At the age of 23, Axel Plaß fled from the GDR to the West; today he runs a shipping company. He complains about a lack of truck drivers, problems with the electric drive and the charging infrastructure.
The Konrad Zippel shipping company is located in a spacious office complex in the east of Hamburg, and you can hear clacking keyboards and phone calls in the larger area. 350 employees work for the shipping company under the leadership of managing director Axel Plaß, who started here as a driver more than 30 years ago. Plaß, 57 years old, fled the GDR as a young man. The former truck driver and refugee worked his way up the ranks and has been President of the German Freight Forwarding and Logistics Association (DSLV) since 2018. His industry is struggling with many problems: dilapidated infrastructure, bureaucracy, a lack of parking spaces and a backlog of conversion to electric drives.