Scope: ecs.be · LinkedIn (company + CEO) · Customer Portals · Legal & Compliance
Method: Manual review · curl/HTTP inspection · page source analysis · LinkedIn data
Date: June 2026 · Author: Philippe Godfroy
| # | Finding | Area | Severity | Fix Effort |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Supply Chain Portal completely dead (DNS NXDOMAIN) | Broken functionality | 🔴 Critical | Low |
| 2 | Both customer portals use HTTP, not HTTPS | Security | 🟠 High | Low |
| 3 | T&C: no click-wrap, UK carrier doc 14 months old | Legal | 🟠 High | Medium |
| 4 | GDPR: advertising cookies fire without consent category | Compliance | 🟠 High | Low |
| 5 | 3 different company names in use: "ECS Group" / "European Containers" / "Intermodal Supply Chain" | Brand consistency | 🟡 Medium | Low |
| 6 | Website links to old LinkedIn URL (301 redirect, never updated after rebrand) | Brand consistency | 🟡 Medium | Trivial |
| 7 | CEO LinkedIn: default abstract banner, no ECS brand — 1,949 followers see nothing | Brand | 🟡 Medium | Trivial |
| 8 | ECS active on 2 social channels vs. 4–5 industry standard | Marketing | 🟡 Medium | Medium |
| 9 | All T&C PDFs publicly indexable via guessable paths | Info disclosure | 🟢 Low | Low |
Page: ecs.be/nl/mijn-portaalsites
The portal page lists two customer-facing links:
| Portal | URL | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Intermodal Transport Portal | http://customerportal-intermodal.ecs.be |
✅ Reachable |
| Supply Chain Portal | http://customerportal-supplychain.ecs.be |
🔴 Dead |
$ curl -o /dev/null -s -w "%{http_code}" http://customerportal-supplychain.ecs.be
000 ← no connection at all (DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN)Root cause: customerportal-supplychain.ecs.be has no DNS record — the subdomain was decommissioned without updating the link on ecs.be.
Impact: A customer or new prospect clicks "Supply Chain Portal" and hits a blank browser error. No fallback, no redirect, no message from ECS. For a company positioning itself as a supply chain partner, this is the first thing a prospect might click after reading the services page.
Fix: Update the link to the current portal URL or set a DNS redirect.
Both portal links on the ECS website use http:// — not https://:
http://customerportal-intermodal.ecs.be
http://customerportal-supplychain.ecs.be
Customer portal sessions — login, shipment data, track & trace — transmitted over unencrypted HTTP are vulnerable to interception. Modern browsers flag HTTP login pages with a prominent "Not secure" warning, which actively undermines trust at the login screen.
Fix: Force HTTPS on both subdomains. Update the links on ecs.be.
Page: ecs.be/nl/algemene-voorwaarden
All six T&C documents are plain PDF downloads with no acceptance mechanism:
❌ No checkbox ("I have read and accept the terms")
❌ No confirmation step before download
❌ No logged acceptance timestamp
✅ PDF freely accessible to anyone, accepted or not
Without click-wrap, proving in a dispute that a customer accepted the current version of the T&C is significantly harder under both Belgian and UK contract law.
| Stakeholder | Entity | Last Updated | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer | ECS NV / 2XL NV | Sep 2025 | ✅ |
| Customer | ECS Trucking BV | Aug 2025 | ✅ |
| Customer | 2XL France SAS | Aug 2025 | ✅ |
| Supplier & Contractor | ECS NV / 2XL NV | Sep 2025 | ✅ |
| Transport Carrier (non-UK) | ECS NV / 2XL NV | Aug 2025 | ✅ |
| Transport Carrier (UK) | ECS NV / 2XL NV | Jul 2024 |
The UK carrier T&C has not been updated since July 2024. The UK's Road Haulage Association issued updated guidance on post-Brexit cabotage rules and HMRC import procedures in late 2024 and early 2025. A document predating these changes may no longer reflect current ECS obligations toward UK transport carriers.
Fix: Add click-wrap per document group. Review the UK carrier T&C against current HMRC/RHA guidance and update.
Source: Page source of ecs.be — eu_cookie_compliance configuration block
The consent popup presents two categories:
- ✅ Functionele en statistische cookies (required, pre-ticked)
- ☐ Analytische cookies (optional opt-in)
From the allowed_cookies field in the page source:
functional: BIGipServer, lang, _Ifa, Iissc
analytics: _ga, _gid, _gat, hubspotutk, nQ_cookieID (Leadfeeder)
advertisement: _fbp (Facebook pixel), fr (Facebook), bscookie (LinkedIn), mc
social_media: lidc (LinkedIn Insight Tag), tr
The gap: advertisement and social_media cookies — including the Facebook pixel (_fbp) and LinkedIn Insight Tag (lidc) — are defined in the configuration but have no corresponding consent category in the UI. A visitor who accepts only functional cookies, or only analytics cookies, is not presented with an advertising opt-in — yet advertising cookies are mapped to those categories.
