What’s inside Hungarian warehouses?

We can easily find warehouses of European standard in Hungary at present, especially if we want it to be bear Budapest. – According to estimates, over a hundred thousand square meters of free warehousing capacity is available in the market, which has lead to intense competition in terms of price – says Zsolt Barna, deputy managing director of Waberer’s Logisztika Kft. László Hóbor, head of operations from Gebrüder Weiss Szállítmányozási és Logisztikai Kft. agrees with him, that supply exceeds demand in the warehousing market, which keeps prices low. This situation is not expected to change in the central and eastern regions, while supply is expected to continue expanding even further in Budapest and the western part of the country. Modern warehousing capacity is concentrated in and around Budapest, though recent developments are slowly changing this. Differences in prices are small, client decisions are generally based on the flexibility and willingness of warehouse operators to co-operate. IT solutions play a crucial role in competition. Clients want cost-effective, complex logistical solutions, which include modern IT services. There are many warehouses in Hungary which not only have modern physical infrastructure, but also offer IT solutions of European standard, like e-handling, electronic orders, monitoring or bar code based identification. Gebrüder Weiss operates a bar code system of their own. Though they only use GPS monitoring for the most valuable cargo (tobacco, bank notes), or full truckloads, drivers are equipped with mobile scanners which are used each time goods are loaded or unloaded. Cargo information is available to clients online. Waberer’s Logisztika uses EDI based and electronic documents and is involved in research and development aimed at making RFID applications available. RFID tags store a lot more information than bar codes and this can be read from a distance of several meters. Wal Mart made a breakthrough in retail logistics in 2005, when they compelled their 100 largest suppliers to use RFID identification on palettes, which has resulted in an annual saving of USD 8,4 billion. Very expensive technology like AGV-s is practically unknown among logistical service providers. A high level of automation is only cost-effective for manufacturing enterprises and their own warehousing facilities, while a medium level of automation is feasible for courier services. According to Márton Járosi, managing director of TNT Express Worldwide Hungary, they are working effectively when stocks are non-existent. While goods are stored for different periods in true warehouses, the logistic centres of courier services only serve the distribution of dispatched goods. Though their warehouses are not big, their IT infrastructure is one of the largest among privately owned systems.