaged hospital ventilators to sites for repair and deliver them back to hospitals.

There are more than 35 maintenance points located in 19 states in Brazil, where up to 3,600 respirators can be serviced and repaired at any one time. General Motors works at five of these maintenance points, which are spread over a radius of more than a

thousand kilometres in the Southeast and South regions of the country.

CEVA Logistics has contributed to the planning of the network and the management of all processes as well as the handling of the equipment for calibration, return to hospitals and transportation of packages and supplies for the entire maintenance process.

CEVA Logistics has also partnered with a number of other transport providers to deliver this initiative including ALFA Transportes, HD Transportes, Suttle Transportes and Rápido Paraná with all participants providing their services on a humanitarian basis, without any type of remuneration.

In Peru, CEVA Logistics enabled key customer Huawei to make a donation of two tonnes of face masks to the Peruvian Government in the fight against the pandemic. Huawei chose CEVA Logistics to organise and deliver an urgent airfreight shipment from Mexico to Peru in a very tight time frame with CEVA’s Freight Management team going the extra mile to ensure the mission was made possible.

Meanwhile in Chile, CEVA Logistics was tasked with ensuring another key customer, Medtronic, was able to deliver a purchase of 72 mechanical ventilators made on behalf of the Chilean Ministry of Health.

This delivery raised the number of ventilators now being operated in the country to over 620.

“Teams across the CEVA network in the region have really stepped up to the mark and ensured our company plays an important role in the fight against this pandemic,” said CEVA Logistics Managing Director LATAM, Nadia Ribeiro.

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NEWS INTERNATIONAL OCEANIA AUSTRALIA A new road train network for Victoria, improvements to cross-border travel and fewer requirements for access permits will begin under a new national road train notice.

Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport, Scott Buchholz, said the 2020 National Class 2 Road Train Notice will commence on Thursday in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria, where road trains carry more than 15 billion tonnes-km of freight every year.

“Since the original national road train notice was introduced, we’ve seen significant growth in the freight task, as well as the productivity and safety benefits of harmonised networks,” said Buchholz.

“I’m grateful to all the road authorities for taking the time to work with the NHVR to upgrade the notice and update the national road train networks, and I’m delighted that this has been agreed to by all road managers.”

The 2020 National Class 2 Road Train Notice replaces the 2015 National Class 2 Road Train Notice.

NHVR Chief Regulatory Policy and Standards Officer, Don Hogben, said the NHVR had been working closely with state and local government road managers to develop the notice, which consolidates road train combination requirements, facilitates crossborder access and reduces permit requirements for operators.

“For the first time, Victoria is part of the national road train notice, granting access to 36.5m A-doubles on a road network previously only accessible by permit,” said Hogben.

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“South Australia has enabled access under the Notice to 30m A-doubles, 36.5m B-triples and AB-triples, as well as rigid trucks towing two dog trailers – significantly reducing the number of permits required by operators of these combinations.

“Also, a number of eligible road trains can now access a single, Type 2 road train network, while previous access was only for specific Type 2 combinations. This aligns with existing arrangements in Queensland.”

The notice will also provide standard definitions and categorisation of road train configurations and improve the overall consistency of access and vehicle conditions.

AUSTRALIA Temperature-controlled logistics specialist, Lineage Logistics, has closed a deal that was first announced November 2019.

Lineage Logistics’ acquisition of Emergent Cold is complete, solidifying its presence in the AsiaPacific region.

The combined company expands on the largest temperature-controlled facility network globally, with over 1.9 billion cubic feet and 53 million square feet of capacity across more than 300 facilities spanning 12 countries across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

As part of the transaction, Lineage also acquires newly constructed distribution centres located in the Dallas-Fort Worth market and in Piura, Peru, as well as New Orleans Cold Storage and its four US facilities anchored in the Ports of New Orleans, Houston and Charleston.

“Welcoming Emergent Cold and New Orleans Cold Storage to the Lineage family provides a dramatically expanded footprint of facilities in the Asia-Pacific region and further connects our customers’ global supply chains through one network as a result,” said Mike McClendon, Lineage’s President of International Operations & EVP of Network Optimization.

“With many of the acquired facilities located in key domestic and international ports, we are better positioned than ever to more efficiently serve our customers in nearly every corner of the world.

We look forward to building on Emergent’s exciting growth and, in turn, playing a key role in helping our customers grow their respective businesses,” he said.

“We continue to be laser focused on strategically and intentionally growing the business to provide the most expansive and innovative logistics services in the world,” said Kevin Marchetti, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Bay Grove, LLC (Bay Grove), the principal investment firm backing Lineage.

“The close of this transaction is an important step in building our AsiaPacific platform and unlocks new doors for Lineage’s customers.”

Lineage is reported to be the world’s largest and most innovative provider of temperature-controlled logistics solutions. Lineage’s expertise in end-to-end logistical solutions, its unrivalled real estate network, and its use of technology combine to promote food safety, increase distribution efficiency, advance sustainability, lessen environmental impact, and minimise supply chain waste.

NEWS

MIDDLE EAST DUBAI Aramex, released its financial results for the first quarter ended 31 March 2020 and an update on Covid-19 measures in May. Aramex’s Q1 2020 Revenues fell 3.0 per cent to AED 1.196 million (approx. €301.4 million), compared to AED 1,234 million (€310.9 million in Q1 2019). Net Profit for the period decreased 38 per cent to AED 67.4 million (approx. €16.9 million) compared to AED 108 million (approx. €27.2 million) in Q1 2019.

Aramex has taken several health and safety measures since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in China in January to protect the health and safety of its people, customers, operations, and other stakeholder groups.

“Just like all businesses around the world, the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic is challenging our operations, business model and financial standing,” said Aramex CEO, Bashar Obeid.

“But as an essential industry operating under such difficult and stressful circumstances it has also revealed the truly heroic efforts of Aramex employees and has demonstrated the resilience of our business as evidenced by the limited impact on total revenue.

“Our number one priority is the health and safety of our employees, customers and communities. As the pandemic spread across the world, we intensified our efforts to protect the health and safety of Aramex employees and other stakeholders.

“From a business perspective, it is too soon to say with certainty how severe and lasting the impact of the pandemic will be on our business.

However, in Q1 our revenue mix has

shifted on the back of considerable changes in consumer shopping behaviour and e-commerce trends, and we saw an increase in the cost of doing business.

“Over the period, International Express and Freight Forwarding were negatively impacted. The general softening in demand for goods, and more complicated and costly shipment routes have impacted our volumes and profit margins in those service lines. In stark comparison, Domestic Express and Logistics and Supply Chain Management have witnessed significant increases in activity levels. This is mainly because almost entire populations in countries where we have significant on the ground operations were encouraged to turn to online channels to purchase and deliver necessities, such as food and other household goods. This has prompted major traditional retailers in our core countries to turn to Aramex to partly handle the influx of orders and deliveries and relieve pressure on their limited last mile capacities.

At the same time, major e-commerce players have also increased their demand on our services to support their last mile delivery requirements.

“Over the period we have also intensified our commercial aspirations by targeting companies in the pharmaceutical, life sciences and healthcare sector. We are confidently servicing new clients and we expect to continue to see an increase in activity from those critical industries and sectors over the coming periods,” he said.

Iyad Kamal, Chief Operating Officer at Aramex, said that since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, Aramex had to rapidly adapt and address several operational hurdles and challenges

which affected all business lines.

“International Express and Freight Forwarding witnessed significant changes in line haul operations as a result of the interruptions in air travel and the changes in land border regulatory requirements, yet we managed to stay operationally nimble, swiftly adapting to those changes,” said Kamal.

“Domestic Express saw a spike in volumes which strained our last mile capacity in some key markets, however we were able, to a good extent and in a short period of time, to scale our last mile operations to cater to the increased demand in those markets. Logistics and Supply Chain Management continued to perform exceptionally despite the challenges to staff scheduling and restrictive mobility.

“Our ability to operate under stressful and challenging conditions is a reflection of our flexibility and the hard work of our exceptional operations teams across the world. This was a display of resilience and creativity under difficult circumstances through finding swift alternatives to minimise the continuous disruptions, despite the risks. The digital transformation efforts that we carried out over the last two years have had a positive impact on our operations throughout the first quarter. Those efforts include strategic upgrades to our technology across all touch points, significant improvements in our tech-powered last mile operations, and investments in ramping up our warehousing and logistics capabilities.

“We will continue to work very hard to optimise our operations and increase operational efficiencies despite the current challenges,” he said.

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NEWS INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST SAUDI ARABIA Technology company, WABCO, has signed a landmark deal with Almajdouie Logistics Company in Saudi Arabia to fit 1,200 trucks and 1,400 trailers with advanced telematics solutions and support services.

The implementation of the new solution, according to WABCO, will support Almajdouie’s ambitious digital transformation program, enabling it to increasingly build its business through real-time fleet management capabilities and data-driven insights.

WABCO’s advanced Fleet Management Systems (FMS) will enable Almajdouie to strongly differentiate their customer service and quality. The technology will significantly increase the efficiency of both its fleet and back office operations, cut operating costs, helping meet increasingly stringent regional legal requirements and boosting driver and cargo safety.

“For years, Almajdouie has been using a basic track-and-trace solution to pinpoint the whereabouts of its fleet,” said Almajdouie Logistics Heavy

Lift General Manager, Eyad Hamzah Arafah.

“In today’s increasingly competitive and connected logistics market, that is no longer enough.

“As operating costs, particularly for fuel, continue to rise, we wanted more control over both our fleet and cargo while simultaneously raising the efficiency of our drivers and our back office to better service our customer base. The new solution will also enable us to further boost our stringent safety requirements, which is our number one priority,” he said.

After a thorough market study, Almajdouie selected WABCO as its partner of choice. As part of the agreement, WABCO’s advanced TX-GO 2 on-board computers will be fitted in all Almajdouie trucks.

Installed behind the dashboard, TXGO 2 is connected to the CAN bus.

The solution delivers advanced fuel management capabilities, cargo and temperature monitoring, trend reporting and driver authentication and driver scoring.

The Almajdouie trailers, for their part, Almajdouie Logistics Company is reported to hold the Guinness World Record for ‘The Heaviest Item Moved By Road Freight’.

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will feature WABCO’s robust TXTRAILERGUARD telematics device, which will be connected to various peripherals and sensors to monitor cargo weight compliant with the new legislation. In this way, dispatchers in the back office will be able to easily manage, track, and control their designated trailers remotely.

