Fleet investments, product development and new markets (in English)

Jonas Ahola Managing Director Ahola Special

 

For Ahola Special, 2023 was a year of significant growth. The Ahola Engineering service, which uses new technology, and the expansion into Europe strengthened the company’s position as an enabler of diverse and demanding special transports.

 

In early 2023, Ahola Special was kept busy especially by wind power projects in Finland and Sweden. At the same time, we continued making investments in our already extensive fleet of transport vehicles. Our diverse fleet enables the implementation of special transports using our own vehicles and employees. We are able to serve heavy industry, among other things with various extendable trailers and modular and customisable heavy transport flatbeds. For transporting ever-larger wind power plant components, we have acquired tower and blade adapters.

 

Product development and team reinforcements

 

Ahola Special’s Ahola Engineering service was productised during the year into its own concept. The goal of the service is to create comprehensive transport solutions and it aims to account for technical, financial and environmental impacts in its planning process. The Ahola Engineering service uses modern technologies such as 3D laser scanning and CAD assisted planning.

 

Ahola Special’s participation in projects at their pre-planning phase enables a more extensive influence on the entire project and brings to the table information from the transport perspective as early as possible. Comprehensive pre-planning reduces the environmental impacts of worksites, saves time and reduces construction costs. For example, in wind power projects this means, in real terms, a reduced need for earthworks and felling of trees in the worksite area. At the same time, we ensure that access to the worksite allows for the safe delivery of long and heavy special transports. Our years of experience in special transports, combined with our modern digital solutions, make for an unbeatable combination that has allowed us to be one of the leading companies in the special transports sector.

 

In February 2023, we inaugurated a new office in Jyväskylä, which means a significant expansion of both our operating area and our service offering. Our four-person team of experts serves European project and special transports from Jyväskylä. The team offers even stronger expertise in planning and consultation and in carrying out challenging transport routes and systems. Also our emissions reporting model was developed during the year with the objective of launching it in early 2024.

 

Wide, high and heavy, but also smaller, transports

 

2023 involved diverse projects in Finland and around Europe. In addition to wind power projects, we were involved in several industrial projects and transported, among other things, bridge structures, tanks, machine parts, transformers, boats and agricultural machinery. Transporting objects of different sizes and weights requires not only adaptable vehicles, but also strong expertise in permit processes and meticulous background work in planning transports.

 

New territory for the company in 2023 included high and over 100-tonne special transports from Finland to England using our own vehicles, as flatbed transports without intermediate handling. In addition, we implemented a demanding 140-tonne drum pulper transport from Finland to Germany, as a combined truck–sea–river–truck transport.

 

In addition to large, showstopping transports, we can also look back on many smaller transports and projects in which we offered our customers reliable and comprehensive project logistics management. The past year has shown that we have everything we need to continue as a leader in innovation and sustainable development, while promoting industrial projects linked to the green transition in Finland and around the world.

 

Our Ahola Engineering service uses modern technologies such as 3D laser scanning and CAD assisted planning.