Anne-Marie Idrac, President of France Logistique: “We Must Go on the Offensive”

Anne-Marie Idrac has had three careers: as a civil servant in the public works administration, she notably headed the Cergy-Pontoise public development agency and served as director of land transport. As a politician, she was Secretary of State for Transport (under the Juppé government), Secretary of State for Foreign Trade (under the Fillon government), a member of parliament for Yvelines, and a regional councilor for Île-de-France. In the corporate world, she chaired RATP, SNCF, and Toulouse Airport. “Today, in addition to serving on the boards of several companies and working as a consultant, I have been president of France Logistique since 2020, when the association was created,” she explains. “This coincided with the Covid crisis, which highlighted the usefulness, agility, and performance of French logistics.”

France Logistique was created following the Hémar-Daher report, published in 2019, on logistics competitiveness in a competitive European context. “On the one hand, it recommended better interministerial coordination among public authorities, involving finance and transport; on the other, better organization among industry professionals to defend common interests,” Anne-Marie Idrac explains. The creation of Cilog (the Interministerial Logistics Committee) and France Logistique directly responded to those recommendations, with the mission of promoting and defending the interests of logistics in France. “Eric Hémar, then President of Union TLF, asked me to chair the association, and Constance Maréchal-Dereu, who had written the report, became its first CEO.”

As president of France Logistique, Anne-Marie Idrac plays a central role in promoting and defending the interests of the logistics sector. “My role within the association is first and foremost to listen to members—major associations, federations, and companies—in order to collectively identify the major cross-cutting issues that require dialogue with public authorities,” she explains. “France Logistique is the main point of contact for the government, government departments, ministerial offices, Parliament, and local authorities. It is registered as such with the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life.” “Personally, given my background,” she adds, “I often act as an interpreter to find the wording or angles for proposals best suited to defending private-sector interests before public-sector stakeholders.”

Her daily schedule is also marked by her attendance at events such as SITL (the Transport and Logistics Fair) and the “Ambitions Transports 2050” conference, which includes a workshop dedicated to logistics. “Although the event mainly concerns transport, France Logistique’s current CEO, Maxime Forest, underscored the importance of land issues, logistics from urban areas to ports, and, more generally, the network of warehouses.”

On the day of the interview with Plateformes Magazine, Anne-Marie Idrac was also due to go to Matignon, following a meeting with former Transport Ministers who share her views. “At present, I am particularly vigilant about two issues: the bill to simplify economic life, which includes an amendment passed by Parliament to limit ‘e-commerce’ warehouses and which in fact risks adding another layer of complexity for the entire retail and logistics real estate sector; and the risk of all kinds of taxes on warehouses and road hauliers, which would affect entire supply chains.” “Not to mention,” she recalls, “the long-awaited decree, repeatedly promised, to shorten appeal periods.” In every case, her arguments emphasize national competitiveness and environmental considerations.

One of the main challenges facing Anne-Marie Idrac and her team is the need to move from a short-term “defensive” approach to a medium- and long-term “offensive” one. This means not only responding to emerging complexities and obstacles—as the aforementioned “bill to simplify economic life” could become a complexity bill—but also actively promoting logistics as an essential, innovative sector, “as can be seen in Plateformes Magazine through articles on Label Emmaüs, geothermal energy, Les Restos du Coeur, or photovoltaic panels, as well as the innovation program led by the Ministry of the Economy with France Logistique.” Anne-Marie Idrac tirelessly emphasizes logistics’ economic and societal impacts: job creation, energy production, facilitation of reindustrialization and the circular economy, and more.

The foundation for public-private discussions is the national logistics strategy adopted by the government on the basis of industry proposals and updated several times since 2021. During discussions on the Climate and Resilience Act in 2021, Anne-Marie Idrac contributed to two measures for the transport and logistics sector. “First, making any increase in TICPE (the domestic consumption tax on energy products) for road transport subject to two conditions: alignment with other countries and the actual availability of electric vehicles,” she explains. “Second, including Regional Logistics Conferences in the law, in order to introduce our issues into SRADDETs (Regional Plans for Regional Development, Sustainable Development, and Territorial Equality), giving our members an opportunity to begin a dialogue with elected officials.” She adds that she is also particularly “pleased to have helped avert a moratorium on warehouses thanks to the AFILOG charter, of which I was, in a sense, the patron.”

In the coming weeks, Anne-Marie Idrac is expected to be given a new assignment on urban logistics, together with Anne-Marie Jean, President of the Port of Strasbourg. This assignment aims to update a report issued four years ago, incorporating new themes related to e-commerce, Low-Emission Zones (ZFE), Net Zero Artificialization (ZAN), brownfield sites, and multistory warehouses.

Anne-Marie Idrac observes that logistics is better understood, notably thanks to the Covid-19 crisis, which highlighted its crucial importance. In her view, current geopolitical concerns are reinforcing the idea of economic resilience, of which logistics is an essential component. At the local level, urban logistics is drawing elected officials’ attention to needs involving traffic, parking, and goods storage—issues important to quality of life and urban economic dynamics. However, she stresses that the sector has not yet received the recognition it deserves: despite these growing awareness factors, it still faces daily challenges of public acceptance. “Beyond the technical issues, that is the main challenge.” Anne-Marie Idrac enjoys substantial, multidimensional issues spanning finance, social matters, technology, and many other fields. Logistics, with its many facets and complex challenges, therefore appears to be a sector ideally suited to her.