“WABCO offers one of the widest and most complete portfolios in the sector, combining solutions for trucks, trailers and the back office into one single ecosystem,” said Arafah. “Other key considerations in the selection included the extensive ECO program and smooth integration with our existing TMS and ERP systems.”

Almajdouie expects the new telematics solution to support its ambitions around leaner, greener and safer operations. The combined truck and trailer solution will help the company gain real-time visibility of its fleet and cargo, enabling it to deploy vehicles and trailers to their maximum capacity as well as increase vehicle uptime.

Almajdouie is reported to be the second largest logistics company in the Middle East to choose WABCO solutions. WABCO has been helping Saudi Arabia-based Almarai – one of the world’s biggest dairy companies – to future-proof their fleet. With this new agreement, WABCO is significantly strengthening its foothold in the fastgrowing MENA logistics market.

“We are honoured to welcome a market leader like Almajdouie Logistics as a greatly valued customer,” said Peter Bal, Business Leader Fleet Solutions EMEA at WABCO. “We are confident that our solutions will boost their ambitious digitisation journey and will enable them to take their already highly rated customer services to the next level.”

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UK-BASED OEM, GRAY & ADAMS, CELEBRATES MORE THAN 60 YEARS IN OPERATION AND DETAILS ITS COLD CHAIN DOMINANCE, COMMITMENT TO DEVELOPING TALENT AND PRODUCING AWARD-WINNING ROAD TRANSPORT EQUIPMENT.

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COVER STORY

J

ames Gray, Joint Managing Director of Gray & Adams, is proud to be an active player in the UK-based OEM’s legacy of engineering excellence and innovation.

“I’ve always been a part of Gray & Adams, with my father having started the business in 1957 in Fraserburgh with Jim Adams, originally as a body repair shop carrying out repairs to early cars and commercial vehicles. Interestingly, we still retain one of the premium car and commercial repair shops in the North of Scotland. My mother was also initially involved in the day to day management of the office, so I do feel as though I’ve always been here, to some degree.

“When I left school, I was naturally very keen to join the family business. I started on the shop floor and learned the business from the ground up. The schooling wasn’t easy and there were no concessions for the boss’s son. But looking back it gave me an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the business in an almost forensic way. This was key in allowing me to develop with the business which is very different today,” he said.

During those years, Gray & Adams built a lot of tippers for the bulk industry as well as dry freight boxes and even a bus.

“We also designed trailers for the whisky industry that delivered grain to the distilleries and bottled and barrelled whisky to customers,” Gray said. “These had to be customs cleared, I suppose they were one of our first dual purpose vehicles.”

With the strong presence of both meat and fish processing on the North East coast of Scotland, Gray & Adams was inevitably drawn into the food transport industry.

“One of our first customers was Gibbs of Fraserburgh,” Gray said. “At first we built dry ice carriers but in the 1960s introduced forced air refrigeration using Petter fridges manufactured under licence from America.”

As the OEM’s reputation and business grew, the business began work for customers further afield, spreading South.

“In 1977, we opened our site in Dunfermline, servicing the Central Belt of

Scotland,” Gray said. “In 1978, I was part of the team implementing a new manufacturing process to enable the building of trailers using one-piece panels, which we still work with today. Subsequent sites were opened in Belfast in 1981 and Doncaster in 1990. I was the Production Director for many years, when my father retired in 2002, my uncle Lewis Gray took over the reins. When he retired in 2013, myself and my brother Peter took on the role of Joint Managing Directors with plans to build the business in to the £150 million manufacturing group it is today.”

Gray & Adams have four manufacturing sites in the UK employing over 700 people.

“Over the years we have put significant investment in to Fraserburgh expanding its acreage and investing in new CNC machinery such as laser and plasma cutters, routers and saws,” Gray said.

“We have also purchased and new tractor unit fleet for inter-company transport and a fleet of new 15.6m curtain sider trailers. These transport panels around the group improving efficiency and reducing our carbon footprint.

“Dunfermline and Ireland have both had significant site improvements and we are currently investing in solar energy and refurbishment at our Doncaster site.

Gray & Adams has never been frightened of investing, even in difficult times. I do not see this changing as taking calculated investment risks has made us the industry leader we are today.”

This year, Gray & Adams was recognised with a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

“Winning a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation is a very significant and memorable acknowledgement of our successes throughout the years and a significant moment in our 60+ years of history,” Gray said. “This is a milestone which reflects the expertise of our teams and their dedication to building innovative, industry-leading, quality products – the sense of achievement and pride is felt company-wide. We are massively appreciative of our highly skilled engineering teams and our manufacturing operatives that allow us to produce our world-class products. We would also like to thank our very loyal customers and partners, without whose assistance and support we would be unable to enjoy such highly respected recognition.”

2020 has seen the world impacted by Covid-19. For Gray, the global pandemic is the likes of which we have never seen in our lifetime.

“Our people are our most important asset and their safety and wellbeing are upmost in my mind,” he said. “We therefore took the decision to close our manufacturing plants across the UK for a few weeks over the peak of the pandemic whilst we carefully assessed the situation.

“I am pleased to say that we have since reopened, all be it with a reduced capacity, ensuring our staff have full PPE and maintain strict social distancing to ensure safe working operations. As we learn more, and adapt to the new environment, we will ramp up our production but only if we can ensure people’s safety.

“As a key industry ourselves, we are massively appreciative of our National Health Service (NHS) in the UK and we would like to thank all of the frontline workers who are doing a truly amazing job. The situation remains fluid and uncertain, but you can be guaranteed that we will work with our customers to support and inform them in this difficult period.”

Earlier this year, in April, Castell Howell championed its Covid-19 message

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James and Peter Gray.

with Gray & Adams rigids.

“With customer relationships at our core, our role with Castell Howell’s NHS Livery was in supporting our customer and raising awareness of the positive work they are doing for their communities throughout Covid-19,” Gray said. “Castell Howell’s NHS livery was a customer initiative – supported by Gray & Adams but driven and directed by their own desire to respond to these unprecedented times.”

As a result, there has been a fundamental change in the way food is procured in the UK. “Large out of town superstores have declined, particularly in the big cities where traffic congestion is worse,” Gray said. “People tend to do one big shop a month, often using home delivery. This has seen a rise in convenience store sales in particular, and high street sales in general. We also see much sharper spikes in demand for large sporting events or in good weather periods. As a result, we are working closely with our customers on urban delivery systems. This includes small rigid and panel vans and also larger trucks, but not exclusively. Many of our customers prefer urban trailers and urban double deck trailers which are seen as more efficient and give greater longevity and payload.”

Gray & Adams’ people are key to its ongoing success. Retaining talent, while also developing talent, is a top priority for the business.

“Gray & Adams dominates the UK cold chain from farm to fork and sea to plate,” Gray said.

“The company supplies double deck trailers to most major supermarkets, including Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Iceland, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, as well as bluechip household brands like DPD, John Lewis Waitrose, M&S and Warburtons.

Whatever you can buy in a supermarket, from fresh or chilled produce to frozen products and pharmaceuticals, the chances are it will have travelled in a Gray & Adams semi-trailer or rigid. Over the years, the company has won several awards for its innovative and bespoke products that are extensively used in the UK and exported around the world.

“The business’ family legacy lives on in current Directors, James and Peter Gray, who maintain that its people are the key to its success. Gray & Adams

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is proud to have developed many young engineers and skilled tradespersons over the years and is committed to supporting young people through its apprenticeship scheme.

Having worked hard to achieve a reputation for quality, innovation and first-class customer service, it places an important emphasis on attracting, developing and retaining the most talented people in the industry and invests heavily in its staff to ensure their continuous improvement.

“It’s not just a family business historically, we are a business that maintains family-values, with a 700 strong workforce across the UK and a clear focus on quality, customer service excellence and innovation. We have many long serving team members and generations of families employed here over the years, some of them with 50 years’ service. We are one of the largest employers in Fraserburgh and have significantly invested in the development of our teams.

“Our apprenticeship scheme has over 40 apprentices every year and has done for a long time. We encourage as many of those young people as possible to build their career with us. Our staff know that they contribute to the development of industry-leading products and services, they are proud of the products they build and the customers we work with.”

Gray & Adams is also pleased with the significant rise in female employees as apprentices, engineers and shop floor workers.

“Traditionally, the body building business

Gray & Adams in Fraserburgh.

COVER STORY

was seen as a male preserve, but we are very pleased to see this change significantly in the 21st century,” Gray said.

The OEM is constantly striving to improve its products in efficiency, environment and safety.

“We have won many awards in innovation with our double deck trailers but also for our rigid products using electric fridges, aerodynamics, low-slung cabs, cycle and pedestrian safety systems and low noise,” Gray said. “We are also increasingly working with clients on mechanisation and auto loading to improve efficiency in their cold stores.”

Gray & Adams has a long history of working with Carrier Transicold and is a Carrier service dealer for the north of Scotland.

“Large volume double deck trailers running throughout the UK need high capacity, fuel efficient units,” Gray said. “It will be interesting to see how the new HE performs but early results are encouraging. That said we also work closely with other fridge manufacturers Thermo King, GAH, Hubbard, Frigoblock and Dearman to ensure our customers have maximum choice in their refrigeration supplier.”

The UK cold chain, according to Gray, is one of the most competitive markets of its kind in the world. “We are constantly evolving and improving,” he said.

“Temperature integrity and biosecurity are two key requirements. Double deck trailers have reduced vehicle movements and CO2 emissions immensely. They are one of our best-selling products. Multi temperature vehicles again reduce vehicle movements allowing a truck to carry three temperature regimes on one vehicle increasing flexibility and reducing costs. The pharmaceutical industry has brought greater demands for temperature control requiring vehicles to be mapped within one-degree temperature variants. The environment has caused us to look at sustainability, improved aerodynamics, reduced emissions and increased safety and manoeuvrability of large vehicles on congested high streets.”

The research and development element of Gray & Adams work is twofold.

“It comes from our expert and experienced teams, who consistently strive for innovation and feedback from customers as part of our strong relationships,” Gray said.

“Our bespoke build process lends itself to partnership and collaboration with our customers and this feedback loop is something which adds further insight to our research and development facilities.”

Warburton’s lifting deck trailer.

www.gray-adams.com

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MADE IN MADRID

THE SECOND LARGEST COUNTRY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION, LOCATED ON THE IBERIAN PENINSULA, SPAIN, IS DIVERSE IN ITS GEOGRAPHY AND CULTURE – MUCH LIKE ITS TRUCK, TRAILER AND ANCILLARY COMPONENT MARKET.

