R E G I O N A L FOCUS GROSPIRON PRESIDENT JEAN-LUC HADDAD Our clients have a strong appetite for extra VIP services and look ready to pay the price CEDRIC ZIBI , INTERNATIONAL MANAGER OF NEER SERVICE protocol for protecting our team and customers, he said. Measures included temperature and bloodoxygen checks, a thorough daily cleaning of trucks and moving equipment, and advising customers on social distancing. William Ben Loulou, CEO of 2Sage Alba, says COVID has had a real economic impact. At present, international activity has not recovered as it should, he adds. Rising freight prices are not helping. Bruno Level, partner and international sales manager at All World Transport (AWT), says COVID put company business on hold for two months last year. When activity resumed, we put in place health rules and barriers to protect staff and customers, he says. The pandemic also stimulated demand for remote surveys. Current technologies allow for better use of video. This avoids trips by our sales representatives and has a concrete impact on reducing CO2 pollution. Despite the upheaval, one upside of COVID was that FIDI members could tweak their daily operations. We allowed employees to work at home and that helped us build up robust remote team management, says Laurent Giraud, regional managing director of Gosselin. We also used the time to catch up on training. It is, he adds, amazing how Gosselin has rebounded in 2021. Because everything was put on hold, there has been a massive release (of business). It is all the more galling, then, for the industry to find itself now facing an intensifying driver shortage. For AGS, dealing with this entails a multipronged approach. We have a panel of agents/subcontractors, plus our in-house fleet, and a coordination centre to ensure we optimise all our trucks, says Sophie Lucas, the firms managing director in France. We also encourage staff to obtain their heavy truck driving licence. Grospiron has increased salaries and training. It also strives to make employees happy and feel important. But the problem in attracting younger drivers is that it isnt very exciting for them, company president JeanLuc Haddad admits. Gosselin faces different issues, as the firm doesnt employ drivers or own trucks. Freight forwarders have supplied us, but prices are rising and fewer drivers are available, says Giraud. We have seen a lot of Polish drivers set up their own transport companies. Some have switched to superlight vehicles and the last-mile delivery model. Alzraa says drivers pose a complex problem to the industry. You need to target the perfect profile, he says. The individual needs to be a truck driver, a potential mover-packer, and crew leader, because door-to-door VIP moves are our speciality. But were challenged by logistics companies they pay more than the moving industry for less physical effort. Our strategy is to identify movers with potential, passion for the job, and the desire to evolve in our company. With sta shortages aecting some French movers, AGS ensures it maximises use of its resources Grospiron aims to attract sta with increased salaries and training opportunities 42 FF304 Dec_Jan 22 pp40-49 Regional Focus France.indd 42 WW W. F I D I FOC U S . OR G 07/12/2021 16:41