Forwarding companies feel credit policy of banks
„We don’t know what the Austrian freight forwarding companies will have to face in 2009. But there is no doubt about the need for action concerning the securing of the companies’ positions within a fiercer competitive environment in the first three months of the year.“ This was the statement of Harald Bollmann and Wolfram Senger-Weiss at a press meeting last week in Vienna. The newly elected President (Bollmann) of the Zentralverband Spedition & Logistik – the Austrian umbrella organisation of forwarding and logistics enterprises – and the Vice-President Senger-Weiss did not give rise to any doubt about the stop of personnel engagements in the sector, at least during the first weeks of the new year, and about some enterprises that will reduce the number of temporary workers. According to Mr. Bollmann and Mr. Senger-Weiss the year 2008 was characterised by positive development of consignments at the Austrian freight forwarding companies. The only bad news is the slightly declining profit resulting from the lower average weights of consignments in national groupage traffic. As for international relations the tradelanes to Spain, Great Britain and North America show depressions according to Mr. Senger-Weiss. During the last weeks the restrictive credit policy of the banks caused the sector more trouble than the members of the ZV prefer. In certain cases this obstructs establishing export business transactions and transport orders, as Mr. Bollmann and Mr. Senger-Weiss pointed out. Quelle: Österreichische Verkehrszeitung |