From a local one-truck entrepreneur to an international container professional

In the beginning it was just one truck and the owner of the company. Read how TransPeltola has grown from a local one-truck entrepreneur company to being the leading container transport professional in Finland.

First operating license in 1958

On 12 March 1958, Pentti Peltola, the founder of Peltolan Kuljetus, was granted his first traffic license (Peltolan Kuljetus merged with Transpeltola in 2017). In the early years of the company, mainly wood chips and peat were transported.

Internationalization began in the 1980’s

Internationalization of the company began in 1984 when Transpeltola started transporting light gravel to construction sites in the Soviet Union. At the same time Pentti Peltola’s son Hannu Peltola took over all the management responsibilities from his Father and started to run the company. At the turn of the 1980’s and 1990’s, the company had trucks based in in Central and in Southern Europe in CEMT traffic. In 1993 TransPeltola trucks returned to Russia and started to transport pine bark to from Svetogorsk combine to Finland.

47 truckloads of magazines to Moscow every week

TransPeltola’s business to Russia grew in 1994 when a printing house in Kouvola, Finland started printing Extra M advertisement magazine in Russian language. This magazine was the Internet of that time: the magazine was full of advertisements and it was distributed to every household in Moscow area every week. Transpeltola was responsible for the deliveries of this time-chartered magazine to Moscow until 2003. At its peak, as many as 47 truckloads of magazines were delivered to Moscow every week.

The crazy years of transit: 200 containers on the move every day

TransPeltola’s container traffic grew rapidly at the beginning of the 2000’s when Transpeltola started operating Kouvola container yard in 2002. First containers packed with all sorts of electronics goods arrived from South Korea to Kouvola via Transn Siberian route and later via Kotka port. Kouvola was the sorting place for the huge volumes of electronics goods that continued their way to numerous retail stores mainly to Moscow area.

TransPeltola took care of container transports of electronics goods from port to several customs warehouses in Kouvola and elsewhere in the South-Eastern Finland. There were over 200 containers on the move almost every day. At the same time, truck queues at the border crossings points in Southeastern Finland grew to tens of kilometers. In Vaalimaa alone, the truck queue was 65 km long.

Bulk materials for paper industry and transportation of hazardous materials begins

TransPeltola started bulk container transports in 2005 for for the paper industry, the plastic industry and the food industry. In the 2010’s, the transport of bulk products also expanded to include chemicals and gases, which are transported in tank containers. Today, transporting various bulk products and dangerous goods is one of TransPeltola’s most important business areas. Good cooperation with the same customers in bulk transport has been going on for 20 years.

Glass transports to Finnish window factories and glass wholesale companies

In 2009, there was a new and interesting logistics project was under negotiation. TransPeltola’s parent company Kouvola Cargo Handling Oy built a 5,000 m2 glass warehouse in Kouvola for the world’s leading flat glass manufacturer. At the same time, TransPeltola took responsibility for glass transport to Finnish window factories and glass wholesalers. This is when there was also a whole new addition to TransPeltola transport fleet when TransPeltola purchased its first Inloader trailers that are used for transporting flat glass.

TransPeltola today

TransPeltola specializes in container transport. We transport, unload, load and lift all kinds of containers and with our versatile container transport fleet. We transport bulk raw materials, e.g. for the paper industry, the plastic industry and the food industry. We transport liquid products in tank containers. We have our own container terminal in Kouvola, close to Kotka port.

TransPeltola has AEO status (Authorized Economic Operator) granted by Customs. Cefic’s SQAS – Safety & Quality Assessment for Sustainability is audited every three years. In 2018, Transpeltola received the entrepreneur award of Finnish Entrepreneurs’ association. TransPeltola belongs to the Cargo Handling Group.