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MARKET REPORT

T

he Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Spain was worth $1,460 billion USD in 2019, according to official data from the World Bank and projections from Trading Economics. The GDP value of Spain represents 1.21 per cent of the world economy.

Economic forecasts going forward in light of Covid-19, however, remain somewhat uncertain although the Spanish Government is committing to extending tax and labour measures in response to the coronavirus crisis.

Word from Moncloa Palace, Madrid, confirmed that the country’s governors consider it essential to guarantee the protection of workers, the solvency of the social security system and the liquidity of the production sector (SMEs and independent contractors). The Government, during May, also culminated the process of bringing the salaries of National Police and Guardia Civil officers in line with police officers and decreed a 10-day period of official mourning for coronavirus victims.

As for the need for arrangements between Spain and Europe, politician María Jesús Montero confirmed that eight out of 10 people who have died in Spain were over the age of 70. She thanked them for their contribution to the construction of today’s democracy by having committed to “leaving divided Spain behind” and working hard to lay the foundations for the “social State under the rule of law that subsequent generations have been able to enjoy”.

The minister encouraged their example to be followed by reaching crosscutting agreements in the Committee for the Social and Economic Reconstruction set up in the Lower House of Parliament. “We now know that we are all more vulnerable than we thought just a few months ago and that we need a strong Welfare State that protects us all”.

Montero reflected on some of the key aspects of this debate on strengthening the health system, providing quality care for the elderly and strengthening the economy. At a European level, she described the establishment of the unemployment insurance scheme, the stability mechanism and loans to companies and to the productive fabric promoted by the European Investment Bank (EIB) as essential.

A reconstruction fund was also presented by the Spanish Government which requests an allocation 1.0 to 1.5 trillion euros, offering a ‘coherent and resounding response that rises to the enormous challenge’ the country faces.

Amid this health crisis, the country’s leading trailer manufacturers carry on.

Lecitrailer’s factory in Zaragoza continues to manufacture vehicles according to Export Director, Guillermo Maestre.

“We have adapted the production process to the new situation, making work shifts more flexible and incorporating PPE to guarantee the safety of our workers and our suppliers,” he said. “Our aftersales service bases in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza and Lyon have remained open and provide service to carriers so that they do not stop, complying with all the regulations on safety and hygiene measures that this situation exceptional requires.”

Maestre said the inauguration of the OEM’s KTL plant stands out as one of

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

Kässbohrer Iberica Spain Country Manager, Jordi Llecha.

“OUR EXPERT SALES TEAM IS FULLY ADAPTED TO THE CURRENT SITUATION AND SALES TEAMS ARE IN CONTACT WITH THE CUSTOMERS WITH PHONE CALLS AND VIDEO CALLS TO HELP THEM WITH THEIR REQUESTS WHEN THEY NEED.” Jordi Llecha Kässbohrer Ibérica Spain Country Manager

the largest and most modern facilities of its type in Europe.

“Our KTL process ensures a uniform coating over the entire surface of the chassis, with a thickness of 50 microns of the 50 micron KTL (e-coat) primer chassis, the best anti-corrosion system on the market guaranteed antiperforation,” he said.

Following the launch of the KTL plant, Lecitrailer now offers a 10-year antiperforation guarantee for the chassis of its vehicles in addition to quality finishes.

“The customer satisfaction with this improvement is considerable both in the domestic market and in the export because we speak of a premium finishing,” Maestre said.

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“Right from the foundation we have opted for quality, for the continuous improvement of our products and services, for the customer service and for increasing the productive capacity of our plant. We have one of the widest ranges on the market and we fully customise the vehicles to adapt them to the needs of our customers.

“We are also ready to launch our new range of reefers, which continues with the identity of previous versions with an updated and modern image, having obtained, without increasing the weight, providing them with greater resistance while gaining a greater interior width with the same lateral thickness.”

Lecitrailer reportedly finished 2019 with a 22 per cent market share in Spain, delivering 2,732 units – almost four points above the next brand and 11 of the third.

“These good results in the domestic market have also been repeated in foreign markets,” Maestre said. “Lecitrailer has finished as the fourth brand in France with more than 2,500 units with an 8.0 per cent market share and the same position in the Portuguese market. Similarly, it has established itself as a reference manufacturer in other markets such as Italy, Russia, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark. By product range, Lecitrailer has finished as the first brand in curtainsider, the most important family in the Spanish market. In vans more than half of the vehicles registered in Spain are Lecitrailer. Something similar has happened in container carriers, where Lecitrailer has got a 45 per cent market share. If we talk about the market share from the first quarter of 2020, the market has decreased by -7.20 per cent while Lecitrailer has grown by 30 per cent, reaching a market share of 24.94 per cent, growing in practically all product range.”

Meanwhile, another major player in the Spanish market, German OEM, Kässbohrer, claims to have the widest product range, delivering vehicles with a high level of specialisation and customisation enabling the company to provide more than 1,000 different solutions to satisfy the needs of the Spanish industry. As every product group undergoes continuous improvement to

MARKET REPORT

increase performance, Kässbohrer can meet the demands of the global market and the specificities of each local segment. It delivers extendable container chassis trailers, low-beds, reefers and curtainsiders.

The recent creation of Kässbohrer Ibérica further strengthens its support and distribution capabilities in the country.

“According to official traffic registration data the Spanish market is the fifth largest trailer market in Europe in FY2019,” Kässbohrer told Global Trailer.

“Spain is the biggest refrigerated trailer market in Europe and 30 per cent of this market comprises reefers. As reported by other research [industrial real estate firm, CBRE], demand for food has increased due to coronavirus and so it is predicted that cold chain transportation will be less affected by the current situation.

“In any case, the Covid-19 crisis can re-age a heavy vehicle park that took a long time to renew, putting companies at the crossroads of deciding between investing and continuing fleet renewal of losing competitiveness because of the increased operating costs of a ‘pass-through mile’ fleet.”

Again, the economic situation in Spain as a result of Covid-19 is unprecedented.

“The forced economic shutdown of Spain – on an economy based on services, tourism and automotive – is further exacerbated by its current fiscal position,” Kässbohrer said. “Of course, if appropriate action is taken by the Government of Spain and structural change is faced, the situation can be alleviated and first and reversed in a relatively short period of time.”

In the weeks and months to follow, it will be vital to see if measures are taken to promote fiscal transparency and fight against the submerged economy, which is one of the biggest stresses for the country’s competitiveness according to Kässbohrer.

At the beginning of 2020, Jordi Llecha joined Kässbohrer Ibérica as Spain Country Manager. During his 30-year career, Llecha has served as

Tomás Morales, Managing Director of JOST Ibérica.

Production Engineering Manager, Senior Project Manager and National Sales Manager of Spain. For the past nine years he has worked as Managing Director for chassis-related systems and components

Fleets in Spain specify JOST componentry.

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for trailers, trucks and buses.

Llecha and his growing sales and aftersales team continue to meet the needs of their Spanish customers especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Kässbohrer has implemented precautions for the protection of its employees, customers and all stakeholders and meticulously follows the guidelines of the Federal Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization and the European Center for Disease Prevention,” Llecha said.

“By diligently following hygiene rules, our production and delivery operations continue in all our facilities in Ulm and Goch in Germany, Adapazari Mega Campus and Tula, Russia.

“During vehicle deliveries, from our plants, we are reducing physical contact and paying attention to social distancing. During deliveries in customer sites or third-party areas, we are diligently following the hygiene rules as instructed.

Moreover, our supply chain operations continue and are not disrupted by the Covid-19 outbreak.”

Kässbohrer’s spare parts business, customer service, breakdown suppport, sales and other departments are continuing to offer the best service for the new and used Kässbohrer vehicles as well. The OEM is also accessible to its customers during this period.

“Through the ordering process, we focus on the fastest delivery time to our customers,” Llecha said. “Our expert sales team is fully adapted to the current situation and sales teams are in contact with the customers with phone calls and video calls to help them with their requests when they need.”

Also, Kässbohrer has rapidly digitised its operations following the launch of its Video Conference Now (VCN) feature available on the OEM’s website in Spanish along with seven other languages enabling easier connection on the customer’s side.

Moreover, Kässbohrer applied digital upgrades on its website for its service network in 560 locations. With the latest upgrade, customers can better plan for repairs and maintenance.

With ‘Enginuity’ staying true to the company’s inventive spirit, Kässbohrer maintains its R&D projects to continue to develop new vehicles and services to its customers in more than 55 countries.

Kässbohrer specialises in a range of trailers including container chassis.

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Lecitrailer’s state-of-the-art KTL facility.

“Kässbohrer sales continue despite the fall in demand as logistics is a strategic sector designed by all countries and our recovery faster compared to other sectors,” Llecha said. “As Kässbohrer, we are active in Spain since 2017 with our network of sales and aftersales partners. With our widest product range in the industry with over 1,000 unique products with versatile options, we are ready to meet the needs of our Spanish customers even during the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Supporting trailer manufacturers across Spain, global equipment specialists have also established a presence.

JOST is a leading global producer and supplier of safety-critical systems for the commercial vehicle industry with the brands JOST, ROCKINGER, TRIDEC, Edbro and Quicke. With sales and production facilities in more than 20 countries across five continents, JOST has direct access to all major truck, trailer and agricultural tractor manufacturers worldwide as well as relevant end customers in the commercial vehicle industry. JOST currently employs more 3,500 staff across the world and has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 20 July 2017.

MARKET REPORT

JOST Ibérica is supporting JOST business in Iberian Peninsula from the facilities in Zaragoza, Spain. From a logistics point of view, Zaragoza is one of the best locations in Spain to distribute JOST products. In the facilities of more than 1,900 square metres, a team of 13 people take care of the activities focused on fifth wheel production, logistics and distribution, Lecitrailer curtainsiders run throughout Europe.

technical support and sales.

JOST Ibérica delivers fifth wheels and towing hitches to the IVECO plant in Madrid and also supports and delivers JOST products to trailer customers including Lecitrailer and Granalu.

It is reported to be a reliable partner for the entire JOST World product range, from JOST fifth wheels and landing legs to ROCKINGER towing hitches and drawbars and from JOST Axles to TRIDEC steering systems to Edbro cylinders. On-site trainings are one the field activities of the JOST Ibérica team.

Similarly, SAF-Holland has offices and warehouses 40km north from Barcelona.

“SAF-Holland España supports and distributes to the entire network of Spanish dealers,” said Managing Director, Bernat Anducas. “From there SAF-Holland España supports and distributes to the entire network of Spanish dealers.”

