A high-level conference to be held in October in Berlin will provide a key forum for sharing objectives and techniques across the sector.
“The relationship between a particular carmaker and each of its logistics providers is of course private to them,” commented Costantino Baldissara, president of the European association of finished vehicle logistics providers, the ECG. “But there are important processes and channels common to all car delivery, and everyone can benefit by sharing the efficiencies and the reduced carbon impact that we can collectively deliver.”
The Berlin meeting will be held at the Radisson Blu hotel on Friday 15 October, and will be the latest of the annual series of ECG Conferences. As a part of strengthening the event’s value to both car companies and logistics providers, the ECG has appointed a specialist organiser to deliver the conference this year.
“I am pleased to announce that the 2010 ECG Conference will be arranged on our behalf by Automotive Logistics,” said Baldissara. Automotive Logistics magazine is the leading global publication in the sector, and has extensive experience of conference management through a series of annual events in Europe, Russia, China, India, North America and South America. “We intend to deliver an even more effective event for the automotive industry,” he added.
The ECG Conference will be ‘powered by’ Finished Vehicle Logistics magazine, a part of the Automotive Logistics portfolio, under a three-year agreement. “This year sees an exceptional opportunity for the finished vehicle sector as it recovers from the shocks of 08-09,” said Christopher Ludwig, Editor of the Automotive Logistics group. “We’ll be working hard to deliver an event which provides an even more valuable forum for OEMs and logistics providers to re-shape their collective future.”
Plans for the Berlin conference are well underway. Germany is Europe’s largest car market, and led the recovery in car sales with its subsidies for scrappage of small vehicles. The ECG conference has previously been held in locations which emphasise the breadth and size of Europe’s car market, including Rotterdam, Barcelona, Vienna and Istanbul.
For further information contact:
ECG Mike Sturgeon, Executive Director
Finished Vehicle Logistics Christopher Ludwig, Editor
About the ECG
European Carriers Group (ECG) represents more than 2/3rds of the European finished vehicles logistics industry. ECG members operate in the field of outbound logistics for the automotive sector, including quality control at the end of the assembly line, storage in special compounds, transport in all modalities – rail, road and se, de-waxing, pre-delivery inspections (PDI), customising, workshop activities and the refurbishing of former fleet vehicles
Established in 1997 in Brussels, ECG has 90 members from 24 countries. In 2008 they recorded an aggregate European turnover in excess of €15 billion, a part of their collective global turnover of around €40 billion. ECG members handle about 40 million cars per year with over 64,000 direct employees and up to 162,000 indirect people involved. Members operate about 20,000 trucks, 20,000 rail wagons, about 300 ships, 40 river barges, 460 compounds and over 140 port terminals, and are responsible for more than 58 million square metres of car parks and about one million square metres of workshops.