Also, The Canadian-developed Software Created Some Challenges. It Had To Fit

Also, the Canadian-developed software created some challenges. It had to fit the European market, where for instance, still different currencies existed (prior to the Euro), different VAT rates, and calculation of miles as opposed to kilometres.
Lastly, the European market was not directly ready to adapt the 4PL concept. It still took one to two years, for European countries to start to accept the 'outsourcing philosophy' here again, the level of acceptance differed from country to country. For instance, the UK has been one of the first countries in Europe to embrace 'outsourcing'.
Conclusion
Penske Logistics Europe is now in a favourable position in the European logistics market. It is among the top European companies. They have managed to resolve their issues swiftly and still managed to keep their competitive edge on part of their service offer. They didn't proceed with the acquisition of other European businesses and it maybe turned out to be the most sensible thing to do. It is always a long and overwhelming process to get different businesses to function well together. However, they could have, probably, looked at some factors more closely, at the beginning. For instance, they could have foreseen that the European market was not ready for change at that moment in time. The USA is always one step ahead with setting up trends. But unlike the US, Europe is still very much fragmented.
This case study clearly shows that the formulation of 'international business strategies' remains complicated, regardless of the level of expertise.
Although, we now have more knowledge of foreign markets, there are still a number of factors to consider; the local environment should be thoroughly assessed before deciding on a strategy.
It is true that globalisation is bringing everybody closer but we shouldn't forget that cultural and structural differences still exist between countries and will continue to exist.
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