Tvis Vognmandsforretning A/S is located in Aulum in West Jutland, approximately 5 km south of Holstebro. The company has just under 20 employees and specialises in transport and setting up of stair towers, glass sections and other pre-fabricated items at construction sites in Denmark and in some parts of Europe.
Competition in the haulage contractor business both from Danish and foreign transport companies is fierce.
Development of competences
One of the focus areas of FORCE Technology is to help small and medium-sized companies retain their position in the market. Through knowledge transfer and development of skills we try to ensure company competitiveness internationally.
In 2003, a network consisting of companies, trade organisations and knowledge institutes was established called The Danish Transport Academy. The purpose of the network is to provide the transport industry with competence development. FORCE Technology has managed a project where 13 small and medium-sized transport companies had a unique opportunity to strengthen their competences.
The subjects included in the competence development process were partly an introduction where the companies participated in defining the contents of the development process, partly sales and marketing, IT, staff development, education and training, self analysis and benchmarking, accounting, logistics and traffic safety, environment and health and safety at work.
The success continues
Initially, the network project was supposed to run for a period of 30 months until the beginning of 2005, but as the participating companies wanted to continue exchanging experience and developing skills, it only seemed natural to use this opportunity to start a new competence process to improve knowledge of sales techniques, customer service and claims procedures. This project started in 2006.
From Tvis Vognmandsforretning A/S both Ove Nordskov Jensen, the Managing Director and owner, and Morten Bang, Forwarding Agent, participated in the network.
Managing Director Ove Nordskov Jensen has especially gained benefit from working with strategic planning, further development of employee competences and with calculations.
See the grand picture
”Time after time, it turns out that only very few companies know precisely where they earn their money and on what. Naturally, there is always focus on earnings, but through a targeted analysis of the distribution of earnings versus costs, it becomes evident what really contributes to steering the company in a positive direction”, says Ove Nordskov Jensen.
He continues: ”The result is that the company now makes a targeted effort to structure daily operation and to adjust pricing to customer demand to an even greater extent than before. And we can now maintain the vision planned for the years to come while continuously being able to see the consequences of decisions made every day.”
Good co-operation
”Co-operation with FORCE Technology and the other transport companies has been good. Lectures and assignments were planned so that they could be related to our own companies. They were not high-flown, but in a language that all the participants could understand. New knowledge has been integrated and is used extensively in our own company. The fact that we contributed to deciding what to include has resulted in the comprehensive, professional contents being most interesting”, concludes Ove Nordskov Jensen.
FORCE Technology is planning creation of further networks within other industries, e.g. the food industry. If you are interested, you are welcome to contact us to hear whether we have planned specific networks within your industry.
