The headquarters remained in the industrial area of Salerno, from where the first articulated truck left seventy years ago. This is not a random choice: it is here that Smet, one of the main European players in the panorama of integrated logistics, with 25 operating offices located in Italy and Europe, has decided to maintain its basic office activities. Despite the fact that its interlocutors are located all over the world and speak at least ten different languages.«We believe in the strength and quality of the people in our territory – explains Domenico De Rosa, managing director and representative of the third generation of the family at the head of the leading group in transport and logistics – starting from a reality like Salerno, which does not have a competitive advantage, has given us the antibodies necessary to deal with broader experiences, outside the national borders. From the discomfort we have drawn the opportunities, from the limit the vision. In my opinion this is the best recipe for development, other than citizenship income, we must produce income from work, creating above all the conditions for a training oriented only to develop opportunities from the limit».

Today the Smet group, with 1,600 employees, 600 of whom come from the province of Salerno and the South, and a turnover that in 2018 exceeded 260 million euros, is actively involved not only in the training of those working in the road haulage sector, but also in environmental sustainability issues (the company’s slogan is sustainability first).«We were the first – boasts De Rosa – to declare that from 2023 our fleet (3.500 loading units and 300 tractors) will be zero diesel, that we will no longer buy vehicles whose traction is hard coal. We have been pioneers at European level in the use of the latest generation of Eco Truck vehicles, powered by LNG (liquid natural gas), which are increasingly effective not only in terms of environmental sustainability because they reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 15% and reduce fine dust by 95%, but also in terms of vehicle efficiency».

The appointment with the change from diesel to LNG is only one stage in the wider project to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by 30% by 2030, on the basis of the indications provided by the European Union.«We will make a significant contribution to the development of intermodality – the entrepreneur resumed, announcing by the end of the year the completion of an LNG liquid methane distribution plant for motor vehicles in the Salerno industrial area – through the partnership with the Grimaldi Group. This allows to reduce the kilometres travelled on road by heavy trucks in favour of intermodal maritime transport, especially as regards the routes of the Mediterranean Sea and the Baltic Sea».

Training chapter. Here too Smet, which will be present with its own stand at Transpotec Logitec, the largest event dedicated to transport logistics, organized by Fiera Milano, from 21 to 24 February in Verona, wants to be at the forefront.«In December, De Rosa continues, we took on our first woman truck driver, the Romanian Dorica Cornea, an important signal that breaks down a “discrimination” of the past. Even driving a 44-ton truck remains a considerable physical effort, regardless of gender. However, ours was an important gesture, which has not gone unnoticed, we have already received over ten female candidates».

Now it’s a question of screening them, of testing the authentic «vocation» to do this job:«We are preparing – concludes Smet’s CEO – training courses for candidates under 35, if you invest in young force the results will be very beneficial. Sometimes we find a certain basic distrust and then our mission is to aim to develop the passion in the activity that we do, this certainly makes the difference between one job and another». In short, the important thing, but as in this case, is to do it «with transport».

Source: il Corriere del Mezzogiorno