• Are you motivated to achieve sustainability in the freight forwarding industry? If so, which key factors motivate you?

We are definitely motivated to achieve sustainability. Always the question: How can sustainability be implemented? On the one hand, by having a good product in terms of means of transport – trucks in our case, which of course have the longest possible service life. And also by having a trailer or semitrailer that requires as little maintenance as possible, and of course resources, oil changes and so on. And then there is the next question: What kind of drive is used – diesel – diesel hybrid – CNG – LNG – electric drive, which is currently still in its infancy. Of course you also have to differentiate between what kind of transport route you want to drive at all? Local traffic, long-distance traffic and if you ask yourself this question, are there any drives that are not available? What is currently under discussion and what will be implemented is the LNG drive. Because, unlike CNG, you have the range you need. Now, of course, you have to push a little bit forward. Unfortunately, with LNG it is still the case at the moment that the density of filling stations in Germany is not yet reached. So these are really the big companies, above all Shell, also willing and active in building the filling stations. And of course the LNG is also a fiscal incentive and the toll exemption. But it is still a clean story.

• In your opinion, what are some of the challenges that freight forwarders have to face in terms of sustainability?

The challenge for the freight forwarder in terms of sustainability – if you take LNG as a starting point. Firstly, of course, that of course you can fill up where you need to. You need the infrastructure to implement sustainability. And secondly, with alternative propulsion systems it doesn’t matter which one you use, because it’s not diesel. Of course sustainability is also sustainable if you look beyond your own nose and at some point the truck is written off and should be sold. So far it is in the Middle East, the former Soviet Union in a huge market, that buy such trucks and continues to use them there. Of course this is nothing to do with our direct forwarder sustainability, but it is sustainable anyway. If the vehicle is still being driven somewhere after the end of its period of service because it is built, it should be used sustainably for as long as possible. Of course the problem Everything that is implemented in alternative LNG, CNG, diesel hybrid, electric vehicles is currently not a market. Of course, from our point of view, it is important that the manufacturer creates the possibility of buying back vehicles, so that such a vehicle can perhaps be converted abroad, because an LNG filling station network can now be set up in Africa within a very short time, which is very unrealistic. As I said, it is a factor that we must of course take into account, because at the moment we have to assume that the resale value is zero or at most a scrap value. And this unattainable sales proceeds must of course be taken into account in the overall transport prices. Whereby the hook is then already here again. If we take this into account, logically, the prices are more expensive than a competitor who only drives diesel and can sell his vehicle. That is the greatest challenge, creating opportunities for legislation to make it possible to use more environmentally friendly vehicles in such a way that the costs are the same as for a conventional diesel.

• How do you think the sustainability challenges mentioned under (2) can be tackled?

How can it be tackled? Who, in free competition, would of course be a giant step backwards. But it has happened before. So uniform tariffs. That would be good for wage dumping, which has become extremely noticeable in this Coroña crisis, and also extremely noticeable that the freight prices to those places where foreign freight forwarders sometimes travel to cover the fixed costs, regardless of who in Germany covers them. And, of course, the foreign freight forwarder has all this to the benefit or disadvantage of the journey. That is a factor Most save can sometimes in Germany even the hands tied. On the one hand there is the minimum wage, and on the other hand you have to say yes. And yet I would still like to see something in the personnel field – I don’t know if you can do that at the same rate as the tariffs that were binding until 1994, with a fixed price for every kilometre, for every route. There was just no competition. It is just very difficult to act. It’s a very complex issue. But if you want to take a step back now – competition. More and more goods have to be put on the road, there are so many trucks on the road. We can just leave it at that. Can it make sense to have a very low price, to have a look at the motorways at night, there are noisy parcels? Kutcher can make sense to abuse this low freight price so that people simply order their Amazon parcels in abundance – bought schuberth in five sizes and in the worst case keep cross-channel, which can be returned simply, cheaply or even for free, you simply have to ask yourself and that is why it is a very complex issue. I would still like to see a fixed price, where the customers are more or less deprived of Moldovans. That he simply makes his buying behaviour sustainable.

• That actually makes sense. Interesting thing, really.

