In Spain, ‘British punctuality’ is often cited as the gold standard for arriving on time at a destination, but the truth is that the British are not particularly special in this regard. If anything, it is we Spaniards who are the exception, as the concept of punctuality we have on the peninsula is rather unique.

In the road transport sector, punctuality is understood simply as a delivery arriving on the scheduled day – and that’s it. A delivery is scheduled for a specific day without further detail, but in our transport of liquid foodstuffs with deliveries across Europe, the concept changes radically.

At Rios Sangiao, we have been working for years with European clients on international transport routes, and in this market it is essential to understand from the outset that punctuality involves what we in Spain would call ‘exactness’. It is not enough for the goods to be delivered on the scheduled day; they must also be delivered at the scheduled time.

In most of the countries where we carry out transports of juices, milk and food liquids for human consumption in general, punctuality is expected to include a specific delivery time slot. Countries such as France, Germany, the Netherlands and even Italy do not accept ‘open-ended’ deliveries. In the deliveries we carry out, we form part of a large production chain that requires maximum coordination between its links to avoid production stoppages, which entail enormous subsequent start-up costs and a loss of efficiency and profitability.

Thus, it is common that when we deliver glucose to Germany, olive oil to northern France or juices to Italy, we have a specific time slot – which does not usually exceed one hour – for unloading or loading the goods. In this way, the product leaves the factory and is distributed without incurring storage costs for the producer. Alternatively, the product arrives at the factory and is processed without losing its properties due to storage time, during which oxidation or any other form of degradation might occur. Planning is key to efficiency.

Punctuality at the highest level

Delivery accuracy is even more critical in certain, even more complex environments such as Rotterdam, where we cover several routes. This city, with a port stretching over forty kilometres, is home to Europe’s most important land-sea logistics hub, and the volume of traffic and goods passing through this point is absolutely staggering: nearly 430 million tonnes handled annually and more than 100,000 vessels.

For all this activity to function smoothly, punctuality here demands that arrivals are calculated in minute-long windows, and departures and arrivals are fully monitored to ensure that everything is synchronised and runs like clockwork.

Although it is within the port area itself that the strictest controls are in place and delivery and collection windows are most tightly restricted, companies located on the outskirts of the port area are subject to very similar controls because, after all, they operate within the port and must therefore adapt to its rhythms,

so it does not matter if the Spanish wine – to give an example – that we might transport to Rotterdam does not go directly to the port, because the company where we unload it operates in a similar way to the entire logistics network in the area.

Working in this way demands professionalism and constant reviews of the transport department’s planning to fine-tune routes, timetables and efficiency as much as possible, coordinating our fleet with a level of detail that is unusual in domestic deliveries.

When we talk about on-time deliveries, at Rios Sangiao we’re really talking about precision.

Saint John’s Eve is just a few days away. It is not only one of the most important celebrations in Galicia—our place of origin—but it also marks the summer solstice. Even though days will start getting shorter again, this is the time when everyone enjoys, or looks forward to enjoying, a well-deserved vacation.

In the food-grade liquid transport sector, we cannot say that the workload slows down as it slightly does at the end of the year. As we recently shared, the main ingredient in ice cream is milk—in case you didn't know—and we specialize in transporting it from farms to factories. That is already a big slice of the pie, but the transport of olive oil, drinking water, or glucose are not services that see a drop in demand during the summer.

What mixes the summer cocktail is that, even though demand remains steady, our team also needs to kick back and relax under a palm tree in Santo Domingo… or under a grapevine in Baiona, which is surely just as pleasant.

How do we meet the same transport demand while heading out to Baiona? This is where staff scheduling, traffic planning, and another key ingredient of our cocktail come into play: driver labor market trends.

At the beginning of the year, we plan holidays and establish a shift system. This is often supplemented by hiring new drivers to optimize the number of team members enjoying their summer holidays. Fortunately, we can offer attractive incentives for food-grade liquid transport professionals, allowing us to fill vacancies quickly.

Furthermore, at Rios Sangiao, we have a clear talent retention policy. It is highly unusual for our drivers to "hang up the steering wheel" during July and August only to return in September. Commitment to our clients is a core value across the company, and we are certain that teamwork allows us to provide better conditions.

So, it doesn't matter when we need to deliver eight thousand litres of fresh milk to a factory, or ten thousand litres of olive oil to Rotterdam. We have everything ready thanks to the commitment of our team, especially the talent department, traffic management, and our drivers.