The paper was presented at the Polish Logistics Congress “Logistics 2004 – Logistics networks in the integrated European market”. Poznań, May 19-21, 2004.
The beginnings of modern logistics – needs after the Second World War
Modern logistics began during the Second World War, when deliveries of military equipment, such as tanks, aircraft, and road transport vehicles, arrived as part of American aid to the Allied nations fighting against Germany. These deliveries first had to be divided among the main countries: the UK, the USSR, and 14 smaller allies (including Poland), and secondly, logistically coordinated, i.e., providing various means of transport to many countries. It was then that cars, mainly small off-road vehicles – jeeps – and medium-payload trucks (up to 6.5 tons), began to be transported in large quantities using various modes of transport: road, sea, and to a lesser extent rail – mainly due to the destruction of the railway network in Europe.
After the war, thanks to the Marshall Plan, Western European countries quickly rebuilt their industrial potential. For example, Germany reached its pre-war economic level as early as 1950. Passenger car production developed significantly, which was caused by several factors: the conversion of military production to civilian, the continuation of pre-war model production, and the low price of popular cars, which had been available in the USA since the 1920s (Ford T). In general, the volume of mass-produced cars (e.g., the VW “Beetle” or Citroën 2CV) began to grow rapidly – the number of dealerships, gas stations, and service centers also increased just as quickly, which was rarely seen before the war. Dealers, located in city centers to be easily accessible to customers, generally did not have enough space to store cars. In turn, the transport of new cars was still in its “infancy” – no one except the army possessed, for example, specialized trailers or wagons for transporting passenger cars.
Factories began mass production of cars in the early 1950s. It soon turned out that there was no physical possibility of storing large quantities of finished cars in factory yards. Firstly, the development of dealer networks was slow, secondly, they did not have space for large numbers of cars, and thirdly, the demand for new cars began to exceed supply. When mass production in a two-shift assembly line system began, it turned out that there was a lack of space in the factory yards. “Logistics” companies began to emerge – initially small family businesses that often built car transport trailers themselves, much more often by converting old military platforms. With increasing volume, it turned out that the key problem was the ability to transport several new cars at once. This provided measurable savings in transporting several new cars to the same dealer. Specialized companies began to emerge, offering steel trailers with wooden decks for transporting 4-6 cars. Much later, double-deck trailers with rigid decks and a movable upper deck were created. In the UK, where different regulations regarding the height of transport vehicles apply, even triple-deck trailers were constructed.
The development of road transport was only a partial solution to the problem – for relatively short distances and low volumes. It was decided to use railway wagons to transport cars over longer distances. The matter was simple enough because the army had large quantities of wagons, so-called single-deck platforms, onto which cars could be easily loaded. Initially, cars were placed two side-by-side. It was not until the late 1950s that the construction of double-deck wagons began, which still run on European tracks today. As a rule, these were simple steel wagons with wooden decks, on which cars were secured using ropes or wooden blocks blocking the wheels and nailed to the wagon decks. No one thought then about the time required for loading or unloading vehicles. However, the wagons themselves were not enough. New models and brands of cars were appearing, the assembly line factories could not simply be stopped, and finished new cars had to be stored somewhere. Logistics companies were often “forced” to temporarily store new cars, and it was then, in the second half of the 1950s, that storage yards for new passenger and delivery cars began to be created. Large trucks were produced to order and did not require transit yards.
Development of logistics – the 1960s
At the beginning of the 1960s, national markets dominated the automotive industry: Germans drove German cars, the French drove French cars, Italians drove Italian cars, and imports concerned only luxury brands, i.e., niche ones. Factories, on the other hand, were doubling production – modern plants were built capable of producing even 80-100 cars a day (for comparison, FAP in Tychy produces over 1200 Pandas a day). A rail-road logistics model was developed, taking into account storage yards, i.e., collection from the factory, rail – storage yard – road transport to the dealer. Rail transport was very convenient for car factories – 100-150 cars were loaded at once, i.e., even one or two days’ production. The railways did not go on strike, mass production of specialized wagons began, a new type of car fastening on wagons was patented, and double-deck wagons became the standard. In turn, storage yards, located mainly near large cities, were quickly supplied with large quantities of cars. Therefore, special ramps were installed to facilitate car unloading, and new standards for quality control, transport insurance, etc., began to be introduced. Slowly, a modern model of rail-car logistics was established in Western Europe. Furthermore, national producers began to export their products to neighboring countries. Although national markets remained the main sales markets, subsequent, particularly successful car models began to be mass-exported – e.g., the Fiat 600.
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