The FreightCaviar Podcast: Behind the Scenes at CtrlChain HQ in Eindhoven, Netherlands

In this week’s episode, we sat down with Giovanni Gubbels, CEO & Founder of CtrlChain, and Gert-Jan de Goeij, Vice President Europe of CtrlChain. They discuss the company's vision for minimizing industry waste, compare delivery delays and cargo theft between the US and EU, and highlight the importance of loyalty.

Start of CtrlChain 

The story of CtrlChain kicks off in 2014 when Giovanni met Gert-Jan at UPS, who at the time was his manager. When the two parted ways in 2017, Giovanni was already thinking of starting his own company and leaving an impact on the industry. “So, the whole mindset where I started CtrlChain with was, ‘How are we going to reduce waste? What are the bigger problems? Why can’t we solve it today?’ And then we got into the beautiful story of logistics- we are a little bit behind. What we really believe in as a company is that if we don't know what is happening, we need to gather information. But we don't have that information because we are not digital. So, we try to help organizations become digital.”

US vs. EU: What's Different?

Giovanni also talked about the many differences between the US and the EU, specifically delivery delays. ‘If you talk about differences, with all due respect, Europe is really small. In 24 hours, we can go from Germany to Spain when it's delivered by truck. But in the US, if you're doing East to West coast, it takes three days.” 

Cargo Theft: A Closer Look

Delivery is not the only thing that’s different in the EU. Gert-Jan shared insights on cargo theft. Because the EU does not have such large deserted areas like the US, it’s more difficult to spot a suspicious situation. “It's harder to spot, but it's happening. Also in Europe, we have public marketplaces for shippers and carriers to place loads. But they all give the same risk in the end because you can be a fake carrier. I’m not a U.S. expert, but I can imagine the distances are long, and you drive in such deserted places, and I think that's totally different in Europe.” 

Different Ways of Selling

When it comes to sales, Giovanni says the Dutch way of thinking also differs from the American. “I get reached out to a lot from people who want to sell me something. And the interesting thing is nobody can sell anyone anything. You're always selling it to yourself. So, if you’re not helping the other person to sell it to themselves, how are you going to sell it? Also, you need to be really lucky that I'm actually looking for it at that moment.”

Looking Ahead

Gert-Jan also shared the company’s vision for the future. “All supply chains are responsible for 24% of all CO2 emissions globally. And if nothing changes, that will grow to 40% by 2050. So, we want to make an impact. I'm not saying we will be able to do it in the next few years, but this is our vision. This is what we want to achieve.”