"Not experienced in 40 years": A7 closure hits trucking companies hard

Created: 01/12/2023 10:44 am

By: Axel Schwarz, Kai Struthoff

The closure of the A7 costs haulage companies in northern Hesse time and money.

But how hard it hits the transport companies also depends on the location.

Kassel/Guxhagen/Bad Hersfeld - For transport companies, the extensive closure on the A7 motorway is a planning challenge that costs tight delivery times and money.

We asked around.

Ellen Kördel-Heinemann from Spedition Kördel in Guxhagen (Schwalm-Eder-Kreis) with five German branches calculates: More than an hour's travel time more on Germany's most important north-south connection, correspondingly higher fuel consumption and time expenditure, which is why other freight then has to wait – this is not without financial consequences, says the entrepreneur.

However, the hna.de report has not yet led to contractual penalties or other trouble with customers due to non-compliance with delivery times.

For many of the 150 trucks that are assigned to the North Hessian headquarters, the blocked section of the motorway is on their daily routes.

"We have the bottleneck practically on our doorstep," says Ellen Kördel-Heinemann, whose business is right on the A7 Guxhagen exit.

Accidents that result in road closures are part of everyday life for long-distance drivers, the freight forwarder knows.

But she has never experienced an incident like this, with these effects, in 40 years of work.

Special vehicles clean the roadway of Autobahn 7. © Swen Pförtner/dpa

A7 closure and the consequences: forwarding agency from northern Hesse fears for the image of the long-distance driver profession

Kördel-Heinemann does not want to speculate about possible causes and connections.

However, the incident shows "that we are all at high risk in the industry".

The freight forwarder is particularly concerned that the image of long-distance drivers, who are desperately wanted, will be dampened by the incident on the A7.

Jörg Höfer, managing director of Spedition Rettberg in Kassel, currently sees for himself every morning what his drivers have to deal with.

Höfer commutes from Scheden in southern Lower Saxony to Kassel: "It normally takes 25 minutes." On Wednesday, Höfer needed an hour and a quarter longer to get to work, and on Tuesday even two hours and 15 minutes more.

For the Rettberg trucks, “the return journeys from the north are relatively time-consuming,” says the head of the forwarding agency.

The blocked A7 section is on the route for a good half of the daily tours.

The company relies on the trucker skills of its drivers, who "already know alternative routes depending on the loading or delivery address," says Höfer.

Also affected by the blocking of the A7: the book wholesaler Libri in Bad Hersfeld.

© Robin Kemmsies/nh

A7 closure hits transport companies in northern Hesse - fewer problems in Kassel and Bad Hersfeld

According to dispatcher Dieter Pfennig, at Spedition Schmelz in Kassel, this affects around 10 to 15 of a total of 60 trucks that drive to the Bettenhausen site every day.

There are "some delays," reports Pfennig.

The time factor is the essence of the matter, which he takes calmly overall: "It's a bit annoying, but it's not the end of the world."

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There is a similar voice from the Amazon logistics center in Bad Hersfeld: "This has no noticeable effects on our employees because Göttingen is not their catchment area.

Otherwise, we work with experienced transport companies who are used to dealing with such situations.

Therefore, we do not expect any significant restrictions," says Amazon spokesman Thorsten Schwindhammer.

The book wholesaler Libri from Bad Hersfeld sees it differently: "Longer travel times also lead to late arrivals, of course, which is a very unpleasant situation for us," says Jörg Paul from the management.

Libri supplies almost all bookshops in Germany overnight from Bad Hersfeld.

"We try to drive around the closed motorway as far as possible, use additional vehicles and avoid rush hours, but this closure hits us hard." (Kai Struthoff/Axel Schwarz)