Dr. Tobias Burger becomes COO Air & Sea Logistics at DACHSER
Focus on growth in global markets and integrated groupage transport
Since the turn of the year, Dr. Tobias Burger (46) has been the new Chief Operations Officer (COO) Air & Sea Logistics and a member of the Executive Board at logistics provider DACHSER. The former Deputy Director Air & Sea Logistics replaces Edoardo Podestà (61), who has retired from active professional life after a career at DACHSER spanning more than 20 years, the last four of which he spent leading the air and sea freight business.
Since the turn of the year, Dr. Tobias Burger (46) has been the new Chief Operations Officer (COO) Air & Sea Logistics and a member of the Executive Board at logistics provider DACHSER.
"The thoroughly prepared handover at the top of the Air & Sea Logistics business field reflects the targeted and long-term oriented further development of our intercontinental network," explains Bernhard Simon, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at DACHSER. "Edoardo Podestà has built up our Asian business since 2003 and has made a significant contribution to the growth of our company over the past four years as COO Air & Sea Logistics. With Dr. Tobias Burger, we now have an experienced logistics strategist at the helm of our Air & Sea Logistics organization who has a deep and holistic understanding of the complex challenges facing the global logistics markets now and in the future."
The central task of Tobias Burger as COO Air & Sea Logistics is to drive DACHSER's growth in the global markets. “We are convinced that the main impetus for our future growth will come from our business in Asia and the Americas,” says Burkhard Eling, CEO of DACHSER. “By closely interlinking intercontinental transport with our efficient European overland transport network, we want to offer our customers a comprehensive solution for groupage services around the world. This Global Groupage offering, delivered by an integrated network with comprehensive contract logistics capabilities, definitely calls for a powerful air and sea freight organization with a global presence.”
This Global Groupage offering, delivered by an integrated network with comprehensive contract logistics capabilities, definitely calls for a powerful air and sea freight organization with a global presence.
Burkhard Eling, CEO of DACHSER
Burger holds a doctorate in business administration, and he began his career as a strategy consultant at Siemens Management Consulting. He joined DACHSER in 2009. After working in controlling and strategy development, he was given responsibility for Corporate Governance. At that time, he was already overseeing the strategic development of the global air and sea freight network. Burger was appointed Deputy Director Air & Sea Logistics in 2019, becoming Podestà’s right-hand man. During this time, he was initially global sales manager for the air and sea freight business. In 2021 and 2022, Burger led the ASL EMEA business unit’s operations as Managing Director with great success.
Edoardo Podestà: Two decades of growth and profitability for DACHSER ASL
Podestà concludes his successful career as a logistics manager by handing over the reins to Burger. An Italian who has lived in Hong Kong for many years, Podestà joined DACHSER in 2003 following its acquisition of a joint venture. As Managing Director, he was initially responsible for Greater China; as DACHSER’s Asian business grew, he soon took on responsibility for the entire Asia-Pacific business unit. Since 2019, he had also been at the helm of the global air and sea freight business as COO Air & Sea Logistics. “Against the backdrop of an extremely volatile market environment, he applied his depth of experience and his creativity to always chart a clear course for growth and profitability,” Eling says.
DACHSER is transferring its range of logistics services to the digital world. As a company-wide digitalization project, the DACHSER platform is a central building block for fundamentally redesigning the customer experience. At the transport logistic trade fair, customers and interested parties were given their first glimpse of the platform, which will be available to all DACHSER customers from 2024.
DACHSER Air & Sea Logistics aided efforts to repair a crane in Indonesia by organizing the tour of a steel jib from Düsseldorf to Jakarta. Measuring 23 meters in length and 3.6 meters in width, the jib spent most of its 55-day trip on board a ship.
APAC countries signed world's largest free trade agreement
On November 15, 2020, leaders from 15 Asia Pacific nations came to an agreement to form a free trade bloc under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The agreement is intended to facilitate trades among the member countries by removing tariffs and stimulate the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Main points at a glance:
RCEP is a free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region.
Fifteen countries signed the agreement including Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.
With the participation of the 15 countries, they have formed the world's largest free trade zone, covering about 30% of the world's population and nearly 30% of global GDP.
China’s presence notably increases the impact of the agreement and boosts the total GDP of the RCEP member countries.
India did not join the partnership over concerns that cheap import products might pose a harm to local producers.
The new free trade zone is bigger than the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and the European Union.
The RCEP will reduce taxes on most goods over a 20-year period, streamline customs procedures, regulates the field of intellectual property and digital trade and replace a number of bilateral trade agreements in the region with one set of rules.
Some benefits are expected to be seen in 2021 once participate nations complete their domestic ratification procedures.
What does it mean to the global supply chain?
The RCEP is expected to eliminate a range of tariffs and quotas on most of the goods traded within the region over a 20-year period.
The "rules of origin” may have the biggest impact. Under RCEP, parts from any member nation would be treated equally, this gives companies in RCEP member countries an incentive to look for supplier within the region.
Many of the RCEP member countries already have bilateral free trade agreements between each other, RCEP would streamline the various overlapping preferential terms. This reduces complexity and reduce costs for businesses.
China, Japan and South Korea are the traditional key players for electronics, automotive, textiles and garments industries, having them in the RCEP would ensure supply chain stability to ASEAN countries.
It gives an incentive for companies to look for supplier within the RCEP member countries, thereby laying the foundation for enabling an accelerated GDP growth within the region.
As RCEP will further fuel the ongoing manufacturing shifts within Asia, it not only affects companies within the member countries but is also relevant to any companies worldwide who have business in the region.
Feel free to reach out to us at dachser.apac-asl@dachser.com to know more about the new free trade agreement. Together we can review your current supply chain locations and identify steps to grasp the greatest benefits under the impact of RCEP.
DACHSER expands footprint with two new offices in South East Asia
International logistics service provider DACHSER today announced the openings of its two new offices in Chiang Mai, Thailand and Da Nang, Vietnam. The new offices further expand the company’s footprint and strengthen its position in the region to serve growing customer demands, especially from the electronics, and fashion and sports industries.