The SAF-Holland España team also has sales and field support members to give the shortest and closest solution to all its partners.

“The majority of SAF-Holland España’s work volume is distribution, even so, we have the capacity and certification to manufacture and assemble as we already do with some products,” Anducas said. “SAFHolland España uses its more than 25 years of expertise to optimise the stock and have the parts that the Spanish market demands the most. Even so, the fact of being a global company makes it possible for SAF-Holland España to respond to any customer request.”

SAF-Holland España has maintained close contact and support to its partners without interruption despite Covid-19 due to its commitment and professionalism.

“We used this opportunity to adapt and reinvent ourselves to answer all the requests in the new conditions of the pandemic and this has served to be able to review and improve some work processes used,” Anducas said. “This will help us to continue improving our response to an increasingly demanding customer in price, quality and, especially, speed.” www.globaltrailermag.com

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SUPPLIER

PRESTI TWO OF SAF-HOLLAND’S PLANTS WERE ONCE AGAIN AWARDED WITH THE PACCAR 10 PPM QUALITY AWARD.

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FIFTH WHEELS

T

he SAF-Holland Group, one of the world’s leading suppliers of fifth wheels, was awarded the 10 PPM Quality Award via US truck manufacturer PACCAR Inc. (Kenworth, Peterbilt and DAF) – for its locations in Singen, Germany, and Woodstock, Canada, for 2019. Only a few select suppliers who attain a defective parts ratio of 10 or fewer per million are granted this quality award.

The SAF-Holland Group has received the 10 PPM Award, which is issued on an annual basis, for the sixth time in succession for the Singen plant and for the fourth time

GE in succession for the Woodstock plant.

“I am particularly pleased that we are the sole European manufacturer of fifth wheels to win this award,” said SAF-Holland Group CEO, Alexander Geis. “Winning the award again confirms our performance promise in terms of quality, delivery reliability and service as well as our longterm goal of meeting or even exceeding the expectations of our customer, PACCAR, day-in, day-out. This is primarily due to the high level of commitment exhibited by our employees.”

SAF-Holland fifth wheel safety lever in this position is not secured.

Best-in-class product design

In addition to achieving 10 ppm quality status, suppliers must meet demanding criteria for delivery performance, warranty support and continuous improvement.

To achieve the elite quality status, the suppliers need best-in-class product design and process capabilities as well as a quality-focused corporate culture.

The SAF-Holland plant in Singen, one of the leading European manufacturers of fifth wheels, has been supplying fifth wheels to DAF Trucks in the Netherlands and Belgium since 2005. The German location, a specialist provider and original equipment manufacturer of the truck industry, is offering individual solutions for off-road, civil and defence technology.

The plant in Woodstock has been supplying the PACCAR brands, Kenworth and Peterbilt in North America for over 40 years. The Canadian location employs approximately 240 people who manufacture the Mark V Landing Gear as well as a variety of different fifth wheel and axle and suspensions.

Fifth wheels: safety-relevant components

Fifth wheels are highly safety-relevant components which SAF-Holland has been paying special attention to for decades. In its research, development and production, the commercial vehicle supplier focuses on safety for all road users from development to delivery, easy operation and optimum total cost of ownership.

SAF-Holland claims to be the only manufacturer to offer a safety device for opening the fifth wheel with just one hand. This requires significantly lower operating forces and is an important argument in times of lack of drivers. The driver can use the position of the safety lever (top or bottom) to visually check if the locking mechanism is securely engaged.

Safe single-handed operation

The automatic safety lock is fitted as standard at no extra charge according to SAF-Holland. The driver unlocks the fifth wheel with just one hand via the safety lever. Simply thumb the lever down, pull the handle out thus opening the fifth wheel coupling. The operator can also check the position of the locking lever to ensure the locking mechanism is actually engaged. When the lever is pointing downwards, however, the mechanism is not closed and the connection is not secured. The driver can use the position of the safety lever – indicating fully locked and secured (raised) or open (lowered) conditions – to visually check if the locking mechanism is securely engaged.

All fifth wheels from SAF-Holland save up to 100kg compared to competitive products and thus significantly increase the payload. Automatic lubrication pumps or completely grease free fifth wheels further reduce downtimes and maintenance costs.

SAF-Holland’s truck-and-trailer connections are tailored to every The safety lever is in the locked position. type of prime mover and its respective application from light trucks (7.5 tonnes) to heavy-duty transport of 36 tonnes to special transportation weighing up to 75 tonnes. Fifth wheels and kingpins from SAF-Holland are designed to be versatile. www.safholland.com

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LEADING THE

CHARGE DUTCH MANUFACTURING SPECIALIST, VALX, HAS BEEN ENHANCING ITS AXLES AND SUSPENSION PORTFOLIO SINCE IT STARTED BUSINESS 10 YEARS AGO AND SHOWS NO SIGN OF SLOWING DOWN. THE OEM COMBINES THE FLEXIBILITY OF A RELATIVELY SMALL COMPANY WITH THE MANUFACTURING POWER OF THE LARGEST AXLE BUILDER IN THE WORLD.

V

ALX has reached an important milestone, its 10th anniversary.

“Our axle has proven itself over and over again over the years and we are ready to take our business to the next level,” van Willigen said. “We have re-written our mission and vision statement and to be honest we only had to finetune it a bit to make it fit for the next 10 years. We still strive to offer the lowest Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in the industry.”

In addition to its core axle and suspension offering, VALX is committed to maintaining its market position as a leader in the electrification of axles and other components.

“We were first to market with an electronic landing leg and an energy recovering trailer axle.”

Since day one VALX has offered the option to assemble suspensions, brake cylinders and ABS for trailer builders. This, according to VALX Sales Director, Martin van Willigen, makes the supply chain leaner, enabling the

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FAST FACT The transport industry is becoming increasingly competitive and sustainable according to VALX. The OEM strives to deliver the lowest total cost of ownership in the industry and be leading with the electrification of axles and components.

AXLES & SUSPENSIONS

business to ship axles directly from China and other parts of the Netherlands.

“This process reduces stock value for the trailer builder because they can mixand-match components to produce specific trailer combinations,” he said. “This option is particularly popular in export markets such as Russia, Turkey and South Africa.”

Looking forward, VALX has starting working towards its 2025 strategy, ‘Taking Charge’.

“The strategy continues to focus on VALX having control and accepting responsibility for our product,” van Willigen said. “It is the foundation of what has made us successful in Europe, and our loyal customers appreciate our personal, no-nonsense approach, which differentiates us from our competitors. Our mission is to save our customers money as well as lead

the way with electrification.”

VALX has set some ambitious targets for the following five years.

“We cannot disclose any detailed information yet” van Willigen said. “We want to achieve our growth targets by further penetrating the classic ninetonne market in Europe and diversify into other markets and products.”

High on the Dutch manufacturing specialist’s agenda is its digital transformation.

“We will soon launch a TCO Calculator to show how much end-users can save by using our product,” van Willigen said. “Later this year will also launch a Product Configurator. By answering only 20 questions the right product will be configured for the application, usage and area and the customer will receive their quote in minutes. We call this CPQ (Configure-Price-Quote).”

In light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, VALX has adapted its operations well.

“Axle manufacturing at FUWA in China was at full capacity early March and because we always carry plenty of safety stock, we were never affected,” van Willigen said. “Our operation in the Netherlands continued assembling axles and suspensions during the whole period. Our operation in Spain had to be closed for two weeks due to measurements taken by the Spanish Government.”

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Fleets across Europe are turning to VALX for durable, state-of-the-art axle and suspension systems.

The latest developments that VALX is focused are its two pillars – the new nine-tonne solution and the E2!HD energy axle.

“Our engineering team is working hard on the design of our new ninetonne axle and suspension,” van Willigen said. “We expect to achieve a significant weight saving of 30kg per axle row compared to our latest product.

We cannot disclosure anything else at this stage, but we aim to put the first prototypes on the road early next year.”

VALX is also ‘freezing’ the design of its E2!HD energy axle with its partners THT New Cool and Carrier.

“We want to put 100 reefer trailers on the road by the end of 2020, beginning of 2021,” van Willigen said. “This all-electric refrigerated trailer does not have any diesel consumption, therefore no emissions of CO2 and particulate matter. Sooner than later cities will close for diesel powered reefer trailers and there we will see greater interest in this technology. Next year we will go into serial production, so we are ready.”

As other OEMs develop their own energy axle systems, van Willigen is adamant that VALX is miles ahead of the competition. “We introduced the E2! axle in 2012 and the E2!HD in 2013,” he said. “In the meantime, we have learned a lot and we will go into serial production next year. What makes us stand out in the market is that we focus on harvesting energy only

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and not on propelling the trailers.”

VALX’s dealer network currently has 1,200 service points however the OEM aims to grow to 2,500 service points in the next five years.

“We are expanding fast in France, UK and Ireland because we employed new sales managers over there recently,” van Willigen said. “Also, as our axle population is growing rapidly, and because the first axles are almost 10 years old, we see that the demand for spare parts is growing exponentially. That is why we launched our campaign ANYPART, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME. Our spare parts are widely available through our dealer network, but in case of emergency workshops also have the ability to buy directly from us with our 24-hour delivery service from our spare parts warehouse in the Netherlands.”

VALX is also seeing great success throughout Europe with industry-leading innovators and fleet operators specifying its quality componentry.

A2B-Online – a specialist in short sea services to and from the UK, Germany and Benelux, has also adopted the use of VALX axles in its trailer builds.

Business Unit Manager, Edward Spaans and Equipment Manager, Jaco can Eijk, advise that the fleet offers a professional and flexible trailer, container and shipping service for full and partial loads from and to Great Britain. From Benelux and Germany A2B-Online provides a daily service using company-owned trailers and containers. “We have daily departures on our container vessels from the port of Moerdijk to different ports in Great Britain and vice versa.”

A2B-Online has offices in HazerswoudeDorp (NL), Moerdijk (NL) and Ipswich (UK), boasting a fleet of 400 trailers. The most recent trailer order was 50 Kässbohrer curtainsiders and it has been specifying VALX equipment (particularly VALX drum brakes) since 2015.

French family business, Réseau Poids Lourds (RPL), specialises in the sale and

AXLES & SUSPENSIONS

rental of heavy goods vehicles. It has a fleet of 1,000 vehicles and has used VALX axles for the past four years.

“We have 336 Lecitrailer trailers that are equipped with VALX and we achieved 450,000km in four years,” said RPL CEO, Didier Gruau. “We mainly specify standard disc brake axles.

