Four Essential Values of a Successful Logistics Company

Ahlers Logistics is a family-owned business, a family of true entrepreneurs. The family passed on this entrepreneurship to employees since the company’s start. Our logistics workers on the shop floor who have the boots on the ground get a lot of autonomy to decide the processes they are responsible for. We are pragmatic like that. The people on the shop floor are closest to the fire. Sometimes a change is not successful, and that is ok. You can learn from mistakes.

Because we give our people autonomy, we can respond with agility and speed to changes in customer demand or unforeseen circumstances in the logistics process. Our people are empowered to do the right thing: the right thing for our customers, the right thing for the world ( in terms of social responsibility and sustainability), and the right thing for our company.

“Do as we say and say as we do” is one of our most essential sayings. We ask our people for commitment, and we are also committed to our people. We trust them to do the right thing, which is why we give them the autonomy I already spoke about. They know they can do what is needed for us to fulfill our commitments to our customers.

This is a new way of working in the regions we mainly operate in, like Russia and the CIS countries. Russia is more hierarchical, so our Russian employees are more self-sufficient and self-starting than employees in local companies. It sets us apart from similar employers in the region, and we have managed to create a strong self-starting team that does everything they can to keep our promises to our customers.

Not only do our teams collaborate closely together. We see collaboration with our customers as key to both our success. Through continuous improvement insights and close collaboration with our customers, we enable them to achieve the desired results. Where others stop, we continue.

Our services aren’t standard but designed together with our customers.

We constantly evolve and innovate our processes. Close collaboration is key whenever there is change, as everybody on the team needs to be on board.

Ahlers has four different business units, but it doesn’t feel like that at all. The units work together as one. Customers are shared or handed over to other business units if there is a better fit there. The business development of the different Business Units works in close collaboration as well. We work for each other, and not in competition.

Ahlers is not a company of many layers, but through all layers one thing is key: we act with integrity and treat everybody with respect. We communicate openly and honestly with our customers, but above all with our employees. We invest a lot in communication. We hold many town hall meetings, where we talk to and with the whole staff, there are regular team meetings on different levels, where we can share what matters to the company, and our employees can share what matters to them. In these times where physical meetings are not always possible, town halls are hybrid, and we have developed a lot of video material to reach everybody. All these meetings take up a lot of time, but we see that as an important investment in our people. We talk about our financials and our strategy with everybody from our directors to the people on the shop floor, in a way they understand. We talk about what we do, and why we do it.