Investment in fleet: 1,000 new trucks – Logistics company responds to high demand for full truckload services – Double-digit sales growth in 2020 despite COVID-19
The Hegelmann Group is continuing to grow. Against this background, the international transport and logistics company is investing heavily in its fleet and expanding its vehicles by 1,000 trucks this year. This is also the logistics company’s response to the high demand on the spot market for full truckload (FTL) transport. The acquisition involves replacement and expansion investments in roughly equal parts. The first tranche of 550 trucks from the premium brand Daimler has already been ordered. Hegelmann currently has 4,000 vehicles in operation.
“Due to the high degree of fragmentation, the potential in the FTL market in Europe is almost limitless. We want to continue to grow significantly in this area,” says Siegfried Hegelmann, Managing Director of the Hegelmann Group. The basis for this is the 26 locations throughout Europe with around 7,000 employees as well as the current fleet of 4,000 vehicles. These will now be increased by a further 1,000 trucks. “Our ambition is to be the cost and price leader in the FTL market. This can only be achieved by constantly improving efficiency. The linchpins for this are, among other things, economies of scale due to the size of the fleet,” says Hegelmann.
Despite the Corona crisis, Hegelmann increased its sales by twelve percent to around 700 million euros in 2020. The main reason for this is the consistently high demand on the market, due to which Hegelmann even offers special trips. “Currently, we are the spot market champion,” the managing director says.
In contrast to other freight forwarders who temporarily or permanently suspended their UK transports due to the irritations surrounding the Brexit, Hegelmann also offers UK transports on a targeted basis. At peak times, 250 trucks are on their way to Great Britain. From Calais, the freight forwarder offers the Hegelmann Transport Ferry Service (HTFS), which combines road transport with ferry and rail services on 300 European routes. The entrepreneur also wants to further strengthen inland transports. There are currently 50 vehicles in operation in Germany. This number is to be increased tenfold by 2023. Hegelmann also plans to become more active within France and Italy – again not in the role of a caboteur, but as a nationally based company. 1,000 of its trucks will prospectively be located in these three countries. At the moment, the largest share of the fleet is active in Poland, with 2,000 trucks at the moment. There are 700 trucks operating in Lithuania.