Also food, if you look at how many food vehicles are on the road. Now statistically 50 percent of all food is used legally worldwide, because some countries do not throw away statistically anything, the food is disposed of again. It has to go somewhere again. It is simply the question “Does it have to be all that? Can one not simply? The volume of traffic caused by such unnecessarily sensible people. I would also make sustainable investments throughout Europe. It’s just really difficult at the moment to invest sustainably at all because the freight prices are down. We would have to find the turning point from this spiral.

• What would you regard as the top priority of the freight forwarders? Is it the price, time consistency, security or sustainability (or something else)? Please explain

The balance of prices and sustainability, because that goes hand in hand – if I get a good price I can invest differently, or ideally if it’s worse prices it would be enough to be careful now as legislator: if you are more environmentally friendly with any vehicle, that is not voted, then you get a bonus. It can also be a purchase premium, that is what it means at the moment. Once again, the discussion is about how to differentiate between trucks with poorer exhaust emissions and those that are given a purchase premium. In reality, of course, we have to be careful when it comes to Euro 5 trucks. They have long been off the market in long-distance haulage in Germany. Since the Euro 6 emission standard was introduced in 2011, they have a service life of almost ten years – 2, a vehicle with two million kilometres and at some point Grahn Euro 5. He is not affected by the scrappage bonus because the Horizon high cost price is simply not worth it. It really does have a service life of 20 to 30 years, because it is used in a completely different way.

• Do the priorities in the above question (e.g. price or time consistency) act as an obstacle or promoter for the development of sustainability? How is this possible?

And promoters? It is a matter of perspective. You can see everything one way or another, at the moment it is neither, nor would I say it is programs for example. There is a subsidy for LNG trucks, you get 12,000 euros when you buy one, the maximum subsidy per company is 500,000 euros. So you can already buy there. EUR 12000, depending on how you calculate it. You can say that this is what you save with the average toll usage and then it cancels itself out. Of course you can also buy 12000 Euro. That is the resale value, which does not take place. Nevertheless, it is still too little. For an electric truck, EUR 40 000 is the subsidy you get. And there it is of course again completely different, because electric in trucks costs easily 6 to 7 times the normal with all the disadvantages that it has at the moment, long after the performance of the battery, then the really much lower payload did not operate yet. That has to do with that too. It feels comfortable. At 37 degrees colder it has to be heated. It has to be cooled warmer. Complex technology, which can be handled quite differently.

• Is there a way to convince stakeholders in the freight industry to abandon price, consistency and other priorities for sustainability?

There certainly is, but it’s a very complex issue if we look at it. Our main field of activity is automotive. This is how we speak of the automotive industry. The automotive industry is a global market, and global prices must be imposed on the vehicle itself. And then you simply have to look at it. Regardless of which German manufacturer wants to sell a car – if it is only sold in Germany without competition – I can simply add the extra price to the car, according to the motto “bird take it or leave it, because then every car will simply be more expensive. There are no competitors and the customer simply has to pay more. Can one also be regulated by the state through a subsidy. What about abroad? If I want to sell a German passenger car in China or the USA, which is already partly subject to high import duties or similar. Now I have to add some prices again as a manufacturer. Then the local customer might say that even if I don’t pay for a Mercedes or VW, I’ll buy a Japanese car. You could discuss it for a whole weekend. The first one would be my opinion how to get it done, if you just think about how to reduce the freight volume. That I drive less and still have the same turnover on the vehicle. That is to say I don’t have the whole subject and the vehicle can be my given. Would it be a good idea to impose a fine on freight like this? I say ok if you drive full packages – that’s all right – it’s supposed to be a good price. people are supposed to buy it, and if the customer can’t make up his mind, I have to order all the items for inspection. There’s a fine for returns. So expensive that the customer will think about what I’m going to buy – and go into the shop, which is started by the same truck anyway, and try on my shoes. Then we would have a completely different incentive again, because the retail trade would be promoted again.

• You would have to support the entire human race.

To make a shoe out of it is really very difficult. Of course, you can’t just bluster about Amazon and the like. After all, these are jobs. Even if they are negatively portrayed in the media. But the fact is they are jobs. You can’t just keep everything bad.

• Who determines the introduction of sustainable fuels in the freight industry? Is it the industry in general or individual companies? Explain your answer

Determined by the energy supplier, Shell is also massively involved – in LNG. Because Shell is clearly taking it easy on the energy cake. Just a question: who gets how many pieces of the cake? We have already seen that all vehicles have electrical energy for vehicles, diesel or fuels, i.e. petrol. Now there are others, CNG is already available. Now LNG is coming in. Shell is producing LNG anyway. It’s just a question of saying we are electric, the electricity at the supplier of this cake, which is simply redistributed. Now so many pieces are coming in, LNG is coming in. If it remains with the same supplier, whether Shell lng, diesel or petrol is sold or CNG is actually secondary, then the conditions must be created in the form of filling stations, i.e. infrastructure. Of course, we must not forget that vehicle manufacturers need the appropriate personnel, just as they do with electric vehicles. At the moment, they have the crux of the matter with electric vehicles. Any manufacturer can guarantee the appropriate personnel in the workshop. You don’t need to do anything more with the mechanic here. After all, it is really mechatronics engineers with high-voltage training who we are allowed to let get close to the vehicle. That’s where you first have to get training. The advantage of LNG is that the training is only for certain components on the vehicle, for the electric vehicle, and the high-voltage training is what I need when I want to change tyres. How can I ground the vehicle if it is defective so that I don’t get an electric shock?

• What do you think are the comparative advantages of sustainable fuels compared to fossil fuels like diesel in the freight industry?

It is not a liquid per se, leaks do not go to the ground, the air is aerial. Which of course is a huge issue and it is in this CO2 discussion it is often mixed up, confused with clearly separated. I always have emissions when I manufacture the fuel. So it’s about being able to exclude emissions locally. Even though everyone in Stuttgart is talking about nitrogen oxide, during the Corona period, when there was almost no traffic, the situation did not improve at all, on the contrary, it became worse. But that is again a very one-sided view, because we only have nitrogen oxides as exhaust gas. Even if I produce electricity in a coal-fired power station it is not only nitrogen oxides. are much more pollutant. And one simply has to say that there is an interest in avoiding emissions locally. Pollutant emissions are of course also noise emissions. Now, when I’m repeatedly eating in the city. There are also supermarkets, which are supplied very often at night. If I now look here at the noise, the noise emissions from an electric or gas lorry, which is much quieter, the city dweller is of course much more comfortable to live in. The same applies to city buses. Also in the city. These local emissions of pollutants, because of the fact that in a city there are simply completely different winds, can easily take off like in the countryside. In return, one must of course say Does it now make sense to buy any kind of electric mining vehicle in Austria? No. But to put somewhere on the hut, the infrastructure, that the electric vehicle can charge sensibly, bears no relation to the final result. It would also not be very helpful. Reasonable purpose? Then I can decide: Yes, I can put infrastructure. For example in the cities, where I never really understood that after the war, cost reasons would lead to a number of cities, trolleybuses, i.e. buses with electric drive, which are supplied with electricity by an overhead line, simply because the tram network was destroyed during the war, to take a bus with electric drive from the same overhead line. These buses have disappeared in Germany, where there is a great history actually. Only, I think the disappeared are still in Baden-Wuerttemberg, that’s also a thing when you look at such a bus. Actually for such a city bus and diesel engine is the case. Bad drive Because a diesel engine is designed for a constant power. What does a city bus do? Starts all the time, because I am standing all the time. The engine doesn’t feel well at all, sometimes with the city bus: gas or electric drive reasonable, then again gas it emits. After some city buses the ideal electric vehicle. Overhead line is not an issue in the city with an overhead line also scenario ally nothing spoils. It is about the overhead line in the city, because the houses are all listeners. There I really have the advantage I have a look at the city bus. I have exhaust fumes and pollutant emissions and noise emissions.

• What are some of the barriers to the introduction of sustainable fuels by freight forwarders?

