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.
Major airports are still facing bottlenecks in cargo handling. Airlines have to reduce freighter capacities for urgent maintenance, while the market strives for additional capacities around the globe.
Congested Airport Situation
At world's major airports, high freight volumes are currently seen. The reason is that more and more airlines are bundling flights at hub airports. The same applies to forwarders who are increasingly consolidating their activities.
In addition, the number of passenger freighter so called ‘PREIGHTERs’ is increasing every week. For these flights, the loading and unloading process is much more time-consuming due to the sometimes loose packaging. This affects all ground handling (trucking, on-/offloading, palletizing) processes at large airports around the globe.
Global Capacity Situation
The already mentioned global cargo situation and the continuing high demand for capacity have a significant impact on the yield of the major trade lanes, which is stable on a high level. Furthermore, access to capacity at adequate price levels is almost impossible.
Necessary to allude here is that in the next few weeks a decline of freighter activities will become visible in the market, as many of the already obsolete aircrafts are in urgent need of a maintenance C or even D check. Inevitably, this will lead to less capacity in the market, higher demand and therefore higher costs.
With the passenger freighters, the forwarders are trying to counteract this bottleneck. However, the number of available aircrafts has also reached its limits now.
Oil Price Development
Another important topic is the development of the oil price. In the second quarter of 2020, the oil price was at a low of 17,54 USD, in February 2021, it is at 64,17 USD. The price has almost tripled. The high oil price has a direct impact on the fuel surcharges of the commercial airlines and, for example, also on the cost structure in the charter contracts of DACHSER’s dedicated flight activities.
The cost structure is tied to the development of the global oil price. Therefore, the development of the global oil price becomes an everyday topic.
Read the PDF below for the current Global Capacity Situation and Oil Price Development.
In case you need any additional information related to DACHSER’S air freight services and the current market development, please do not hesitate and contact your local DACHSER contact.
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"DACHSER places significant importance on the rapidly growing Asia-Pacific region"
CEO Burkhard Eling and Roman Müller, Managing Director DACHSER ASL APAC, gave an interview to the Thai magazine "Thansettakij". They spoke about the importance of the Asia-Pacific region for DACHSER, the key trends that will determine the future of logistics, and how DACHSER, as a European company, intends to tap into global markets.
Read the full article “Dachser Supports Thailand as a "Regional Logistics Hub," Highlighting Transformative Technology” (Thansettakij, 23 July 2024) here: