00:00It's probably the largest industry that you don't really know that much about.
00:03Road freight still carries the vast majority of what we all consume on a daily basis.
00:08There's a lot more efficiency that you can eke out of the market.
00:17Hello and welcome to this episode of The Big Question,
00:21a series from Euronews where we speak to some of the most influential people in the world of business.
00:26I'm Angela Barnes and today I'm joined by Lyle Creswell,
00:30the founder and CEO of the Transport Exchange Group, otherwise known as TEG.
00:35Lyle, it's a pleasure to have you with us on the show.
00:38Thanks, it's great to be here.
00:39Thank you. Well, first of all, tell us more about what you do at TEG.
00:43We've started this platform at TEG some 26 years ago.
00:47We're a business-to-business or B2B platform serving the transport and logistics industry.
00:52Road freight still carries the vast majority of what we all consume on a daily basis
00:58and our platform then supports the whole of the workflow
01:02right the way through to things that you're probably familiar with,
01:05the tracking, the proof of delivery and also in our platform,
01:09the invoice and the settlement of the payment as well.
01:12So we support that whole life cycle.
01:20The truck driver shortage in 2025, 444,000 unfilled driver positions.
01:27That's nearly doubling from 2024.
01:30That's really quite severe.
01:32How concerned should Europe be?
01:34The driver workforce, unfortunately, is ageing very substantially.
01:39I read that nearly 50%, for example, of German shuttle drivers are over the age of 55.
01:45But this is, you know, it's following the trend that you probably see in many other industries as well.
01:49The traditional long-haul road freight in Europe meant that drivers would be away for days,
01:56if not sometimes weeks, from their home base.
01:58So you can imagine it doesn't appeal to everybody.
02:01Obviously, Germany sits at the centre of Europe's freight network.
02:05If road transport and the lack of drivers become so serious,
02:10how quickly would that economic impact spread, do you think, across Europe?
02:14Yes, it's a serious problem. There's no doubt about it.
02:16I think the marketplace actually adapts.
02:19And if I talk about TG for a moment here,
02:23one of our kind of, you know, raison d'etre has been from the very start,
02:28has been how we can actually do more with the same capacity.
02:32Because as, you know, something like road freight becomes increasingly difficult to perform,
02:36and whatever the reason, whether it's the fuel prices or driver shortage,
02:40what we do, obviously, is make it easier and more friction-free
02:43to actually transact and to find that capacity.
02:47So, you know, we've always thought that actually there's a lot more efficiency
02:50that you can eke out of the market at the same time.
02:54And now that EU also, Lyle, has targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for all transport,
03:00I've got here that heavy-duty vehicles currently make up about 6% of the EU's total emissions,
03:06and the FIT for 55 legislation is mandating a 45% reduction by 2030.
03:12So, does this seem feasible, in your view?
03:15So, it's fascinating to see the electrification of the industry.
03:21It's changing. I mean, people's perspectives change pretty frequently on that.
03:26There are now certainly alternatives available within the marketplace.
03:30They're just gradually starting to roll these out.
03:33In fact, on the way to the studio this morning,
03:35I saw a truck and trailer that was 100% electric.
03:40There is a trade-off, just as with passenger cars,
03:44but especially keenly felt in the trucking industry,
03:48which is, of course, the battery itself is very heavy.
03:51And that means that you have a slightly reduced payload
03:56because you're carrying the battery around.
03:59Of course.
03:59Which, obviously, if you're trying to fill up a truck,
04:02means that you potentially have fewer paid kilos or tonnage that you're carrying.
04:08The infrastructure, is it in place to support further electrification?
04:12One of the other things which, if you weren't in the industry,
04:16you wouldn't be aware of is that a lot of the smaller businesses
04:19buy in the second-hand market.
04:21If you're only just buying a new electric truck today,
04:24it's probably going to take six, seven, eight years
04:27for that to work its way down into the second-hand market.
04:30And the other issue is what's going to be the resale value of that anyway
04:34in five, six, seven years' time.
04:36The industry is under a lot of pressure from every angle.
04:40What's the biggest challenge right now, would you say?
04:43Right now, I would have to say that it's, obviously,
04:47just as we speak now, is fuel prices.
04:50So fuel represents approximately 30% of the cost of a transport company.
04:55Okay. So let me explain that the market actually generally tends to sit in two different areas.
05:03So you can have contract logistics, but there's also a huge spot market,
05:08like spot markets in any other commodity.
05:10Yes.
05:12Generally speaking, businesses in the contract market will have a fuel escalator built into that.
05:17That's not the perfect panacea for that because, obviously, you've still got to pay for fuel
05:22ahead of when you get paid for your work carried out.
05:25So you've got cash flow issues there.
05:27But in the spot market, of course, it's totally about supply and demand on any given route.
05:31So it's very difficult to price, really, at the moment, given the volatility.
05:36Oh, incredibly, incredibly difficult.
05:38They've got to take some kind of bet.
05:40They hedge their risk as well.
05:42But it's a continual adjustment, I guess, every single day.
05:46I can imagine.
05:48And we often hear as well that European businesses are being squeezed by weak investment,
05:54tight financing.
05:55So do industries like logistics sometimes, do you think, get overlooked despite how essential it is?
06:02Yes, and it's a huge problem, really.
06:05I guess one of our missions over the past quarter of a century has actually been to raise the profile
06:09of the industry
06:10because it's probably the largest industry that you don't really know that much about, I think it's fair to say.
06:16True.
06:17We are often concerned when stocks run out on the shelves, aren't we,
06:21rather than sort of what else is going on behind the scenes.
06:24So given that, what one change would you most like to see from governments or regulators
06:31to try and improve investment in the industry?
06:35I'd like to see them actually have a better and a deeper understanding of the challenges
06:39that the businesses that we serve face on a daily basis.
06:44As you say, one of the problems is that nobody really outside of the industry pays too much attention to
06:51it
06:51until there's a shortage of something.
06:54So raising the profile of the industry and actually understanding its importance,
06:58I think, is the best thing that we could see there.
07:01From a TG perspective, I'd like to see better regulation on payment terms within the industry.
07:11It's all too easy for, you know, especially very, very large businesses to extend payment terms to suppliers.
07:18And that's a problem for the businesses because they're operating on such tight margins.
07:23The fuel price, I mean, is a given.
07:26But who can influence that?
07:28There's no single government can influence that at all.
07:31There have been so many kind of initiatives over the years.
07:35But some of those things, I mean, as we've talked about, such as the driver shortage,
07:40are quite difficult to adjust simply because it's a structural problem.
07:43Well, Lyle Creswell, it's been a pleasure to speak to you.
07:46Thank you very much for sharing your insights with us on The Big Question.
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