Looking at the cost at the moment on the main road. Someone has to take care of it. What costs do I have to save to death to be environmentally friendly? And that’s where I have to invest in the infrastructure, and well, in local transport it would be an interesting possibility, for example, there are also other ways to reduce pollutants. A synthetic diesel has been developed at the TU Munich at the Chair for Internal Combustion Engines. The synthetic diesel will never be able to cover the complete demand for diesel from the world, because it is simply not possible to produce in series and if it were to be produced on a large scale, the fossil diesel would have to be abolished, which is not possible that a diesel engine can now be operated with optional features, because they have a filling station full of synthetic, environmentally friendly diesel available. The engine must be tuned completely differently. An interesting approach, so operating procedures in cities, highway maintenance, roads, sweepers, such fleets, which then have their own company filling station. Wherever you refuel, who, for example, has a wonderful solution for changing over to such a vehicle. To this synthetic diesel, which actually burns absolutely clean. Who is almost pollutant-free, because that is what you have to bear in mind now, for example to electrify a street sweeper. Would make no sense, because the infrastructure that I need for this one vehicle after all The fact that the infrastructure available on every road would have absolutely no relation to the final result. If I have a clean fuel here, for example, it would be an interesting starting point, all the more we can do with this topic and this DME is then called the synthetic diesel moment of the company fleet, which also drives regionally, comes home in the evening, its own company canteen. Of course, you could also convert the cars or such transporters there.

Free talk

Actually there are actually already long in the municipal area city buses, garbage, cars and so is also such a CNG engine, which works gasoline, very useful. And do you still have electric mobility, do you always have the problem? You have to store electricity somewhere, if you can supply it externally, like a tram through an overhead line. Or even future inductive via the road, but that will certainly not happen in the foreseeable future, because you always have the problem if you change the floor covering, you damage a construction site somewhere. And that’s one of the reasons why electric mobility is being tested as an i-Highway, and it works, it’s a clean thing. And now, of course, LNG is on the rise. LNG simply has the advantage that it meets the political requirements for saving CO2, but the disadvantages are that there are no filling stations – a vehicle such as the one the manufacturer happened to make is 35 to 45,000 euros more expensive than a normal truck. That’s comparable, in percentage terms it is between 30 and 50 percent more expensive. Coincidentally, but coincidentally, however, it is exactly that which the operator saves through the toll exemption up to 20 – 23 This is also artificially driven up by the manufacturers diesel, this figure is clear, because also the numbers of units of the vehicles for sale. Advantage LNG, the fuel itself is clean, there are no leaks, somehow, you can’t steal it, you just have to fill it up. You have to transport it by truck. How do you transport LNG? It’s transported in the same way as CNG, when you pressurize it with 600 bars and lap it to minus 162 degrees the gas becomes liquid again and only needs a fraction of the volume. And that’s why the LNG truck’s range to the LNG is currently 16 to 1800 kilometers. And you can actually already work hastily and continue to have the advantage of saving 20 – 23, 20 percent CO2, because you have to meet this target immediately, because LNG has a much higher energy density. The diesel fuel is measured in every litre and LNG in kilograms, but also the consumption and the wind is calm. This truck, which at the moment needs 26 litres per 100 km, uses the same truck as the LNG truck from the same manufacturer, but consumes about 20 to 23 kilograms. If you already have a direct consumption advantage, the consumption is always directly proportional to the CO2 emission. And now you still have the advantage, if you do it right and it’s Shell’s turn for example, they want to build a BIOmechanical insurance employee in Cologne Kuhdorf. And then it becomes really round because if you take biomedical to the energy production is currently with a negative CO2 coefficient, then burned in the truck, you get the clean gauze bandages and that makes it actually interesting, because methane exists without end that is the problem, what the agriculture has the mass operation, the silage that produce methane without end, and I will think about that in the world, when 50 percent of all food thrown away. The French are already doing this, the department store chain only manages to ferment food and runs with this gas (LNG – CNG) we currently recommend for your trucks. This overall balance looks then really cool at the moment LNG me sitting from the end of August still for VW a long truck with LNG energy. That is really cool. 20 percent less energy, 29 percent less. That is really future-proof. For 20, 30 will always come, of course.

• What is the situation at Porsche?

