FAN Courier, Urgent Cargus, DPD Romania, DHL Express and TNT Romania have almost as many employees together as retailer Auchan. Auchan has some 11,000 employees in Romania, according to the latest data available.
The biggest employer among courier service companies is FAN Courier, which is also the leader of a EUR350 million market.
FAN Courier, which posted EUR89 million revenue last year, ended 2015 with 4,500 employees and independent contractors, 65% more than in 2013, when the number stood at over 2,700, the company said.
The number two on the market, Urgent Cargus, has about 4,000 employees, according to ZF’s calculations. Urgent Cargus is the company created by the merger of Urgent Curier and Cargus International, following their acquisition by private equity fund manager Abris Capital Partners. The two companies posted some EUR57 million revenue in 2014 and the new entity had some 3,500 employees and independent contractors.
Urgent Cargus officials said the company hired new people for all departments in the first half of last year. It posted more than 162 million (EUR36 million) revenue in the first half of 2015, an increase of 21% on the year-ago period and in August said it expected 20% year-on-year growth in revenue.
DHL and DPD Romania, too, increased the number of employees. DHL Express had about 450 employees last year, according to the information the company supplied in December. On the other hand, DPD Romania had 800 people working for it.
“We have a lot trouble finding workforce in certain parts of the country. It is hard to find people in Sibiu, Timisoara, Arad, Oradea, for instance, and especially unskilled ones. There are people in the western region of the country that go for work abroad two or three months and then come back,” says Lucian Aldescu, chief executive officer of Dynamic Parcel Distribution (DPD).
Adrian Mihai, one of the founders of FAN Courier, agrees, saying that his company has trouble finding people to fill its vacancies especially in the northwestern part of the country, which has been developing steadily. Even in Bucharest the company has to bring people from 50 to 60 kilometers away to be able to fill all the vacancies, he added.
Most courier service companies turn to temporary employment agencies or independent contractors to be able to deal with the high nubmer of orders on Black Friday or during the winter holidays.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)