IDS remains on course for success
- Turnover grows by 4.3% to 2.43 billion euros
- Consignment volume increases by 4.1 % to 15.3 million
- Share of B2C business increases from 13% in 2019 to 19% in 2020
- Further digitalization optimizes processes and increases service quality
Kleinostheim – March 23, 2021 – IDS Logistik GmbH has come through the coronavirus year well and continued its growth trajectory unabated in 2020. Germany’s largest groupage cooperation increased its turnover by 4.3% year-on-year to EUR 2.43 billion and transported 15.3 million shipments. This corresponds to an increase of 4.1 %.
“IDS has been growing continuously since 2013, both in terms of turnover and consignment figures. The main growth drivers in 2020 were national transports. The booming construction and DIY sectors in particular contributed to the good business result, as did the very strong growth in online retail in the private customer segment due to the coronavirus pandemic,” says IDS Managing Director Michael Bargl.
Shipments in the national business increased by 5.1%. The B2C business made a significant contribution here with growth of 42%. In Germany, the IDS partner companies moved 3.32 million tons of goods. This is around 2 % more than in the previous year. Overall, the average weight fell due to the generally lighter B2C shipments. Despite temporary border closures and disruptions to supply chains at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as uncertainties in European and global trade, IDS was able to maintain the previous year’s level of international business.
Digitalization and process optimization
In order to further optimize the processes for outgoing and incoming shipments, IDS has developed fully integrated shipment processing software and introduced it for all 50 IDS depots. Employees can view all relevant information on a monitor page and process it immediately, whether shipment data, status information, ticket system, correction database or mail system.
“This saves time, reduces errors, creates transparency and ensures even better and faster shipment processing. And the new system application also allows our customers and consignees to see at a glance where their consignment is currently located,” explains Michael Bargl.
In 2020, IDS also began equipping all 4,800 swap bodies with GPS solar modules. Coupled with the development of a new main route management system, this creates transparency regarding the arrival times of transports between IDS depots and to IDS hubs, allows valuable freight to be tracked securely and helps to optimize transport processes. This also includes real-time scheduling, downtime analyses and delay warnings.
This is particularly interesting for private recipients. In future, they will receive an e-mail when their consignment is due for delivery in the morning. In addition, they will be informed online about all conceivable delays in the transportation process so that they no longer have to keep the previously announced delivery window free. This saves the recipient uncertainty and annoying inquiries about their consignment.
Further optimizations are in preparation for 2021.
Optimistic outlook
“Overall, we expect volumes in the B2C segment to continue to rise in the current financial year. However, we are also seeing an upward trend in B2B business. In the export segment, on the other hand, we continue to expect a rather subdued development – not least due to Brexit and swelling trade conflicts,” says Michael Bargl, explaining his expectations for 2021.
In the current financial year, IDS intends to press ahead with its digitalization projects, further increase the attractiveness of the network for drivers and develop more concrete responses to the energy transition.
