Ahola transport
Committed to drivers' welfare
Finnish-based Ahola Transport, part of Ahola Group, is a long-time extensive provider of both outbound and inbound transports to Scania, including trucks, truck chassis and spare parts, as well as materials used in Scania products.
The family-owned business has a strong commitment to both environmental and social responsibility, with a particular focus on the near-500 drivers who drive the company’s trucks around the Nordics, Baltic Region and Central Europe.
“We do a lot of work with driver welfare because we know how important they are to our business, especially in this time of widespread driver shortages. Although the majority of them are employed by our sub-contractors we treat those drivers as our own,” says Åke Nyblom, Ahola Transport’s Managing Director.
“We carry out annual surveys of our drivers and in response to their requests we built a special driver facilities area at our main Finnish transport hub in Naantali, which we call Trucker’s Village. It has social facilities such as toilets and showers, a laundry, outdoor gym, barber shop, and even an area where they can barbecue food. It’s a major investment in driver welfare and it has been very well received.”
Scania's demands "raise our performance levels"
The haulier’s other driver-centred activities include a Green Wheels index, through which its drivers can monitor in real time their performance against metrics such as speeds, idling time, braking and fuel consumption, with prizes for the best ‘eco driving’. And in recognition of its international presence, Ahola also provides transport planners who speak the native languages of the drivers. “We want to ensure they can get all the help they need on the road to perform as well as they can,” says Åke Nyblom.
Ahola Transport’s like-minded approach to environmental and social sustainability mean that it has responded well to Scania’s Sustainability and Quality audits.
“Scania has helped us to raise the levels of our reporting and the standards of our policies,” says Jesper Lönnbäck, the Key Account Manager at Ahola with responsibility for Scania.
“We see that Scania asks a lot, but that they are also auditing us to ensure we meet the requirements. They are demanding, but it raises our performance levels, so we see these as good demands that make us even better.”
