Mercedes ServiceCard: Nothing and nobody ever stands still at the transport company Spedition Benzinger in Baden–Württemberg

Service

Dynamic!

Almost all the drivers of the forwarding agency Spedition Benzinger carry the Mercedes ServiceCard on board. It is one fixture in an operation that is constantly on the move.

Long-standing cooperative venture. Entrepreneur Alexander Benzinger (centre) with his advisors Jürgen Flüggen, sales manager for Mercedes ServiceCard (left), and Kay Otte, Key Account Manager UTA.

A permanent fixture on Germany’s long-distance roads and beyond: the trucks of the Baden-Württemberg freight forwarder Spedition Benzinger. “We operate 360 trucks of our own and every day we dispatch a total of just under 400 vehicles from here,” says general manager Alexander Benzinger, speaking to us at the company headquarters in Friolzheim.

Just prior to this interview, one of the trucks is being loaded with metal profiles here in Friolzheim: at a company that manufactures equipment for parking garages. “Transporting of construction materials such as these is one of our core activities,” says the entrepreneur. Others are container trucking to and from railway terminals and river ports. As are car transport runs, of both new cars and prototypes. Logistics services are another string to their bow. For example, Benzinger handles the dispatch for the car parking systems manufacturer. “We pick the goods from the high rack warehouse.”

The trucks in their dark-red livery are on the road in many European countries. Benzinger has branches in Poland, Spain and France, where around 60 of the total staff of 700 look after customers. There are up to 30 deliveries a week to Majorca. The freight ranges from furniture for private customers all the way through to sausages for the large restaurants in El Arenal.

Most of the company’s own trucks bear the star. Using the Mercedes ServiceCard for these trucks is an obvious choice. “The decisive factor for that decision was the option of using them as a kind of collateral in Mercedes workshops where we are not registered,” says Tobias Karcher, the company’s Technical Manager. “It means that in the event of a breakdown, the truck will be back on the road again quickly.”

Additional services have already been used for a long time, including the diesel service for cash-free refuelling at over 50,000 service stations throughout Europe, and the option of controlling refuelling costs using software provided by the Mercedes ServiceCard partner UTA. Benzinger also values the administrative support with the refund of VAT and fuel tax. “The overall package of services has since become a decisive advantage for us.”

The versatile card is a permanent element in an operation where things are constantly on the move. Established in 1971 by Benzinger’s uncle Rolf, the business started out with just a tipper and a car transporter – and it has been growing steadily ever since. “In our business many things can happen very quickly. These days a major tender could come in at any time,” says Benzinger. Recent years in particular have brought enormous growth and many new customers.

What is important in this context is that a job must not only be profitable: it will only be accepted if there is sufficient capacity to do it with the customary quality. The bar is set high, because most orders concern transport jobs with fixed delivery dates. “We deal with construction crews that rely on receiving their materials, with container ramps where specific slots are blocked, and with engineers who do not want to wait for their test vehicles to be delivered,” explains Alexander Benzinger. “Which means reliability is the be-all and end-all.”