“With many of VALX’s competitors, the quality of used materials decreases and prices rise. Regarding VALX, the manufacturing quality and the accessibility of the spare parts is very good.”

There are three important features of VALX axles according to Gruau.

“The easy assembly / disassembly which allows quick and inexpensive maintenance,” he said. “The robustness of the axle (breakdowns are rare) and finally the price of spare parts which is very affordable. We are satisfied with the quality of the manufacturing of the axles. The VALX service and our stock allow us to be reactive in the event of an intervention.”

Meanwhile, Twan Heetkamp, owner and founder of THT New Cool in the Netherlands, also supports VALX and its portfolio of products. In 2005 he started a trailer rental company, THT in Venlo, which was eventually sold to TIP in 2016. In 2007, he came up with the concept for The New Cool trailer. After selling his rental business he was able to focus on his latest all-electric reefer project.

“The New Cool trailer is a reefer with a E2!HD axle from VALX that generates energy when the truck-trailer combination slows down,” he said.

“The generated energy is stored in a custom battery pack and is used to power the cooling engine from Carrier.”

THT New Cool is currently based in an office building in Venlo but will be moving to a new site by the end of July 2020 to prepare it for future expansion.

“At the moment we have a fleet of 47 trailers,” Heetkamp said. “In Q3 of 2020 we are rolling out a new and improved version of the The New Cool trailer. This will be a series of 100 trailers, which will be delivered to our customers by end of 2020, beginning of 2021. We have already reached an agreement with our customers for a large part of this series. But there are still some trailers available.”

For the last series, Heetkamp ordered mostly Krone and Schmitz Cargobull trailers and one Lecitrailer. For the next series, though, he has also ordered a couple of Chereau trailers.

Heetkamp has specified VALX axles since 2013 when he built The New Cool prototype. “This trailer is still driving every day,” he said. After that, all the trailers we order are now delivered on VALX axles (E2!HD energy axles and VALX axles with disc brakes).

VALX’s E2!HD energy axle is leading the electrification market.

It is interesting to note that when Heetkamp ran his trailer rental company, ales were not his most important consideration for the fleet. “I noticed that it made little difference to our customers which axles were underneath the trailer,” he said. “With THT New Cool, however, we need an axle manufacturer that is future-oriented. VALX is at the moment, the only company that can deliver an axle that generates energy. If we are talk about the specifications of the trailer with our customers and mention we need VALX axles, this is never a problem.” www.valx.eu

FAST FACT According to VALX’s mission statement, traditional industry needs to be challenged by offering a fresh business approach and more value for money. The Dutch manufacturing specialist chooses to be different in everything it commits to while keeping simplicity, reliability, sustainability and agility in mind. VALX develops, manufactures and supplies axles and other components for trailers with the best performance for its customers.

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RESILI &RELIABLE ASSALI STEFEN CEO, GIOVANNI BERTAGNOLI, MET WITH GLOBAL TRAILER TO PROVIDE AN UPDATE ON OPERATIONS AND KEY INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENTS.

I

Assali Stefen CEO, Giovanni Bertagnoli.

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talian OEM, Assali Stefen, draws on its strengths – flexibility, customisation, reliability and direct relationships with industry partners – to develop and deliver steering axles optimised for truck and trailer applications. For the CEO of this enterprise, Giovanni Bertagnoli, the motto ‘you can load on us’ could not be more appropriate right now.

“Indeed, we are an OEM that differentiates itself for our customer-oriented attitude and our ability to meet the needs of our clients both in terms of product and lead time,” he said. “Flexibility is in our nature. Now, more than ever, it is important to be flexible and adapt to change. Assali Stefen’s organisation and attitude make it possible to adjust quickly and easily to particular situations in order to give continuity to the supply chain of our customers. We commit to support the transport industry as a whole in order to help the entire world to be connected. The transport market can count on us. We stand by our customers and partners to face together current and future challenges.”

Italy was the first country to discover Covid-19 cases in Europe. Bertagnoli’s immediate concern was the wellbeing and safety of his employees.

“Safety measures have been strictly enforced to safeguard our employees’ health in order to assure a safe work environment,” he said.

“For instance, we have encouraged people to work from home, handed out safety

AXLES & SUSPENSIONS

ENT disposals, assured appropriate distance from person to person and we also increased the number of shifts in order to avoid gatherings.

Furthermore, we have signed a special health insurance coverage for all our employees in case of Covid-19 infection.”

It was also important for Bertagnoli to support his customers and the entire transport system during this unprecedented time.

“Transport on the road – especially delivery of first necessity goods – has never stopped,” he said. “Truck drivers have worked tirelessly in order to assure food and medical equipment where needed. We as Assali Stefen have committed to support in every possible way both trailer manufacturers and after-sales so to guarantee business continuity and minimise the impact on our customers’ supply chain.”

From an operational standpoint, Assali Stefen prides itself on his flexibility, particularly during a challenging global health crisis.

“Our flexibility to adapt ensured quick and easy compliance to the new measures and regulations brought forward by the coronavirus pandemic,” Bertagnoli said.

“As a result, we have reorganised part of our production processes. For instance, in order to avoid gatherings and extra hours

as forbidden by government regulations, we have increased the number of shifts so the production line has never stopped during the day. By using the same resources but extending the working time, we have increased our efficiency by 10 per cent. Employees have responded with great collaboration and sense of responsibility. Despite the difficult times, our people have shown motivation and determination while joining forces to make all of this possible.”

Despite this critical time, Assali Stefen continues to invest in technological innovation.

“One of our latest investments is in the automation of our assembly system which now counts on new electronical machines from the industry 4.0,” Bertagnoli said. “Each work station has a computer and a comfort-designed screwdriver so the operators can register the identification number of the axle and associate to it the data referring to the torque tightening of brakes, wheelends and suspension components. This modern assembly line improves ergonomics and allows the best precision and reliability of the final assembly process.”

Assali Stefen offers a wide portfolio of products ranging from standard to customised axles and suspensions.

“We first started in 1984 as a manufacturer of self-steering and special axles, so we have a long experience on that side and we are now one of the major manufacturers,” Bertagnoli said. “In 2011 we became the exclusive producer of ROR standard products, thus widening our range of products and later giving new impulse to this brand.

“Over the years we have developed new solutions that meet the needs of the transport market, as for example the Stefair air suspension, the GB axle series for heavy duty applications, and our latest innovation – the SL9 suspension. This integrated air suspension has an innovative and patented clamping system that allows a weight reduction of 20kg per axle and increased roll stiffness by 20 per cent compared to the CS9 suspension. The SL9 suspension loading capacity is up to 9 ton and it is available in different configurations depending on the application area.

“Assali Stefen differentiates itself because, beside standard axles and suspensions, we offer to our customers a different, customer-oriented service. We have a direct relationship with our clients and offer them customised solutions that can be tailor made.”

Last October, Assali Stefen received a ‘Champions of Veneto’ award, which was promoted by ItalyPost and L’Economia by Corriere della Sera at the prestigious CUOA Business School.

The award was conferred after a study by ItalyPost’s Research Center and the selection was made on the basis of a series of indicators deriving from the turnover of the last six years, such as growth, financial soundness and credit rating.

“It was an honour to be awarded by such well-known and esteemed institutions considering the very high competitiveness of Veneto,” said Bertagnoli. “The award means very much to our company because it acknowledges our trustworthiness and the great results of our business plan and rewards years of hard work and passion.” www.assalistefen.com

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STRATEGIC

REALIGNMENT GERMAN AXLE MANUFACTURER, GIGANT, IS PLANNING A PIVOTAL SHIFT IN ITS DIGITAL SERVICES INCLUDING A NEW CORPORATE DESIGN.

A FAST FACT The limited contact and travel options have led to a restructuring of the communication landscape. Zoom, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. are the current tools with which GIGANT reaches, informs and occasionally even entertains its customers.

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xle specialist, GIGANT, has been producing axle systems and aggregates for trailers and commercial vehicles for over 50 years and is globally renowned as a reliable manufacturer and partner for innovative, high quality products.

In the future, GIGANT would like to focus even more on the area of heavyduty axles and the customer individualisation of the products. Customerspecific solutions and the field of GIGANT services and aftermarket are to be intensified and expanded.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most companies face many challenges in direct customer communication, as customers or partners cannot currently be visited or supported by face-to-face training. For this reason, GIGANT has launched a film project, producing training videos, visualising technical explanations, repair instructions and tips for servicing which will be released this summer.

Another special service from GIGANT is the offer to develop technically tailor-made axle systems for various vehicle types. The creative development

AXLES & SUSPENSIONS

 “BEING DRIVEN BY OUR CUSTOMERS’ CHALLENGING REQUESTS, OUR VISION IS TO PROVIDE THE OPTIMAL SOLUTION FOR EVERY IMAGINABLE VEHICLE APPLICATION. THIS ENCOMPASSES ALL PRODUCT AREAS FROM TAILORED AXLE SYSTEMS UP TO TELEMATICS AND AF TERMARKE T SERVICES.” Thomas Veismann GIGANT Managing Director

been completed on schedule. Alfons B. Veer had largely taken himself out of the daily business last year and ceded the active role of managing director to Veismann.

Effective May 2020, Alfons Veer will hand over the entire management to Veismann and can concentrate 100 per cent on his duties as a Director in the KRONE commercial vehicle group.

Alfons Veer will continue to stay in close contact with Thomas Veismann and will support him with his many years of experience. www.gigant-group.com

team of GIGANT designs flexible and simple solutions for a wide variety of trailer axles in close cooperation with its customers – well-known vehicle manufacturers from all over the world that trust in the flexibility, quality and reliability of GIGANT. Customer-specific solutions, calculation services and applications for special vehicles are to be further expanded and the already very close and personalised customer service is to be intensified and elaborated in the future.

Another focus is the networking with GIGANT customers via various digital channels such as apps, social media or websites in order to provide technical information as well as news and content.

In keeping with the new strategy, the visual language and the corporate design will be adapted and redefined and should radiate the dynamism and strength of the products and the team behind the GIGANT brand. The final layout is currently being worked out and will be presented in autumn 2020.

Executive leadership update

German axle specialist, GIGANT, has announced an update to its senior leadership.

In May 2019, Thomas Veismann took over the position of Managing Director of GIGANT and has been operationally managing the company since then. Alfons B. Veer assisted him as the second Managing Director of the company.

