Dutch transport sector continues to grow, work pressure is increasing

Last month, Statistics Netherlands published the first quarterly figures for 2018. This showed that the transport sector is still growing. Apart from ocean freight, all submarkets showed a higher turnover than in the same period a year before. This has been going on for five quarters in a row. Companies in the sector expect this trend to continue.

Positive expectations

Within the sector, the transport companies in particular are positive about the future. Almost a third thinks their sales will grow in the next quarter. Growth will therefore continue according to insiders. Ocean freighters also expect growth in the second quarter. In Matthijs’ webinar you can discover how you can react to this growth, for example by data-driven working.

More work and more demands

Growth means that companies get a bigger workload. Fortunately. We also get to hear this from our customers. Applications for new implementations are often caused by expected growth and increasing customer demands. And where the workload might be acceptable at this point, this may not be the case in a few months. Increasing demands mainly relate to far-reaching data exchange and integration. Where this used to be an advantage, it is now a requirement. If logistics service providers can not comply with this, they miss the boat and lose customers. That bottleneck must be prevented.

Tight labor market conditions

This can be solved by hiring more employees. Almost a quarter of the companies think they will work with more staff, according to Statistics Netherlands. But the labor market is tight. At the end of March, there were no less than 10 thousand vacancies open in the transport sector. There is a small chance that these call be fulfilled at the same time.

So smarter work has to be done

Redesign processes, work more efficiently and focus on automation. Repeated activities apply to many sectors, so this can be taken care of easily. Consider, for example, customs processes, customer communication or periodic costs. Are you already well prepared? Consult one of our webinars or contact your consultant.