VOICES FROM THE SECTOR: TRANSPORT
How are new technologies impacting the automotive sector?
More people are booking via their smartphones instead of desktops. Everything must be digital, especially in the travel sector, where the uptake for online services and e-commerce is rapid. The industry needs to invest further in the digitalization of customer experience. In the future, all the different transportation options in the country will start to communicate with each other, creating opportunities for all actors to work together.
Which of the vehicles that Hertz offers see the highest demand?
About half of our fleet is in the economic segment, which is more or less a reflection of the overall car market. We have a high-quality fleet, with roughly one-third being German-made. We are witnessing a growth trend in higher-end cars from tourism markets in Latin America, the US, and Asia. We have some exclusive deals with, Jaguar Land Rover, and Fiat. On the motorcycle side, we have a project that was conceived in Portugal under the Hertz brand. We work with BMW for motorbikes to present customers with a premium experience that involves receiving an inclusive product with hotels, routes, and tour leaders. We have identified a niche opportunity and are expanding our concept to other countries such as France, Italy, and Spain.
What have been some of the milestones of ITS Portugal?
When we started operations in 2009, Portugal was the only European country without an ITS association. The association has since its beginning stated the need for multimodality and assured that the board has representatives from different transport modes as well as from industry and R&D. Initially, it was ANA Portugal for air transport, Infraestruturas de Portugal for rail transport, BRISA for road transport, EFACEC for industry, and INESCTEC for R&D. Later, we added Lisbon Port for the maritime transport and Toyota Caetano Portugal for the automobile industry. Finally, we joined Logistema, representing logistics. Thereafter, we tried to grow the Portuguese ITS by managing different areas in terms of different modes and tackling issues we felt were important for the development of systems and the market, like urban mobility and cooperative systems.
What are the main growth areas in the transportation segment?
Portugal has seen significant growth in the past years and the significant development in the air and maritime sectors, as well as logistics for the transportation of goods. Moving forward, there will be a major change in the road systems because of cooperative systems and the rise of driverless vehicles.
What are some of the company's milestones in Portugal?
When LPR started its operations 17 years ago, the pool pallet market was not that developed. Over the years, LPR has managed to change that and today, pallets are seen as important to the logistics and supply chain sector. On the back of this success, LPR has been growing by about 10% per annum. We started with less than 100,000 movements per year, and now we are registering more than 15 million movements a year.
What are the key growth areas in the Portuguese market?
For us, it is quite clearly the FMCG sector. Even during the economic crisis, we did not feel the effects because consumers moving from global brands to local ones still required LPR to supply the pallets. Later on, the economic recovery also led to a rise in consumption levels and subsequently, LPR has been growing as well.
What sets LPR apart from other companies in the logistics field?
We have two factors that differentiate us in the market. Quality is one of our distinguishing factors. For example, we only use solid wood for our pallets and not composite materials. The other factor is the service we provide, and this is about our people. This is why we have had a 98% staff retention rate over the last 17 years.
What have been the main milestones for Marship since its establishment in 2015?
Maratlas started to grow mainly as a dry cargo broker. We established ourselves as a Portuguese broker mainly working and concentrating on Portuguese charterers. I started with one client, and by the time we joined forces with Ership, we had 47. I saw the joint venture with Ership as a chance to do something new in Portugal: a ship broker that works on dry cargo, tankers, bunkers and project cargos, and S&P. Partnering with a century-old company gave us strength and support. We now have insurance worth EUR3.5 billion, maritime lawyers, a huge technical department, and membership in BIMCO.
Could you tell us about your clients?
We are working with Thorco, a vessel owner, to develop a segment in Portugal that we were not getting into much: projects and parcels cargo. We signed an agreement with Thorco's Spain office for the next three years to look at how we can develop in this segment in Portugal.
What are your goals and priorities for 2019?
The main goals are to establish a national broker with international reputation, where we are strong in all the commercial areas of shipping, develop the company in a way that meets our clients' needs, and provide a tailored service to the client.
VOICES FROM THE SECTOR: TRANSPORT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Focus: Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries
Making an Impact
Established in 1996, the Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries (CPLP) is a mechanism geared at linking and sharing the experience of Lusophone countries. Besides Portugal, this includes Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
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Don’t Mind the Disruption
Having won the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, Lisbon hosted the 2018 event. The relevance? Well, the contest began back in 1956 as a showcase not only of song, but of then-nascent live television broadcast technology. Today, Portugal is on the cutting edge of new technological developments.
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João Pedro Soeiro de Matos Fernandes , Minister , Environment and Energy Transition
The Ministry for the Environment and Energy Transition is focusing on decarbonizing the economy, valuing the territory and its habitats, and striving for a more circular use of the country's resources.
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António Braz Costa , General Manager, Portuguese Technological Centre for the Textile & Clothing Industries (CITEVE)
CITEVE has transformed the industry by promoting value addition, adopting the latest technologies, and ensuring the highest standards of environmental sustainability.
read articleFocus: New airport
Right Time to Seize Missed Opportunities
Portugal has seen its air traffic figures increase by as much as 80% in the last five years. As a result, its transportation infrastructure, and Lisbon's airport in particular, cannot cope with the rising numbers. A new airport project that will turn a military base into a commercial airport is now under discussion to bring much-needed relief to air traffic.
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Germano de Sousa , President, Grupo Germano de Sousa
Grupo Germano de Sousa's success can best be summed up by its understanding that science and medicine only really progress when technological development is combined with a deeper respect for human values and professional ethics.
read articleInterview
Isabel Capeloa Gil , Rector, Universidade Católica
Having pioneered the introduction of multiple subject areas to Portugal's tertiary education scene, Universidade Católica is aspiring to establish the country's first private medical school and introduce cutting-edge digital transformation.
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Carlos Guillén Gestoso , President, Escola Universitária de Ciências Empresariais, Saúde, Tecnologias e Engenharia & President, Atlantica University
Atlantica University differentiates through its company-university model and an MBA program in partnership with the University of California, Berkley, among other initiatives, to produce practical theoreticians.
read articleFocus: Public teaching staff
An Age-old Problem
Over a decade of austerity measures combined with an ageing population have seen the average age of the Portuguese public teaching staff progressively climb to one of the highest in the OECD. With frozen salaries, an extended retirement age, and precarious working conditions, today the sector faces one of its biggest challenge yet.
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Pedro Queiroz , General Manager, Federation of the Portuguese Agri-Food Industry (FIPA)
Portugal's economic recovery has seen its F&B sector emerge with annual turnovers of EUR16 billion, thanks to FIPA's undeterred focus on stable policies, excellent nutrition standards, and sustainability.
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