#logistic #transportation #politics
Costs increase as the demand plunges: the logistics industry is brought to its knees.
The Italian logistics sector is suffering from a series of concurrent issues. The shortage of drivers, competition with larger foreign firms, lack of clear European laws, and the closing of essential routes to other countries all play a major role in hindering our businesses.
Despite our logistic efforts during the pandemic and the sacrifices made towards the citizenry to grant basic services and essential goods, our industry does not seem to be a priority to our Country.
Last year, we witnessed a huge increase in fuel prices caused by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, triggering a waterfall effect on the overall costs impacting our enterprises. To make things worse, today we observe that tires, spare parts, and even vehicles are more expensive than they used to be, alongside higher paychecks for drivers we cannot afford to lose.
These phenomena influence the ability of companies like ours to stay afloat and underline an economic instability that has become inherent in our line of work.
The stalling of our economy on a broader scale exacerbates the current landscape. Although the number and variety of logistics services have risen over time, the demand has dropped, inflicting great pain on Italian logistics companies.
If our sector does not receive the support it needs, the whole country might suffer from it, and become vulnerable to foreign operators that could take over the Italian supply chain.
In this context, the primary risk is that non-Italian logistics firms might offer more competitive services, cutting off our Country from significant economic relationships.
From our viewpoint, Italian politics should be more involved with logistics regulations to assist our businesses and therefore the entire economic ecosystem. Often, the organizational structure of our SMEs does not allow them to meet the market’s demands, which is why they could use some real help from the government. Last but not least, a healthy conversation with the final users of logistics services might lead to better-integrated solutions for more efficient and competitive logistics enterprises.
