by David Couliau

Giant potential

Despite the sunny weather and endless blue skies, Greece faces major challenges.

In Katerini, Savvidis manages Savvidis Transport International, a family business, founded by his father and where he works with his brother. Although they only own 15 trucks, a small fleet by European standards, this is considered to be a big company in Greece. Most transport businesses have no more than two trucks.

This is puzzling at first because Greece seems to have so much potential. Full of giant cranes and containers, Piraeus is one of the Mediterranean’s biggest ports. Along with tourism, transport is one of the nation’s two largest industries due to its strategic location in Europe.

Tough challenges

The problems stem from the fallout of the economic crisis, when the country went bankrupt. Since then, it’s been almost impossible for the industry to make investments and grow because banks are afraid to lend and there are increasing regulatory burdens. This is truly a shame, because in contrast to many of its neighbouring countries, its road infrastructure, highways and rest areas are modern. 

The country has also shown leadership in pushing ahead with e-CMR – the digital consignment note – hosting a national pilot transport last year and putting the focus on the Balkan region for innovation in logistics operations.

Although the challenges on the ground are extremely frustrating for entrepreneurs like Savvidis, he remains proud of his job and hopeful that things will get better.