Interview with STEPHAN HALTMAYER
| Mr. Haltmayer is the CEO of Quick Cargo Service GmbH Europe with their Headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. They represent Europe with 27 offices. His father, Dieter Haltmayer, was the founder of QCS in 1974. After successfully graduating from the college of economics in Frankfurt, Stephan studied Freight Forwarding with Schenker’s in Frankfurt. After that, he studied business English in London for one year before he has joined Quick Cargo Service Frankfurt. One year later, he opened the QCS Munich branch, where he lived for six years. At the beginning of 2000, he moved into Quick Cargo Service head office to take over the position of the Managing Director. QCS is a hundred percent family-owned. We are now in the third generation. His son Nico Haltmayer runs their Business Development Team. |
| 1. What are the main disrupters for midsize Freight Forwarding development? One of the main problems for midsize companies is the buying power of the carriers. QCS has overcome this situation since the year 2000 when Mr. Diecer Haltmayer (former QCS CEO) has pulled together 23 likewise midsize forwarders in Germany to build a buying pool called IGLU Air Cargo GmbH. The joint buying power allows all 23 agents to buy at a level where usually only multinational forwarders could buy the rates. The strong buying power combined with the service level of a midsize forwarder is today’s success of QCS. Other hurdles the midsize companies have are IT infrastructure and EDI connection with their multiple worldwide partners. Where multinational forwarders usually work with one in-house solution with their worldwide branches, midsize companies have to find EDI connections with many of their partners through web-based solutions. This is far more complicated. Another difficulty for midsize forwarding companies is to offer their rates on online platforms to the market where rates are transparent so customers can draw their quotation directly from the website or market platforms. These marketplaces will make it difficult for midsize forwarders to compete against the multinationals one day. 2. Tell us about key areas in Logistics/Supply chain where Freight Forwarding can improve the most and why? Service and proactive information flow are always an issue. If you buy e-commerce products online, you are updated at any time with the whereabouts of the shipments until they are delivered. Many forwards cannot offer such close monitoring of airfreight shipments because there are many companies between transport, from pick up to delivery. Another issue I see is educating young people to learn the profession of freight forwarding. Some countries employ volunteers who start in forwarding by “learning by doing” and have no clue about rules and regulations, such as liability and responsibility of a freight forwarder. Many staff has been thrown into the business with no background education at all. The forwarding business needs to be made more attractive to the young generation so the industry could find motivated workers for the future. Forwarding has never been sexy enough to attract young people. Though there is always a shortage of applicants. 3. What is your opinion about positioning WOF EXPO in the Central and Eastern Europe region? I think this is a fantastic move. There is no other show that represents the Central and Eastern Europe region at this moment. Nearly every continent has a local expo for its multimodal transportation industry. There is the Intermodal for S-America, Munich Transport Logistic Fair for Continental Europe, and the same for China every two years. For the Central and Eastern Europe region there was no such expo in place. WOF EXPO will open markets and bring multimodal forwarders together. The Eastern European markets are the fast-growing markets in Europe, and therefore I see a big interest in the expo in this region. I can only recommend to the companies that are related to logistics to don’t miss the chance to exhibit at the WOF 2021. 4. What will be the impact of COVID-19 for your further business development? Germany has managed the crises well so far. I think that we have seen the zenith and that we have all learned to work with video conferences and the reduced chances of traveling. People have learned to live with COVID-19 and are knowledgeable about how to protect themselves. I have a good feeling that we will slowly see growth again. It will take time until the lower deck capacities of the passenger aircraft will be available again. The economy has been affected, but many of the warehouse stocks have been used, and soon there will be a stronger demand for parts and products again. If the vaccine is available by the middle of next year, the pandemic will come under control, and life will return to normal by the second quarter of 2021. I am optimistic that we will see significant growth by the second half of next year and continuous improvement for the first half of 2022. The transportation section has been affected by the downturn of the economy through COVID-19, but it could be much worse. Transportation is like blood in the veins. The world cannot function without transportation. We transport the products that are needed anyway. From medical supplies to industrial products. For some time, COVID-19 will have an impact on our business, but it does not put us in a critical position. Companies often emerge from the crisis even stronger than before. |
 | QCS – Quick Cargo Service GmbH is a medium- sized air and sea freight forwarder with eleven branches in all major commercial and industrial centers in Germany, along with subsidiaries and eight other offices in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Poland, and England. The portfolio of QCS – Quick Cargo Service encompasses general air freight and sea freight shipments as well as healthcare, aerospace, and project business. In Germany QCS – Quick Cargo Service GmbH is one of the ten leading private IATA forwarders. The company enjoys a great reputation at home and abroad and is a member of the Bundesverband Spedition und Logistik, IATA, and FIATA. https://quick-cargo.services/en/ |