If you take the problem to the gas station? At the moment it only makes sense if the gas station is reasonably accessible. Where you move for nonsense in Zuffenhausen it would be uninteresting, because we would have to drive to Heilbronn to fill up. At the moment it makes little sense. There is only one flaw, what he always chides the LNG methane is 25 times more harmful to the greenhouse. As CO2. And then there are some very smart people who say that you have a so-called methane leak from an energy vehicle. This methane slip would occur, for example, when a completely burned gas passes the green ring during combustion and enters the atmosphere through the crankcase. Or when the tank heats up. Heat becomes like minus 162, and then all the gas goes up. But as far as the one engine slip is concerned, the engine builders have the same problem as with the normal engine, where at most, Damblon with gas is just as harmful, if the fuel or gas in the misunderstood fuel or gas goes unfiltered into the open air. There are possibilities in the engine recirculation, where such gases are then simply fed to the combustion. When does the vehicle become too warm for energy? In good German at least eight weeks in the corner? The actual problem is that the gas gets warm. There I would try to move to the gas station and refuel again. But you can easily prevent that if the author for some reason should stand longer. If you leave it on every two weeks and let it run for 5 minutes, the gas will cool down due to the combustion, processes and the extraction. And that moves off. In my opinion, this was a sensible idea, because all ocean liners above a certain tonnage have to be converted to this type of propulsion in order to prevent such disasters. Because the ships are absolutely filthy, powered by their heavy fuel oil, and come from the source. Most of the LNG filling stations that already exist are somewhere in Hamburg, Kiel for ships anyway. In my opinion a clean story. Purpose? One has to be better anyway. Today’s diesel engine emissions scandal was dragged through the cocoa.

• I’ve seen the politicians look like that. How do they react? I mean, everybody wants to be green. 23rd toll at the same time, free road, so to speak. Some money back or maybe even? What do you call it? What do you call it? To get the subsidy to free your vehicle, you have to have some form of subsidy, because you have to.

Of course, the government got the conditions with the CO2, with the CO2 saving, and the government has to somehow bring it to the people. A sensible measure would have been, for example, to install a modern heating system for minor apartment buildings, especially in cities. But this cannot be implemented financially, because there is much more. If, like the traffic factor, you don’t always focus a little bit of attention on how you can benefit from such a vehicle with a five-year service life, it can be implemented much more quickly and easily because you have to invest anyway. Heaters halfway 30, 38 years? Everyone says so. If the time is not reached and it works, why should I throw it out or install something else?

• You also for subsidies or for example if a CO2 tax is introduced? Maybe that’s the problem with that.

The CO2 tax is already on the car. Cars have only been taxed on CO2 emissions for three or four years. With more engine capacity than before, but with the CO2 factor in addition. Ironically, this also means that new, clean, diesel-powered trucks or commercial vehicles are subject to this tax. In general, the CO2 tax cannot be implemented at all in relation to the vehicle because it is not possible to measure specific fuel consumption in such a truck. In the case of a passenger car, it is relatively simple that the passenger car does not weigh 1.5 tonnes and what changes is simple The crew has a load capacity of 400 kilos. That is insignificant in relation to the total weight of a lorry. But that’s why it’s always important to know how to find out. And that’s where the fuel consumption jumps extremely high. And now you can do something about the fuel, but in my opinion it is controlled enough.

• Fuel for industry.

It’s state-subsidized. But first and foremost, of course, we have the fuel companies in Germany in charge. They are not so precise. If he buys a vehicle, he doesn’t use diesel, he needs something else. Let’s look at electricity, look at the fuel. So we have to build up the gas stations now.

• Relatively few gas stations have an advantage, because they can organize everything. Planning can mean that trucks have to drive from A to B, but they have to stop at gas stations.

If it simply had to be the density is not so decisive. Why are there so many petrol stations? The number of petrol stations has grown since the vehicle has been around. There are now more or less since a hundred years of Otto normal consumers. And that is why size, huge network of petrol stations. But you don’t need it. So why are there different ones? Because one fills up at Shell, the other one has Aral, and so on and so forth. That’s the trick with the few providers who make it available, to create an incentive to fill up at them. And now, from my point of view, choose more formally. You just have to look at the motorways, they are not so long in Germany. Germany is quite clearly arranged and it is theoretically enough if a Haussmann had to drive every five kilometres, he would have to see how they are distributed. There are traffic junctions, inhibitors. Cross for example is now being opened like the gas station on 20. 6. And if I have it right in my head? Traffic junctions, of course.

• Which companies are prepared to pay more if they know that sustainable fuels are used? Yes, certainly expensive at first.

Maintenance costs, for example, through toll exemptions.