The official handover phase has thus

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IMPROVING

TRANSPORTATION

THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

FOR THE PAST 40 YEARS, VDL WEWELER IN THE NETHERLANDS HAS BUILT A SOLID REPUTATION FOR CREATING CUSTOMER-SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS – SETTING THE INDUSTRY BENCHMARK FOR AIR SUSPENSION SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE.

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rom the common Mega air suspension system to trailer suspension with an integrated stroke limiter instead of with steel cables, from the Bolt-On® axle lift to the world’s first ever Bolt-On® air suspension to a round axle, VDL Weweler has stood on the forefront of these industry-changing developments.

The manufacturer’s latest brainchild, the Modular Bolt-On® Solution (MBS) will break new ground for the fleets that invest in this innovative technology. This groundbreaking and unique system combines all of VDL Weweler’s knowledge providing industry with an air suspension that can be

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clamped instead of welded. It has an actual load capacity of 10 tonnes and still makes use of the technical advantages of spring steel while only weighing around 100kg.

To create a solution like the MBS, or the dozens of other customer-specific solutions and have these products operate globally in the most varying conditions, requires skilled people, knowledge, the right machinery and

AXLES & SUSPENSIONS

the ability to test one’s products.

Traditionally, testing components or complete air suspension systems for, trailers, trucks or buses often required the use of a complete vehicle (combination) and track time. As these are lengthy and expensive tests, this is not ideal. Particularly not for a component supplier like VDL Weweler.

To make things more challenging, VDL Weweler also wanted a test rig that could consistently test individual components more specifically. The reason for this is that different components are made from different material which means that the point of failure also differs – particularly during an accelerated fatigue test. At the same time, VDL Weweler still wanted the input of driving on an actual road.

This latter demand meant that existing indoor pulse test rigs, which use hydraulic cylinders to simulate the road were out of the question. As the tyres on these rigs do not rotate, the rotational force that the actual road normally gives to the wheels and axle is not entirely factored in.

The outcome was that VDL Weweler had to create a new standard and so the Rolling Road and dynamometer test facility was established.

For the past five years VDL Weweler has worked at perfecting its Rolling Road and dynamometer test facility. This truly unique indoor test facility, houses one of the biggest roller benches known in Europe and is situated at the Automotive Campus in the south of Holland.

The facility, which was finalised in 2015, has been designed with the objective of offering a greener and more consistent

indoor alternative to outdoor endurance testing and assess the behaviour of heavy vehicles such as trucks, buses, trailers and their suspension parts and other critical components when they are exposed to (severe) vibrations.

Together with the Technological University of Eindhoven and the HAN University of Applied Science, the Rolling Road was benchmarked and calibrated to simulate fatigue and endurance testing without having to do actual outdoor cobble-stone tests or having to destroy complete vehicles or vehicle combinations. Additionally, outdoor testing on the DAF and MIRA test track provided VDL Weweler with the necessary reference-knowledge which created the starting point(s) for the Rolling Road and not having to use fossil fuel resulted in a smaller ecological footprint.

Over the five-year duration VDL Weweler performed many fatigue, endurance, behavioural, vibration and even performance testing. These test provided the company with vast amounts of data, increasing its knowledge and expertise.

The Rolling Road currently provides VDL Weweler with a unique tool that can simulate a vast range of road inputs. Also, the Rolling Road provides VDL Weweler and its customers with the ability to do various tests in a shorter time resulting in improved development time and decreased development costs.

In addition to this, years of testing made VDL Weweler realise that the Rolling Road is also extremely suitable to monitor how cargo behaves in various simulated conditions.

The Rolling Road as a result becomes a lot more interesting for a much larger audience. VDL Weweler is opening its Rolling Road doors to the world and besides the obvious trailer, truck, bus and components manufacturers, it would also like to invite everybody who’s cargo is being transported across the world’s roads to get in touch for more information. www.vdlweweler.nl

The Rolling Road in action.

FAST FACT In 2015, VDL Weweler together with collaborating partners completed the Rolling Road and dynamometer test facility.

This truly unique facility located at the Automotive Campus in the south of The Netherlands now houses one of the biggest test benches in Europe.

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JO Silo transport specialist, Hamm, partnered with JOST in 2014.

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AXLES & SUSPENSIONS

ST

KEEPS HAMM MOVING GERMAN SILO TRANSPORT SPECIALIST, HAMM, SPECIFIES JOST AXLE SYSTEMS TO MAINTAIN AN EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE FLEET.

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OST is a company that has been a global leader in the production of systems, modules and components since its foundation in 1952. JOST World is characterised by globally present, high quality, reliable and market-oriented products and has five product brands: JOST; ROCKINGER, TRIDEC, Edbro and Quicke.

JOST expanded its portfolio in 2015 with Axle Systems, formerly Mercedes-Benz TrailerAxleSystems. JOST offers weight-saving trailer and truck axles for a wide range of uses. Innovative products from the DCA Axle Series and the use of disc brakes revolutionised the trailer market in a long-lasting way.

The compact axle beam gives the axle series the name DCA – Durable Compact Axle. Integrating all the axle functions creates a compact axle housing that is extremely durable and lightweight thanks to its innovative design. The axle housing integrates the trailing arm, axle tube, brake flange and axle journal, forming a perfect unit.

The Durable Leaf Suspension (DLS) trailer axle offers the optimal solution for trailers with 10.5 t axle loading and a variety of ride height operating ranges.

The proven steel leaf spring is the basis of the DLS combined with standard, air bellows, shock absorbers, axle beams, standard disc brakes and durable wheel ends.

JOST truck axles, pusher and tag axles are rigid as well as steerable and optional liftable to support the load. JOST provides solutions to carry high loads for vehicles with more than two axles to transport higher loads.

International freight forwarding company, Heinrich Hamm Speditionsgesellschaft mbH & Co KG, specialises in the silo transportation of loose pulverised and granulated products. Alfred Distelkamp, head of the company’s entire workshop and fleet operation, said his silo transporters serve two clearly defined areas – food and food additives as well as high quality chemical products and minerals.

“We have one location in Neuwied / Rhein, Germany,” he said. “Here we run a modern service centre. This includes the silo interior cleaning system and our own workshop with brake test bench for professional care, maintenance and repair of our 150 tractor units and 252 large-capacity silo semitrailers.”

Hamm’s partnership with JOST, according to Distelkamp, started with the first Mercedes axles which his business purchased in 2014.

“From mid-2014 to mid-2018, we put 80 Benalu silo trailers into service –

all are equipped with Mercedes, or rather, JOST axles,” he said. “We use JOST axles due to the consistent good quality. We are also satisfied with the aftersales support. Due to the consistent good experience of the past few years, we have also equipped our latest silo trailers, make LAG, with JOST axles.” www.jost-world.com

ABOUT JOST JOST is a leading global producer and supplier of safety-critical systems for the commercial vehicle industry with the brands JOST, ROCKINGER, TRIDEC, Edbro and Quicke. JOST’s global leadership position is driven by the strength of its brands, its long-standing client relationships serviced through its global distribution network as well as by its efficient and asset-light business model. With sales and production facilities in more than 20 countries across five continents, JOST has direct access to all major truck, trailer and agricultural tractor manufacturers worldwide as well as relevant end customers in the commercial vehicle industry. JOST currently employs more 3,500 staff across the world and has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 20 July 2017.

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GLOWING BODY

TECHNOLOGY ASPÖCK SYSTEMS CONTINUES TO SHINE LIGHT ON ITS ADVANCES IN TRUCK AND TRAILER LIGHTING TECHNOLOGIES.

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ultiled III is the latest rear lamp by the light-makers Aspöck Systems for trucks and trailers. As its appearance already indicates, it represents the equivalent to the Ecoled II rear lamp – but only due to its compact format. It features the same ‘Glowing Body Technology’ as the larger version and stands up equally well to scrutiny.

Introducing the Multiled III

Equipped with the latest light technology, the Multiled III is the space-saving version in comparison to the Ecoled II. In particular for car carriers and pick-up trucks, this small rear lamp represents the perfect combination of outstanding lighting performance and the same high safety factor as the larger format.

The Multiled III also emulates the larger model in its flexibility: the lens is replaceable. The homogeneous light pattern, the dynamic indicator with sequential light and the possibility for application within a voltage range from 12 to 24 volts are the same in both products, as is their certification according to ISO pulse 13207-1.

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Both rear lamps fulfil the stringent demands of the commercial vehicle sector and were designed with adaptability in mind.

The amount of available surface space on the truck or trailer will determine whether the small version of the Multiled III or the larger Ecoled II rear lamp is appropriate for fitment.

Standing still is not part of the Aspöck company philosophy

Aspöck Systems has developed, produced and tested light-related solutions for over 40 years. Focusing on its core competence ‘intelligent lighting and system solutions’, the light-makers serve many segments within

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Aspöck Systems Managing Director, Karl Aspöck.

intensively. International agricultural machine manufacturers place their trust in this consistency as well.

Expanding the portfolio

Over the past years, Aspöck has also focused increasingly on automotive applications. Path-breaking developments and consistent quality have led to the lighting professionals making a name for themselves across the entire vehicle sector. Values such as safety, convenience and design play a major role in lighting.

However, this is only possible in combination with economic viability and environmental compatibility.

The light-makers like to be one step ahead of the rest: future lighting systems integrate sensors – for example, monitoring through camera function – and communicate via data bus. The company’s objective is to expand the product portfolio in the core segment.

Expansion of sales locations

the vehicle industry. The company produces durable, robust lighting solutions with great consistency and efficiency for the truck and trailer sector. Its tailored complete solutions convince customers and have secured the company market leadership in this field.

In close collaboration with its customers, Aspöck develops individual lighting solutions in line with state-of-the-art technology for special vehicles of all kinds. LED lighting technology is an essential component for safe and accurate work with agricultural and construction machinery. Wherever necessary, Aspöck turns the night into day – the latest generation of lighting technology ensures maximum reliability even when utilised

Today, Aspöck Systems is a successful business operating on a global basis. The Aspöck Group has several strategic sites throughout Europe, South America, North- and South Africa as well as Asia. Therefore, it has a well-organised sales and service network which guarantees the best customer service possible. Its branches are arranged according to production sites and sales locations while its strategic hub is still in Upper Austria. A new office and administration building was opened there last year.

In addition to the acknowledged Aspöck product quality, the company’s objective is ABOUT ASPÖCK also to continuously guarantee the quality Aspöck Systems is Europe’s of service at all subsidiaries. The sales leading manufacturer of prelocation facilities in Poland, founded in fabricated lighting systems for towed vehicles of all types.

2012, was expanded in spring this year.

