The first half of 2020 is coming to an end. The much-needed summer is making its arrival with beautiful air, at least in many parts of the country. The Coronavirus crisis has affected society in almost every country, making this a truly exceptional half of the year. The effects on the transport sector have varied. For passenger transport, the Coronavirus crisis has caused most of the operations to come to a standstill. In freight transport, the effects have been more variable. For some, performance has fallen significantly. While in most sectors, transport volumes have remained almost normal, and even increased in certain sectors. In bulk shipments and the Powder-Trans Group, the level has been almost normal, and we have maintained normal operations.
To ensure our staff and customers’ safety and health, we have taken a significant number of measures since the beginning of the Coronavirus crisis and continue to do so. The teleworking of office staff, the minimization of physical contact between drivers at customers, remote meetings with partners, and the emphasis on hygiene, etc. play an essential role in this goal. From today’s situation, we have succeeded well here because there has not been a single case of the disease among the approximately 200 members of our staff. Based on customer feedback, we have managed to maintain our service level in every way, and our delivery reliability has been at a normal level. And everything has gone as normal without any problems. Thank you for this, everyone, staff, drivers, and partners as well as customers!
Almost all events and gatherings have been canceled due to the Coronavirus crisis, as was the planned opening of our new expanded warehousing and service facilities in Lieto. However, it has not prevented us from using the new facilities to improve and diversify our services. In addition to the 2,200 m2 of expanded storage space, there has also been an additional 600 m2 of room for our workshop. With greater warehousing capacity, we can provide more warehousing services to our customers.
We now have even more capacity to receive goods in our warehouse according to customers’ schedules and wishes. One of the new warehouse’s advantages is our improved ability to accept larger unit loads, such as container deliveries. Now we also have better opportunities to provide product security storage. Environmental considerations, efficient sorting, recycling, waste handling, and packing and returning empty big bags have all been taken into account in the hall’s design.
Our long-term work for the environment has continued in 2020, and we have increased the use of alternative fuels and introduced new solutions to fuel our vehicles. Concerning real estate, our ongoing commitment to environmental issues includes air-sourced heat pumps and air-water heat pumps installed in the office and workshop to improve energy efficiency. We produce more than 40% of our electricity consumption with our own solar energy. We are also committed to Operation Clean Sweep, an international program to develop the plastic raw material supply chain and minimize its processing’s environmental impact.
We will return to the inauguration of the new hall later, hopefully after the Coronavirus has calmed down, and we return to normal operations in all respects. Even before that, of course, our customers are welcome to visit our facilities and operations. Contact us, and we will arrange a meeting and a presentation of the facilities. Welcome to Lieto at a time that suits you!
Currently, the market situation seems satisfactory and will improve when we have a more open society again after the situation with Coronavirus has been resolved. In this way, the second half of the year will be good for the whole industry and not least for Powder-Trans. Towards the end of the year, we will enter into significant transportation contracts that we have made with new customers. And to ensure the level of our operations that our customers have valued when choosing us as their supplier, we will do our best to make our new customers as satisfied as our current customers.
Despite this exceptional time and in many ways a different summer, we want to wish our customers, partners, and staff a happy summer. Now that some of the events and encounters we used to enjoy in the summer are gone, we can focus even better on enjoying the beautiful nature of the North that surrounds us.
Let’s enjoy the summer together!
