The Girona company Grup Padrosa is building two truck parks in France and has six more under construction

2023-06-21 13:41:42

The company from Girona Padrosa Groupbased in Llersin the Alt Empordà, and the fons manager of TIIC infrastructureswith whom he teamed up last year, have already erected two of the 48 car parks that they plan to build in what will be the first European platform forsecure parking areas to trucks. Apart from the two that have already been built in France – one in Calé and one near Paris – six more are being built distributed between France, Netherlands, Italy i Slovenia. They are part of the “package” of 17 that will be erected during the first phase of the project and that will involve an investment of 250 million euros. However, once the planned 48 points have been completed, the total will be around 650 million euros.

The Padrosa Group, focused on road transport services, and the infrastructure manager TIIC, behind which is the investment fund Edmond de Rothschild, sealed the agreement nearly a year ago. The alliance meant the birth of the first European platform of safe parking areas for trucks and heavy vehicles. And the project is already closer to becoming a reality.

At the moment, two of them have already been built 48 secure car parks planned in France One of them close to Paris and another a Stalled, where services such as control are provided to prevent immigrants from entering the trucks. “We set up a check-out service before leaving with temperature to determine and certify that there is no one inside and so the drivers can be calm,” explains Padrosa. This certification agreed with the authorities in the area, he adds, is “very important” at a point with a “humanitarian drama” and where “drivers can go to jail if they enter with immigrants in the truck.”

Apart from these two, they have six more under construction in other parts of the Gallic country, Italy, Holland and Slovenia. The forecast is that they will be ready in one ten months.

They are the ones that form part of the first phase – which includes 17 – and which will involve an investment of 250 million euros. Among the services they will offer are rest room, restaurant, supermarket, laundry room, wi-fi, etc. But not only that. Because the European platform now promoted by the Girona company and TIIC will also bet on sustainability and new technologies.

The new parking lots for trucks will have solar panels, which will have up to 3 megawatts (MW) of power. In addition, all this will be complemented by a 5G network which will allow the different operators to know where each truck is and when it unloads the goods.

Stocks en route

The state-of-the-art systems they will use will also allow them to “get ahead” and control the stocks available while the trucks are en route. “We are working with artificial intelligence,” explained Padrosa.

This first phase will be completed around 2027 but, in total, the project foresees a mobilization of 650 million euros once the 48 that will make up the platform have been built, the first in the sector on the continent.

A century-old company

The Padrosa Group, which celebrates its centenary this year and will celebrate with a big party on July 1, has the future completely focused on this area. It specializes in road transport services. Founded on 1923 and based in Llers, manages the truck parking at the company’s headquarters and also has a division of cranes i special transports (which operates in Spain and the south of France). The company also has a presence inUruguay.

Two trucks from the Padrosa Group at the headquarters of the Llers company. ACN

The year 2022 closed with a turnover of more than 50 million euros and has around 200 workers. In 2027, once the first phase of the project is finished, they expect to reach 130 million euros.

Lack of skilled labor

During the presentation of the activities planned for the centenary celebration, Padrosa has again warned of the lack of skilled labor. On the one hand, he celebrated the higher degree cycle in transport and logistics which should facilitate the training of young people in this sector but he said that they are unable to find engineers. “The two we have are from Turin,” he said.