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Blog series on the transport industry by 2030 by Gertjan Breij, Managing Director DKV Euro Service Benelux
The Future Is Now: the future has already started now. New, digital innovations are having a disruptive impact on the world of transport. Individual consumers are becoming increasingly powerful and influential. The sharing economy comes as a second nature to the youngest generations, Y and Z. The environment is turning into a cost item. All this makes the transport and logistics industry susceptible to violent change in coming years. Companies that fail to respond will ultimately find themselves defeated by their more flexible, kinetic counterparts. My aim in this concluding blog is to make you familiar with the strategies applied by DKV Euro Service with a view to remaining Europe’s most prominent mobility partner by 2030 as well.
At DKV Euro Service, digital transformation was already embraced by the year 2000. Between 1950 – the year in which DKV introduced fuel cheques in Germany – and the year 2000, the role played by DKV extended only little beyond the function of provider of cash-free travel by road. From 2000 onwards this was followed by the introduction of new services, which enabled DKV to transform from cash-free-travel partner into all-round mobility partner. Consider in this respect services like VAT refund services and automation solutions aimed to simplify fleet management, like DKV eREPORTING. As regards the future, DKV will continue working on the development of digital solutions with a view to simplify fleet management and supply chain management as well. In 2016 for instance we contracted over 200 new team members who are occupied mainly with the development of new IT-solutions like the DKV BOX EUROPE, its all-embracing pan-European toll box (OBU) requiring just one contract and one uniform invoice, and offering countless planning and analysis options.
When looking at 2030 we have defined DKV’s role as that of ‘mobility services aggregator’. One the one hand we aim to remain Best In Class where it concerns products and solutions indispensable for all companies that operate in transport and logistics, like toll boxes and VAT refund services. Alternatively we foresee a shift in the role played by DKV from ‘supplier’ towards ‘director’. Ultimately this is to result in a mobility management platform: a platform-as-a-service, functioning as a data management service containing everything relating to mobility. In addition to providing the products and services already supplied by us right now, like tolls, fuels and financial and mobility services, this platform will also embrace solutions offered by fleet management service providers. We foresee one (cloud-based) platform for transaction processing and insight, overview and management of complete fleets, irrespective of what these might look like by 2030.
Despite serious investment in IT, our organisational structure and culture and our people, and the vision we have regarding our role in 30 years from now we remain firmly convinced of the need to continuously adapt and align our strategy time and time again. Constant agility and flexibility are indispensable in this respect. For this reason we continue to adhere to five crucial business principles: compliance, continuity, cost control, flexibility and operational excellence. All our operations revolve around our commitment to contribute to the continuity and compliance of our customers’ business operations. We do this by providing flexible solutions for cost management and improved operational excellence. These are core values that will never change, however quick the changes may turn out to be in this world’s increasingly volatile environment.