Over 41,000 visitors, up 35% on the last edition, with enormous satisfaction amongst the exhibiting companies, operators and top international buyers present. This is the situation at the close of Transpotec Logitec, Italy’s biggest transport and logistics exhibition organized by Fiera Milano.
The 406 exhibitors present (+23% compared to 2017) offered an extremely rich congress schedule, with over 70 events across the four day fair, taking stock of the market and its future developments, and confirming road transport and intermodal logistics as fundamental sectors for the development of the countrywide system as a whole.
Numerous international vehicle manufacturers chose Transpotec to present their vehicles and innovations to the market: MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Renault Trucks, Scania, Volvo Trucks and DAF for heavy vehicles, and Citroën, FIAT Professional, Ford, Isuzu, Opel, Peugeot, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, MAN and Mercedes-Benz for light vehicles.
Previews ranged from electric vans to alternative engines such as LNG, and limited edition proposals such as the truck dedicated to Leonardo Da Vinci’s five hundredth birthday. Advanced technological features in terms of sustainability and security, but also digital and electronic solutions for the management of transport and logistics were evident throughout the showcase, testifying to the level of innovation achieved by the industry.
Transpotec Logitec also offered an important opportunity for discussion on the major changes affecting the sector, focussing on the question of intermodality and the necessary synergy between logistics and road transport. The Italian market is facing many challenges, from internationalisation, given that 86% of Italian road haulage is on national routes, compared to European average of 65% (UNRAE data), to the rationalisation of goods management (40% of trucks travel empty, against a European average of 20%), and the development of European connecting infrastructures. In manifestation, these dynamics have been the subject of agreements and memorandums of understanding between companies, institutions and agencies in the sector, confirming Transpotec Logitec as a tool to enhance and expand the basic production processes around which logistics and transport rotate.
The four day event also saw a broad discussion on employment, with large numbers of students involved in awareness raising initiatives – in Italy alone, there are 15,000 vacancies in the road transport sector and in Europe there are 140.000 – but also vocational training because the required profiles are demanding increasingly specific technological skills, from meticulous knowledge of the form of transport in question, to the ability to prevent risk and to manage digital resources on board.
The weekend offered an opportunity to come together and explore the profession, witnessing the passion of sector operators, who brought with them 108 personalised and decorated vehicles from all over Italy.