Toyota has expanded the operations at its vehicle logistics centre in the port of Malmö, Sweden, handling the first vehicles for the Norwegian market. Until now the VLC served as the Nordic vehicle hub for Sweden and Denmark only and additional volume for cars to Norway is estimated at 20,000 units annually. Fifteen employees were hired for the Norwegian operations, and the additional investment of €2.6 million will allow the VLC to handle up to 80,000 vehicles annually and employ 65 people.
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The VLC will also begin to handle cars destined for Finland from February 2004. The centre, which is run by Toyota Logistics Services Sverige (TLSSE), is said to maximise customer satisfaction and logistics efficiency by reducing costs and delivery times and began operations on February 17, 2003.
The VLC consolidates the logistics activities of Toyota in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Some 160,000m² were prepared for the distribution of new vehicles to Sweden and Denmark, and an additional 60,000m² was built to serve Norway and Finland. The total area of the site is now 220,000m², with buildings totalling 3,600m² and storage capacity for up to 10,000 vehicles.
Vehicles built in Toyota plants in Japan, the UK, France and Turkey – the Czech Republic will join this list in 2005 – are shipped to the new Nordic hub by boat and distribution to Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland will take place by truck, rail and boat.
The VLC in Malmö carries out the post-production option (PPO) mounting and pre-delivery inspection (PDI) for Sweden, Denmark and Norway. PPO is the mounting of options like air-conditioning, audio and GPS systems to customer order, while PDI is the standard inspection of the cars before delivery to dealers.
