History

1960's

In 1960s the car transportation business got going. When the automobile trade was freed from import regulations, the company started transporting cars alongside newspapers from ports of entry to district dealers. The first agreements came into force in 1964 when two special built semi-trailers were built for these transportations.

In 1966 the Post and Telegraph Office turned from a competitor into a customer. The cooperation started as a combined transport of post and newspapers on the Helsinki-Vaasa axel, and two years later it was extended into timetabled transportation from Helsinki to Oulu and further to Rovaniemi and Kuusamo.

At the end of the decade, SE Mäkinen carried out approximately 10,000 km worth of newspaper trunk route deliveries daily. By the end of the decade, newspaper deliveries were at their peak; they were transported by 30 vehicles and 60 drivers in total.

As a return flow of car transportation, crashed vehicles written off by insurance companies, were frequently transported from the provinces to Espoo.

1980's

Car transportation into the former Soviet Union was initiated in 1980. Next year Trailer-Auto merged into SE Mäkinen. In order to improve the transport system’s load factors, the company aimed to heavily increase the co-operation with other companies competing in the same sector. However, the entrepreneurial atmosphere was such then that there was no basis for rational cooperation and networking. That is why we started implementing the same objective through company acquisitions, and as a result five transport businesses were merged with SE Mäkinen during the 1980s. 

That decision allowed us to achieve such a high basic volume by the end of the decade that quick transport connections could be extended to all Finnish cities. At this point, a transport office was also established in Hanko, closer to our customers.

Our company started experimenting with vehicle-mounted computers in 1986.

In 1987 we initiated the change in company structure with an aim to separate logistics services and operative transport operations from each other, and, thus, create the preconditions for the wider implementation of a network structure at a later stage. Today the SE Mäkinen service concept is produced as a centralised market-steered operation through 14 separate specialised transport contractors.

In the end of the 1980s we started offering storage services to car dealers in Hanko.

Although the 1980s pioneered increasingly extensive vehicle transportation, we continued to carry out newspaper and post transportation in its earlier extent until the end of the decade. However, as the satellite printing press was launched, the basis for the trunk route deliveries typical for SE Mäkinen dried out. At this point the company started to pull out from this line of business. As an offshoot of those deliveries, the company still has some minor newspaper deliveries on the Helsinki-Turku route.

Recent years

In 2000 SE Mäkinen won the Finnish Logistics Award in the business series.  The jury saw the new generation real time ERP system as a pivotal criterion.  Pre-delivery inspection (PDI) and post-production options (PPO) were initiated at the start of 2000 in Turku. 

From the point of view of a Finnish company selling logistics services, the business environment in Russia took a positive turn in 2001, opening horizons to longer-term activities and investments. During that year business activity in Russia increased significantly.

In spring 2002 Raimo Sohkanen’s veteran car transport business merged with ours through an acquisition. This ensured enough capacity for us to prepare for the growing demand for our services in the Russian and Finnish markets.

In early 2002, the SE Mäkinen network was strengthened further as another car transport veteran business belonging to Raimo Stenvall was acquired by SE Mäkinen. The same year SE Mäkinen’s ERP and environment systems were certified in accordance with ISO standards.

2003 started in strong transition. The significant reduction in car taxation, which had been anticipated for years, increased the sale of new cars in moments by dozens of per cent. The car transport capacity in the whole of Finland was in a difficult situation as a result of the fastest ever growth in demand. Our capacity was extremely stretched throughout the spring, despite significant investments into extra capacity.

2003 was significant because cooperation with VR rail service, which had faded, was initiated again with regard to transportations to Northern Finland. This made railway transportation a firm part of our Finnish transport system. Car taxation, customs clearance and pre-registration became new services offered to our customers.

In May 2003, SE Mäkinen was awarded with Ford Motor Company’s international Q1 certification. Ford Motor Company continuously evaluates its services and goods providers within its own certification programme.  After measuring and auditing, which had ran for several years, SE Mäkinen was nominated as an award candidate and in May the prize was awarded to our company, the first in the Nordic Countries.

In Barcelona in October 2003 in connection with the ‘Global Automotive Logistics 2003’ seminar, Europe’s most respected magazine in the automobile industry, Automotive News Europe, awarded its Logistics Awards for the fourth time. There were four competition series in which 10 top companies in the industry from all over the world had been selected. SE Mäkinen was a nominee in two series: Outbound logistics and Innovation & Technology. We won the Innovation and Technology series.



The strong growth in the Russian car market which started in 2001 and a few years later in the Baltic Countries has kept our company in full action in these markets as well.

During these years we also built new properties into our brilliant IT platform, such as hand held devices for walking members of staff (for example in stores) and many data services linked to real time information for our customers. The communication to our transport contractors and sub-contractors was taken forward in major leaps.

Pre-delivery inspections and post-production options became part of the services offered at Vantaa in 2004 as well. Until then the Vantaa office had concentrated only on truck accessories and pre-delivery inspections. That same year, our subsidiary, Eestaas Oü, was established in the Baltic Region.

During 2005 and 2006, special emphasis was given to staff, particularly drivers', occupational safety and health. The project was carried out by SE Mäkinen Logistics in cooperation with the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Mehiläinen Oy  (the medical service provider) and Rahtarit ry.

In 2006 SE Mäkinen Logistics was among the first European logistics and transport enterprises to sign the European Road Safety Chapter with the European Commission. The aim is to reduce the number of road deaths to a third of what it was at the time of signing. The precondition for signing was strong evidence of concrete actions to promote road safety.