Where customer centricity transcends borders

It’s 6.30 a.m. on a winter’s morning in Aldingen, Baden-Württemberg, and only a few cars are on the roads. Some passers-by wander along the icy streets, and some shops already have their lights on. While the rest of the world is waking up, the industrial estate has already reached operating temperature. The front door to Swiss Post Cargo’s reception desk opens every 30 seconds, truck drivers entering and waiting to have their papers checked – with varying degrees of patience – before they can carry on.

With a big smile and in good spirits, Francisc Szobo walks up to the counter. The 58-year-old truck driver is receiving his latest instructions for the day from his leader. After that, he’s on his way: getting pallets ready, loading goods, securing cargo for transport – and off he goes.

Aldingen is about 50 kilometres from the Swiss border. Southern Germany is an important economic area for many Swiss SMEs, and as a result the region is also important for Swiss Post’s goods logistics. With its acquisitions in Southern Germany, Swiss Post is taking note of this fact. “The increases in the flows of goods we’re seeing, especially through online retail, are not focused on national borders, but on customers and production sites,” says Roland Heizman, Head of Goods Logistics at Swiss Post. “That’s why we’re expanding our range of logistics, transport and customs clearance services for our business customers.”

One of these foreign acquisitions is an Aldingen-based forwarding company, currently operating since March as Swiss Post Cargo DE GmbH with around 200 employees. By the end of 2027, Swiss Post will consolidate all its subsidiaries and competencies in goods logistics into a strong, integrated company under the new market presence Swiss Post Cargo.

For Francisc Szobo, employed with the company for two years, little has changed in his daily work. manoeuvring pallet trucks, securing materials for transport, checking trucks: for an experienced professional, every move is perfect. Francisc, originally from Romania, has been driving trucks for over 35 years. “I used to drive all over continental Europe. I also worked for a year as a truck driver in the USA”, says Szobo. He found it difficult to get used to driving there, as many standards and vehicles differ from their European counterparts.

Nowadays, Szobo works much closer to home: his current rounds only take him a few kilometres away into the industrial zones of Villingen-Schwenningen. “I’m more used to the rounds in the neighbouring towns. I do them several times a week”, says Szobo. However, alongside his normal destinations, he does enjoy the ever-changing routes within a radius of about 100 kilometres in southern Germany and Switzerland.

After arriving at the customer – a facade engineering company – all the goods are quickly taken out of their safety belts and the pallet truck driver skilfully handles the delivery. Today’s load is foundation slabs and extra-long steel girders. After half of the goods have been unloaded, another colleague at the facade company tells him that it’s break time and the rest will be unloaded once it’s finished. Francisc Szobo’s job requires patience – sometimes also when he’s not on the road.

He uses this time to check the remaining cargo, keep dispatch planning up to date – and to tell us about his experience. “I haven’t had a single accident in all these years. I’m a safe driver”, he says, not without pride. The only thing that’s happened is his left rear-view mirror once snapped. “But it didn’t fall off!” says Szobo with a laugh. It’s also down to luck, Szobo says – scanning his cabin for some wood to touch.

The worker in the pallet truck comes back, and the rest of the goods are unloaded. Francisc is already thinking of his next journey: he still has to make another delivery to a different customer in Villingen-Schwenningen this morning. Before that, though, it’s straight back to Aldingen.

Back at the warehouse, Francisc Szobo confidently makes his way past pallets of pesto sauce, office desks and 25-kilogram bags of citric acid until he spots his next cargo: large wooden drums, wrapped with metres of cables and hoses of various sizes. Once safely stowed away in his truck, there’s a detour to another hall. With a usable area of 78,000 m², the site consists of five transshipment and logistics halls.

The hangar-like room is stacked metres high with shipping boxes. Between the impressive cardboard towers are empty spaces, almost like little alleys. After a few quick trips with the pallet truck, his delivery is safely stowed in the truck and ready to go.

Szobo has time for a quick chat before setting off. When asked what keeps his spirits up on a long journey, he doesn’t have to think long: “I couldn’t do it without music!” His favourite is country and western, ideally songs by US country singer Kenny Rogers. Francisc Szobo also mentions the most important thing to him aside from his job: his two adult daughters. They also travel a lot with their job, but on a totally different scale to their father when it comes to distances: they both work on one of the world’s biggest cruise ships. He proudly shows us various snapshots of them in Tokyo, on a beach in Mexico and on the deck of their ship.

With an infectiously good mood, Szobo says he’ll see them again the following morning. It’s his last working day before he goes on holiday. Tomorrow he’s picking up his daughters from Basel-Mulhouse airport before going with them on a skiing holiday.

We connect people. We shape our sustainable relationships by showing humanity, being respectful and having innovative strength. Our current and future employees are vital to our success: we invest in colleagues that take responsibility independently in an international environment, shape the new force in the transport and logistics sectors and want to grow with us – exciting prospects and attractive benefits included!