December is the month to pause and look back on the past year. Same with us.
Due to Corona and the conflict in Eastern Europe, we at OCS look back on some challenges that both brought good things and had worrying consequences.
Of course, the sanctions imposed against Russia were initially worrying for us. These meant that the number of transports that we have made to Russia so far have decreased slightly. But they have not completely dried up, because we continue to transport goods that are not sanctioned to the satisfaction of our customers and requests for these transports have increased significantly.
Corona imposed quarantine and distance rules on us for the second year. Home office also means distance from colleagues who otherwise meet in the office. So it was a little more difficult to get to know your colleagues when you started here at OCS. But thanks to rotating attendance and regular meetings via video call, this has recently been an easy hurdle to overcome. We strengthened solidarity with joint activities in spring, summer and autumn. In addition to the highlight of our barbecue event, we made ourselves comfortable over lunch together with homemade hot dogs or pumpkin soup.
Rituals in the OCS shipping company
In addition to new rituals such as video calls, we stuck to old habits. These are mainly colleagues’ birthdays. In the first year, OCS Spedition employees receive a picture frame with Playmobil figures that accurately describe the birthday child. This is done using quotes, endearing qualities or even peculiarities that represent the colleague as unique within the company. These picture frames hang in the stairwell of the office building and immediately catch the eye of every visitor. The gifts for the employee are lovingly put together and after the first year of employment, the birthday present is always a creative surprise for everyone.
Celebrating birthdays not only means receiving gifts, but also eating the cake that comes with them. In most cases it is the butter cake that sells like crazy. But hardly anyone spurns a Black Forest cake or a hearty breakfast with antipasti and birthdays are not the only reason for butter cake. Every holiday start and every anniversary means that the office smells like cake. A sales record was celebrated internally just as much as the 40,000th invoice issued. We celebrate anniversaries such as long-term collaboration with our customers.
Highlights of the year
A barbecue event took place on October 23rd. at Café 31 in Bremen. All colleagues enjoyed a four-course meal, although no one counted the numerous courses in between. We grilled as much as we could. The rustic “Viking variant”, also known as “Caveman style”, was completely impressive. Here the grilled food lies directly on the hot coals, as our moderator Sven explained. The chef and meat lover amazed even experienced grillers with his new and unusual recipes. His easygoing and relaxed approach gave us delicious food and a wonderful evening with lots of laughter. At this point, many thanks again to you, Sven and your colleagues.
Our Christmas party, which took place on December 10th, 2022, is of course mandatory. Our customers were supposed to celebrate with us this year and were therefore given a small present for Christmas. Like every year, it was a great pleasure to organize everything in advance and pack it lovingly. We personally delivered some of the little things to our customers. In addition, with our Christmas campaign we supported the work of non-profit organizations such as “Doctors Without Borders” and the “Martinshof” in Bremen. Our Advent campaign also raised donations of chickens, bees and trees on behalf of our customers.
Facts of the work
In addition to the events and all the partying, work shouldn't be neglected. Strengthened and with a great team behind us, we mastered every challenge with flying colors. For example, we are pleased about three new colleagues who will strengthen the existing team and about new talent from another colleague. Our female quota of over 40% is impressive.
The new colleagues are:
Kathleen Bohlmann, who supports us in sales
Kerstin Lange-Richter brings project management to the team
Michelle Schubert started her training with us, which she will probably report on in a blog post. Stay tuned for it!
We would like to once again congratulate our colleague Sabine Grudziak on her offspring. She is still on parental leave.
The OCS forwarding company in numbers:
Our team includes 15 employees and a few four-legged friends – also known as office dogs. These lovely employees in particular lighten up our everyday working lives and always put a smile on our faces. Some dogs even managed to brighten up meetings with a serious character and make everyone involved laugh with a grumbling, yawning or even barking comment at the appropriate point.
6,286 transports carried out with around 1.5 million tonnes of goods transported complete the picture. We also welcomed 128 new customers. To do this, we traveled many kilometers and across many national borders.
Outlook for the future
The end of the year is not only suitable for looking back, but also invites you to plan new projects for the coming year. As a logistics company, we are aware of our responsibility for environmental protection and wholeheartedly support projects and companies that are committed to sustainability and climate protection. We want to continue to implement this and have various projects planned or already started.
For example, our customers will be happy to receive a small gift again in the spring because we have decided to push climate protection even further. We actively encourage the support of our customers by providing seeds that make the world a little greener. Visiting customers by bike remains at the top of the plan so that our CO₂ footprint remains as small as possible.
As always, we wrap all of our gifts lovingly by hand and avoid mass production. The choice of our gifts always serves a purpose, be it sustainability, environmental awareness or simply a good working atmosphere, which we want to promote with our attention.
In addition, we base our sustainability claim on more than just environmental protection. We provide continuous training and will create another position for a trainee (m/f/d) next year. In times of impending shortage of skilled workers, training is the method of choice to remedy the situation. Our trainees are so comprehensively qualified that every colleague is happy when the trained specialist decides to join their own department and stays with OCS.
Expanding our customer base and strengthening existing partnerships are of course also among our goals for the next year. For this purpose, we also make our small but excellent warehouse available to customers. We offer short interim storage on approx. 500 m² when the customer warehouse is overflowing. Customers who are setting up a new business and do not yet have any storage capacity are happy about long-term storage. The goods can be stored both in blocks and on shelves. We have an open space of approx. 100 m² available for weather-resistant goods, which is well suited.
The last project mentioned here is the modernization of our office. It is important to adapt workplaces to changing working conditions. We will create spaces in which colleagues can think through and discuss new ideas in a pleasant, calm atmosphere. The home office loses its compulsory character and represents the opportunity to create the best conditions for yourself in order to convince our customers with new concepts and to pursue innovative approaches.
Sustainability, health and environmental protection are at the forefront of the redesign because this is a matter close to our hearts. The status of each colleague is extremely important, so the opinion of employees plays an important role in the new configuration of the office. Because only people who feel good can think outside the box with a clear mind.
We are all very excited about the new year, are looking forward to #frictionlesslogistics , to perhaps being able to process your request and until then we wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and all of us much success, health and happiness 2023.