The sales site Aspöck Norden based FAST FACTS in Sweden was opened in 2005 and is • Sales volume of €180 million – currently being expanded at the same Fiscal Year 2018/19 location so new niche markets can be • Export quota 93 per cent opened up. This simultaneously permits • Eight sales subsidiaries, four even greater flexibility and response production locations capacities at the location. www.aspoeck.com

• 1,550 employees worldwide

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CYBER W A

R

S

MANAGING BUSINESS CONTINUITY AND PRIVACY IN THIS DIGITAL AGE CAN BE EXTREMELY CHALLENGING BUT THERE ARE THOSE PUSHING AT GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRY LEVELS WORLDWIDE TO CHANGE PROBLEMATIC MINDSETS WHEN IT COMES TO IT POLICIES AND CYBERSECURITY PRACTICES.

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ho would have believed that an accounting error of 75 cents in a computer usage account at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory would be traced all the way back to a hacker working for the KGB – the Soviet Union’s intelligence agency?

Cliff Stoll’s gripping account of his investigation – novelised in 1989, The Cuckoo’s Egg – follows the motions of an astronomer-trained system admin as he hunts an unauthorised user who used nine seconds of computer time without paying for it. Through sheer persistence, Stoll discovers the hacker had also broken into US government and military databases, and so throughout the duration of this investigation he networked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

In a dramatic conclusion to the story, Stoll’s hard work paid off and the spy was apprehended by German police in Hannover.

This is a true story. Decades later and computer hackers are still a very serious threat to individuals, organisations and industries. Despite the mountains of evidence regarding the importance of cybersecurity, there are still too many vulnerabilities that are being exploited by criminals every day.

Researchers at mining and resources platform, State of Play, found it would take a catastrophic event for cybersecurity to be taken seriously.

The report, released December last year, revealed that 98 per cent of top-level executives expect a catastrophic event is required to drive an industry response to cybersecurity in mining, following deep analysis of Australia’s largest mining and service companies including: BHP, Rio Tinto, South32 and Anglo American.

State of Play Chairman and Co-founder, Graeme Stanway, said the risk of cybersecurity failures in mining could be severe.

“In an increasingly automated and interconnected world, the risk of rogue systems and equipment is growing rapidly,” he said. “If someone hacks into a mining system, they can potentially take remote control of operational equipment.

That’s the level of risk that we are facing.”

Global Head of Cybersecurity at BHP, Thomas Leen, said the mining industry is up against archaic processes when it comes to evolving on the cybersecurity front.

“Mining as an industry has a low level of cybersecurity maturity, mainly due to legacy environments that lack basic capabilities,” he said.

State of Play said the the second most likely driver to instigate change, after

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a catastrophic event, according to report findings, will be government-led initiatives and responses.

AustCyber CEO, Michelle Price, said publicprivate partnership is the key to driving change in the way the mining industry approaches cybersecurity.

“AustCyber has collaborated with METS Ignited and State of Play to conduct this survey as we see the potential to improve cybersecurity across the mining environment,” said Price.

“There are several challenges specific to the mining sector as documented in the Australian Cyber Security Industry Roadmap developed in conjunction with CSIRO – such as operational technology, connected equipment and sensors, availability of data, anomaly detection and the volatility of markets.

“There are plenty of growth opportunities - especially when the sector collaborates with organisations like AustCyber to have a coordinated voice on the kind of support it needs to push forward cyber resilience,” she said.

South32 head of cybersecurity, Clayton Brazil, sees this collaboration as a strength of cybersecurity in the mining industry.

“Cybersecurity is incredibly collaborative in mining, we know it’s a critical industry for our nation and we all want to be safer,” he said.

Brazil sees a strong cybersecurity capability as a strategic opportunity for South32.

“Done properly, cybersecurity can be a competitive advantage for us,” he said.

SPECIAL REPORT

METS Ignited CEO, Adrian Beer, said industry growth and sustainability will come from collaboration and the implementation of standards.

“Mining operations are still made up of legacy closed systems that have customised integrations between them,” he said.

“However, the modern technology vendor community is trying to overcome these systems with new models, building collaboration and trust between mining and the technology sector will create a secure sustainable future.”

Beer added that standards have a two-prong role to play.

“There is clearly a need for both a strong set of standards to define what good looks like in terms of cybersecurity more broadly,” he said. “And a set of industry standards to ensure that the specific needs are met to deliver those secure outcomes.”

Transport and logistics company, Toll Group, confirmed it was a victim of at least two major cyberattacks this year. The Australian contingent revealed in May that at least one corporate server was compromised – with files containing private details including name, residential address, age, birth dates as well as payroll information (salary, superannuation and tax file number).

While this information pertained to some current and former employees operating in Australia and New Zealand, it did not impact all Toll employees. An investigation found that casual staff were not impacted. As a precaution Toll informed its people on how to protect themselves and engaged the services of a leading provider of identity and cybersecurity solutions to ensure that impacted individuals would be provided with appropriate support and data protection measures.

Fortunately, there was no evidence during May that the compromised information was taken. Toll condemned the actions of these ‘cyber criminals’ in a series of IT system updates published via its website and apologised for the concern and inconvenience this ongoing saga may have caused.

Toll Group Managing Director, Thomas Knudsen, said that Toll was the victim of an ‘unscrupulous act’.

“We condemn in the strongest possible

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SPECIAL REPORT

Connectivity and telematics will make cybersecurity even more complex in the years ahead.

terms the actions of the perpetrators,” he said. “This a serious and regrettable situation and we apologise unreservedly to those affected. I can assure our customers and employees that we’re doing all we can to get to the bottom of the situation and put in place the actions to rectify it.”

Cybercrime, according to Knudsen, posed an “an existential threat for organisations of all sizes, making it more important than ever for business, regulators and government to adopt a united effort in combatting the very real risk it presents the wider community”.

Later that month, almost coincidentally, the Australian Federal Government stated it was taking action to protect the operation of hospitals and essential services under threat by malicious cyber actors amid Covid-19.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) joined forces to bolster the country’s cybersecurity.

“Countries have agreed at the United Nations that existing international law applies in cyberspace,” said Australia’s Ambassador for Cyber Affairs, Dr Tobias Feakin.

“Countries have also agreed that it is contrary to norms of responsible state behaviour to use cyber tools to intentionally damage or impair critical infrastructure providing services to the public.

“Countries have also agreed to cooperate to address cybercrime and not to knowingly allow their territory to be used for internationally wrongful acts.

“The Australian Government calls on all countries to cease immediately any cyber activity – or support for such activity – inconsistent with these commitments. We also urge all countries to exercise increased vigilance and take all reasonable measures to ensure malicious cyber activity is not emanating from their territory,” he said.

Australia’s Ambassador for Cyber Affairs is engaging international counterparts.

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Australia has registered its concern about this international activity at the United Nations.

Australia’s Cyber Cooperation Program is assisting countries in the region to strengthen their cyber resilience.

The ACSC continues to collaborate with industry, law enforcement and government partners to identify and disrupt malicious cyber criminals offshore. The Australian Federal Police is working closely with State and Territory Police and international policing agencies in the fight against all types of cybercrime. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner provides valuable tips for staying safe online during the Covid-19 pandemic, tailored for parents and carers, educators, women, seniors and frontline workers.

ACSC has published a technical advisory outlining the most common tactics, techniques and procedures used by criminal and state-based malicious cyber actors to target Australian networks over the last 18 months.

This advisory follows advice published by the ACSC on 8 May, which details the targeting of Australian health sector organisations and Covid-19 essential services

by Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actors.

The Head of the ACSC, Abigail Bradshaw CSC, said this latest advisory would help organisations identify and mitigate some of the most common techniques used to compromise Australian systems.

“The ACSC is on the front line of our defence against malicious cyber activity, and this advisory is informed by a range of incidents we have observed and responded to,” said Bradshaw. “The tradecraft used by malicious adversaries ranges from the simple to the very sophisticated.”

Especially during a time of uncertainty, everyone is accountable for playing their role in ensuring the safety and security of their digital presence. More work needs to be done in the cybersecurity space to ensure all industries and individuals are protected against potentially crippling cyberattacks. You do not need to chase spies across cyberspace but being mindful of your digital footprint is a good start. www.globaltrailermag.com

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WORLD EVENTS

TRUCK TRAILER AND TYRE EXPO 2020

5-7 NOVEMBER

CIDCO Exhibition and Convention Center Mumbai, India The Truck Trailer and Tyre Expo (TTT) has been connecting all the stakeholders in the Indian automobile sector including manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, OEMs and members of the Allied Industry and stand as a meeting platform between the international community and the Indian Automobile stakeholders to meet each other and establish business communication. The event aims to bring together the industry players for mutual benefits and eventually bring a developing change to the industry over the period of time.

AGROTECH 2020 FAIR

6-8 NOVEMBER Poland Agrotech at Targi Kielce is the largest agricultural technology exhibition in Poland. The International Agricultural Technology Fair is also the largest exhibition in the country among all industries. The numbers speak for themselves: record area in 2019 - over 66,000 square metres and over 75,000 visitors. A comprehensive, international exhibition and over 750 exhibitors from 21 countries of the world is another advantage of the Agrotech fair in Kielce according to Grzegorz Figarski, Project Director. www.targikielce.pl/en/agrotech

www.trucktrailerntyreexpo.com

TRANSPORT SCANDINAVIA 2021

1 5 - 17 A P R I L Herning, Denmark Transport 2021 is an inspiring fair for all those with roots in the transport industry. This is the place to find new vehicles, new equipment, new services and new ideas. The Transport trade fair was launched in 1988. Since then more than 450,000 professionals from the transport industry have attended the event. www.transport-messen.dk 5 6 / G L O B A L TR A I L E R / I SS U E 5 3

I N N OTRAN S 2 02 1

27-3 0 APR I L Berlin Exhibition Grounds Berlin, Germany InnoTrans is an international trade fair for transport technology and takes places every two years in Berlin. Subdivided into the five trade fair segments Railway Technology, Railway Infrastructure, Public Transport, Interiors and Tunnel Construction, InnoTrans occupies all 41 halls available at Berlin Exhibition Grounds. The InnoTrans Convention, the event’s top-level supporting program complements the trade fair. www.innotrans.com

KEEP A LOOK OUT Elmia Lastbil 2021 2-5 June Jönköping, Sweden www.elmia.se/en/lastbil

INTERMODAL ASIA 2021

16-18 MARCH

Transport Logistic China 2022 15-17 June Shanghai, China www.transportlogistic-china.com

Shanghai, China The Intermodal Asia exhibition and conference will bring together the leading international decision-makers from over 90 different countries, from all areas of container transport and logistics, making it the most important industry annual meeting point in Asia according to the event organisers.

