The logistics industry is struggling with major challenges: According to recent studies, there is a shortage of 400,000 safe truck parking spaces in the EU alone. The result: risky and accident-prone parked vehicles, increased cargo theft and more traffic and CO2 emissions due to the search for a parking space. Added to this is the pressure on drivers to comply with their driving and rest times. To address these challenges, Bosch Secure Truck Parking and TRAVIS Road Services have forged an alliance against the shortage of truck parking spaces in Europe: In a new partnership, the two companies will be combining their contingents and providing carriers with Europe’s highest number of bookable truck parking spaces: “From the beginning of 2023, users of Bosch Secure Truck Parking and TRAVIS Road Services will be able to access a total of 15,000 parking spaces at well around 400 locations in 14 European countries, also in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, France, and Poland,” explains Dr. Jan-Philipp Weers, Head of Bosch Secure Truck Parking.
Joint action against lack of parking spaces
“Together, we are taking an important step towards addressing the challenges of the logistics industry,” said Dennis van Veggel, CEO of TRAVIS Road Services. “In addition to the high safety standards that the majority of the 100 Bosch sites meet, there is good site coverage through approximately 300 parking locations of TRAVIS Road Services.” The portals provide freight forwarders with parking spaces in different areas, such as at truck stops, trucking marshalling yards, logistics centers. This approach allows to connect locations and new parking spaces flexibly, which promises further, rapid growth in parking spaces. What essentially changes is the scope of the offer for existing customers: Freight forwarders can view and block-book all the parking spaces they need in real time via the usual platform, and bill paperlessly via efficient collective invoices.
Individual offers are retained
Regardless of the cooperation, Bosch and TRAVIS maintain their individual offers on the respective portals. Bosch Secure Truck Parking advises beyond the platform on holistic solutions for the transport and logistics industry and supports freight forwarders in the structural implementation of security and service solutions. Depending on the requirements, Bosch complies with European safety certificates such as the certifications of the Transported Asset Protection Association’s (TAPA) or EU Parking Standards developed by the European Commission. This is important because the financial damage caused by cargo theft alone is estimated at 8.2 billion euros within the European Union. Bosch has also recently introduced a service that provides freight forwarders and drivers with support as needed via a Europe-wide telephone hotline.
TRAVIS, on the other hand, offers the combined booking of cleaning and repair services. Carriers can continue to book these services at approximately 1,450 partner locations in 17 countries as usual. They can easily simplify their administration by receiving just one invoice for different bookings or services which includes special VAT rules (e.g. reverse-charge mechanism). The possibility to pay and book road services with company fuel cards are also still available, which TRAVIS offers in cooperation with partners such as Shell, DKV or UTA.
In short, the alliance between Bosch and TRAVIS brings a noticeable increase in truck parking spaces for freight forwarders, their drivers, and customers, many with high safety standards. At the same time, it also relieves the municipalities along the major traffic axes of wildly parked trucks and minimizes the traffic and accident risks caused by them.
SOURCE: Bosch
