Nestled alongside one of Europe’s oldest transport routes – the beautiful and legendary Rhine River – the idyllic town of Rüdesheim played host to QCS’ annual kick-off meeting for 2026. Yet neither sunshine nor scenery can shield the company from the geopolitical impacts that all forwarders, airlines and the entire transport sector are having to face these days. However, thanks to the broad network of subsidiaries built up across Europe in recent years, QCS has achieved a high degree of resilience. This was evident at the Rüdesheim meeting last week.
“Times are tough”, said Stephan Haltmayer, QCS’ Managing Director. With that, he was not only referring to the worldwide crises that are impeding business in an already weakened sector. In the first days of 2026, the mid-sized, family-owned forwarding agency lost its founder, Dieter Haltmayer, at the age of 91, which made this the first ever meeting without him.
First meeting ever without patron, Dieter
“My dad had lately taken on a more passive role, though he was still pretty eager to engage in many topics. There are rarely changes in day-to-day operations – but his passing is a great loss to all of us.”
The best way to honor his life’s work is to continue what he had built, so QCS began the year very actively, attending many conferences and transport fairs, and showing its face to customers and agents not only in Europe but also beyond. In person, it should be emphasized, because the focus in the early weeks of 2026, was on training new sales representatives. They accompanied experienced ‘veterans’ in the field, to directly get to know how business is managed at QCS.
“QCS is concentrating on young, in-house talent. We are supporting them to the best of our abilities, because losing capable young professionals is no option,” Stephan Haltmayer and Olive Krautter, COO Air at QCS, both stated.
Three key priorities
Besides the focus on promoting and retaining young talent, understanding and keeping up with the rapid development of AI development was the second takeaway of this meeting. With Lukas Adt of booking portal, cargo.one, as one of the guest speakers, QCS members strengthened their take on AI tools to optimize workflows. This translates into time saving, placing early-bird quotations, or enhanced product quality since the time saved through AI results in optimized service offerings.
A third major topic tabled at the Rüdesheim gathering, was efficiency. Centralized pricing combined with a swift, friendly service makes a difference in days where more and more people are becoming accustomed to artificial, generalized replies. Patrick Eberhard, Head of BDM (Business Development Management), highlighted promising trade lanes such as India, for centralized pricing throughout QCS Germany. Taking the workload away from single branches while using the knowledge and competence of a few to secure new business, or satisfying partners with a quick service that is not just a slogan but part of the company’s identity, are areas of responsibility that should be put on the agenda, he recommended.
Ever increasing tasks
Nowadays, however, executives and leading managers not only run, create, and maintain their company’s daily businesses. They also have to fulfil the roles of ‘Masters in Administration’ and project management, and need become well-versed in the many laws and restrictions which are currently changing at an increasing pace.
Since the 1970s, German governments have proclaimed a ‘significant’ reduction of bureaucracy, yet each year more regulations are added to the pile. The latest is NIS-2 – an EU-Directive aimed at establishing a unified, legal cybersecurity framework across the EU. Along with QM/Quality management, LBA/Aviation Security, and many other stipulations, these topics are not the core competencies of forwarding agents, yet regulators expect them to shoulder these tasks.
The fact is that these additional bureaucratic and regulatory hurdles take up more time at each meeting, forcing the participants to adapt their already packed agenda to address these issues and keep the company running in accordance with legal requirements.
The vision lives on
QCS decided, a few years ago, to invest in a broad setting across Europe. By building its own network, with Slovenia as latest addition, the vision of being ‘the number one family-owned independent freight forwarding company in Europe’ is increasingly becoming reality.
Latest sales figures presented at Rüdesheim, point in a positive direction, with leniency towards the newest members of the QCS family, primarily established in Eastern Europe. Healthy growth requires investment and patience.
Stephan Haltmayer concluded the meeting with a statement of reassurance to his staff: “QCS will continue to exist. There are no intentions of selling our company that we, as a family together with our employees, have built up over decades. The daily challenges are not burdens, but rather inspiration and fun. As always, we will overcome the ups and downs.”
AUTHOR: Sabine Manzke
Thank you!