Heavy Vehicle Transport Technology Symposium 16 TBC China www.road-transport-technology.org/ conferences/china-2020

www.intermodal-asia.com

TRANSPORT LOGISTIC 2021

4-7 MAY

Messe München Munich, Germany One of the leading transport and logistics events in Germany, Munich’s aptly named Transport Logistic show saw more than 2,374 exhibitors and some 64,000 from 125 visitors from 125 countries and regions in 2019. www.transportlogistic.de

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M E GATR E N D S

PIONEERING AMBITIONS

THERE ARE KEY SUPPLIERS AND MANUFACTURERS IN THE INTERNATIONAL TRAILER BUILDING COMMUNITY THAT EPITOMISE WHAT IT IS TO BE A GLOBAL CITIZEN.

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hile the global economy has been severely disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, and to a lesser extend the US-China trade war, trailing equipment specialists and technology and component suppliers around the world continue to support each other in business – dispelling the notion that globalisation is coming to an end.

Based on our in-depth market reports, it is clear that cooperation in business is blooming with OEMs providing aftersales support in countries and regions often quite distant from their headquarters.

Similarly, larger enterprises such as China’s CIMC Group have an impressive portfolio of companies worldwide that adapt to the needs of the domestic markets they serve whereas Wielton Group in Poland draws its strength or multibrand power, from the diversity of its counterparts in Germany, France, Italy and the UK. Also, the closing of the merger between WABCO and ZF Friedrichshafen is a timely reminder that international cooperation is highly valued by executives and decision makers. This acquisition united two industry leaders behind a shared vision to create a ‘customer-focused powerhouse’ to advance commercial vehicle technology.

It was the heartfelt message from outgoing WABCO Chairman and CEO, Jacques Esculier, on 29 May that reinforced this globalisation sentiment.

“By combining forces with ZF our company will now be elevated to the premier league of the three largest automotive suppliers with full access to the unique capabilities, resources and stability that come with an enterprise that is 10 times larger than ours,” he said.

WABCO Holdings, as a result of the acquisition will no longer trade on the New York Stock Exchange. Esculier is proud of the company’s long and successful chapter due in large part to consistently driving strategy for technology leadership, globalisation and excellence in execution.

“Going forward, the differentiated technologies and remarkable customer

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intimacy we have developed during these last decades will also be fully leveraged to sustain us as a global leader for the next generation of innovations surrounding autonomous, electric and connected commercial vehicles.”

With mixed emotions but full conviction, Esculier announced he would step down as the leader of the company. He explained that an essential element of leadership is knowing when the time is right for a team to continue on its journey without you.

“I’m convinced that for the company and for me the right time is now,” he said. “Firstly, by its size and breadth and size of activities, ZF carries a higher level of complexity that must be successfully navigated to ensure this merger is a complete success.”

By handing this role over to a new leader with extensive knowledge of ZF’s organisation, strategies, technologies and operating systems will be better positioned to the help the WABCO team connect to the richness of ZF’s world.

Esculier ended his announcement with words that should universally resonate: Passion is the most powerful catalyst for success. www.globaltrailermag.com

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ON THE QUEST TO BECOMING THE FIRST TRULY GLOBAL ORGANISATION IN THE HISTORY OF TRAILER MANUFACTURING, CIMC VEHICLES HAS LEARNED THAT STAYING TRUE TO A GRAND VISION DOESN’T PRECLUDE STRATEGIC FLEXIBILITY.

PERSE VERANCE D [Story & Interview by Sebastian Grote]

avid Li, General Manager of CIMC Vehicles, the trailer building arm of China’s International Marine Container (CIMC) Group, isn’t quite what you’d expect of a man who has built a €1.93 billion industrial empire from the bottom up.

Distinctly humble in his bearing and refreshingly unpolished in his language, the industry veteran is enveloped in an aura of authenticity and adventure that is much more Silicon Valley than Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (the official jargon for a giant business incubation area the Chinese government has set up across the bay from Hong Kong to help local businesses connect more easily with the western world).

As such, there is nothing imperious about Li laying out his plan to build the world’s first international trailer building company – only genuine excitement in an idea so captivatingly grand that it would arguably suit an intrepid start-up more than an asset-rich manufacturing firm operating FAST FACT in a time of extreme economic volatility.

CIMC Vehicles’ US subsidiary, Understanding the phenomenon that is Vanguard, is currently finalising CIMC Vehicles is therefore not so much a construction of a second factory in question of mapping out the business itself Trenton, Georgia. The €32 million as it is one of getting to know the man manufacturing plant will eventually employ 400 people and produce behind it – a scenario akin to US start-up 10,000 semi-trailers annually.

Tesla, which is largely dependent on the

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A KEY TALKING POINT OF THE 2014 IAA COMMERCIAL VEHICLE SHOW, THE BRUISED RUSSIAN ECONOMY HAS FAILED TO TURN ITSELF AROUND IN TIME FOR THE NEXT EDITION OF THE ICONIC EVENT. WILL IT STILL CONTINUE TO OWN THE CONVERSATION, THOUGH? [ Story by Sebastian Grote ]

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uddling through the longest recession since the turn of the century, Russia has racked up a sizeable budget deficit and is on track for yet another year of negative growth. Meanwhile, the prospect of fiscal relief is growing distant, with oil in a bear market after closing below $40 a barrel in August – theoretically making for a highly dramatic narrative in the lead-up to the largest transport industry gathering on the planet.

But if you ask Denis Krivtsov, head of Russian OEM, Tonar, the country’s fragile economic state doesn’t necessarily mean it will become as prominent a topic as it was in 2014, when the Ukraine conflict and the annexation of Crimea were still fresh in mind and the European Union (EU) put an abrupt hold on west-east trade.

According to Krivtsov, much of the western trailer community has since found

new growth potential in the heart of Europe and the still-sprawling east of the continent, leaving Russian businesses alone in dealing with what could be the most severe market slowdown in a decade or two. As a result, he says it is now up to the domestic transport equipment community to consolidate ahead of the parliamentary election in mid-September, which is hoped to give the battered economy a much-needed boost.

“The Russian economy hasn’t really improved much since the last instalment of IAA. In fact, many local businesses have since folded as they simply refused to learn from the last crisis,” he explains – pointing to the EU’s recent decision to prolong economic sanctions against Russia until 31 January 2017.

In August 2016, the Financial Times publically wondered whether Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was intending to drive everyone else in US retail crazy. The reason: Bezos is on a mission to re-define the classic concept of retail logistics. Instead of outsourcing the whole process, he set up a complex in-house transport network that has been aggressively expanding its reach, capabilities and capacity in the logistics and distribution arena over the past year or so. As part of the process, the Seattlebased company is now operating thousands of trailers emblazoned with Amazon’s logos acrosss North America. In Europe, Amazon is expanding rapidly as well, potentially making it a key talking point of the next IAA.

PEOPLE TO WATCH

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ALEXANDER DOBRINDT, GERMAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

ELEMENT ALBEIT A SUBSTANTIAL BUSINESS EXPENSE, VISITING A TRADE SHOW LIKE IAA IS A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO MEET SOME OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN COMMERCIAL ROAD TRANSPORT IN THE FLESH – A KEY ADVANTAGE IN THE DIGITAL AGE. [ Story by Sebastian Grote ]

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rom wireless connectivity to electric mobility, the digital world is slowly infiltrating every aspect of commercial road transport. Yet although high technology is expected to dominate the conversation at this year’s IAA Commercial Vehicle Show in Germany (see page 52), it will be people that ultimately set the narrative. In fact, there is a distinct irony to the rise of technology in the manufacturing, according to best-selling US author, Daniel Pink, who has found that forging personal relationships is becoming ever more important as skill-sets evolve and demand more cognitive proficiency.

So-called ‘thought jobs’, as Pink puts it, require a higher level of creativity, problem-solving prowess and out-of-the-box thinking, meaning that in order for a business to be successful, leveraging the unique human element behind each employee is key.

FAST FACT According to Russian Economy Development Minister, Aleksey Ulyukaev, the country’s economy is set to grow in the near future, as “the situation in the real sector of economy is improving and the dynamics of industrial production are positive”.

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As such, he says fostering personal relationships in real life, for example in the context of a trade show, will ultimately help businesses become more profitable.

In line with Pink’s assumption, Global Trailer has selected ten prominent individuals that have the potential to put their mark on the 2016 edition of the largest global transport industry gathering – either by attending it or as the subject of intense discussion. www.globaltrailermag.com

Germany’s Federal Minister for Transport and Digital Infrastructure, Alexander Dobrindt, is slated to officially open the 66th IAA Commercial Vehicle Show in Hanover.

Dobrindt recently made headlines in Germany when he proposed self-driving vehicles in Germany should be fitted with a black box that is able to record specific details of an accident, much like in the aviation industry. According to newswire, Reuters, his proposal would require drivers to stay seated in front of the steering wheel, even tough they may not have to pay attention to traffic or actually steer. Despite that cautionary measure, Dobrindt approved six German cities – Hamburg, Munich, Ingolstadt, Düsseldorf, Dresden and Braunschweig – to become testing grounds for self-driving vehicles as part of a US$89 million (€80 million) project.

İIFFET TÜRKEN, KÄSSBOHRER As the Executive Board Member responsible for Business Development at German OEM Kässbohrer – which is part of the Tirsan Group, the largest trailer manufacturing company in Turkey – Türken is considered one of the most influential personalities in European trailer building, and one of the most powerful women in the global transport equipment industry. The now 44-year-old joined the Tirsan Group in 1996 after graduating from Bogaziçi University in Istanbul and has since been stirring up Europe’s trailer building landscape – helping establish the Kässbohrer brand amongst the top ten in Europe.

PETER SIJS, TIP TRAILER SERVICES Overseeing the procurement processes for a 71,000-unit strong fleet that covers some five billion kilometres every year, Sijs, Services and Sourcing Operations Leader Europe at TIP Trailer Services, is considered one of the most influential people in Europe’s transport equipment industry. Having to replace up to 15,000 trailers annually, TIP Trailer Services spends an average of €30 million per year on parts alone – prompting Sijs to work closely with component suppliers and OEMs to leverage the latest in technology and develop new strategies to create competitive advantages. Most recently, he collaborated with German braking specialist Knorr-Bremse on the development of the company’s awardwinning iTAP system with FleetRemote functionality.

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