Under GDPR Art. 6(1)(a) and the ePrivacy Directive, advertising and social tracking cookies require explicit, informed, unambiguous opt-in consent. The current setup does not provide that.
Additional observation: the cookie policy version field in the page source reads "cookie_policy_version":"1.0.0" — suggesting the policy has never been formally versioned or updated since launch.
Fix: Add an "Advertentie & Social Media" category to the banner. Gate _fbp, lidc, bscookie, fr behind it. Increment the policy version on each update.
Finding: ECS operates under three different names across its own channels simultaneously.
| Channel | Name used |
|---|---|
| ecs.be website | ECS European Containers |
| LinkedIn company URL (old, still linked from site) | ecs-european-containers → 301 redirect |
| LinkedIn company page (current) | ECS Intermodal Supply Chain |
| CEO LinkedIn profile title | ECS Group |
Three names, zero consistency. A prospect who visits the website, then searches LinkedIn, then clicks the CEO profile encounters a different company name at every step.
The old LinkedIn URL (linkedin.com/company/ecs-european-containers) issues a 301 permanent redirect to linkedin.com/company/ecs-intermodal-supply-chain. The ECS website footer still links to the old URL — which works via redirect, but signals the website was never updated after the rebrand.
Fix: Decide on a canonical brand name and apply it across website, LinkedIn company page, CEO profile, and all executive profiles. Update the footer link to the current LinkedIn URL.
Profile: linkedin.com/in/richarddehaas
Role: CEO, ECS European Containers / ECS Intermodal Supply Chain
The CEO's profile carries LinkedIn's default abstract grey-teal background — no ECS logo, no brand colour, no tagline, no visual identity. His title reads "Chief Executive Officer, ECS Group" — a third name variant that appears on no other ECS channel (see finding #5).
With 1,949 followers, every recruiter, customer, investor, or partner who lands here encounters a completely unbranded executive profile.
#8D1D45 (ECS burgundy) · #F8CE3E (ECS gold) · "Together We Excel in freight solutions" · 1584 × 396 px
Design effort: 15 minutes. Zero budget. Immediate brand impact.
ECS footer links two channels:
| Platform | Handle | Followers | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| ECS Intermodal Supply Chain | 8,471 | ✅ Active (~1–2× / week) | |
| ECS.TogetherWeExcel | — | ✅ Active | |
| — | ❌ Not present | — | |
| YouTube | — | ❌ Not present | — |
| Twitter / X | — | ❌ Not present | — |
The existing LinkedIn content mix is solid:
- Job openings (Teamlead Credit Collection, driver recruitment)
- Fleet investments (10 new MAN trucks)
- Industry events (Food & Drink Expo Birmingham)
- Educational partnerships (Howest transport degree)
- Community initiatives (Miles for Smiles relay run, THOR safety campaign)
Port and intermodal logistics content performs exceptionally on Instagram and YouTube — crane operations, Super Mega Trailer loading sequences, Zeebrugge footage, time-lapses, Brexit customs explainers. ECS already has the location, the equipment, and the stories. It's a production gap, not a content gap.
With 863 employees and active recruitment, a YouTube channel ("A day at ECS", "What is a Super Mega Trailer?", "How ECS handles Brexit customs in 90 seconds") directly supports employer branding — a stated priority on the ECS careers page.
Fix: Instagram: repurpose existing photos — low effort, high reach. YouTube: one quarterly format to start.
The robots.txt on ecs.be does not disallow /sites/default/files/:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /core/
Disallow: /user/login
# ← /sites/default/files/ is NOT disallowed
All T&C documents are served from date-embedded paths:
/sites/default/files/2025-09/general_conditions_ecs_nv_2xl_nv_customer_nl_2.pdf
/sites/default/files/2025-08/general_conditions_ecs_trucking_bv_nl.pdf
/sites/default/files/2024-07/general_conditions_ecs_nv_2xl_nv_carrier_uk_eng.pdf
The predictable naming convention makes all historical document versions guessable by any search engine or researcher. Combined with the absence of versioning in the filenames, it's impossible to know from the URL alone whether a given document is current or superseded.
Fix: Add Disallow: /sites/default/files/ to robots.txt if internal files should not be indexed. Serve T&C from a stable versioned URL (/terms/customer/current) and redirect old paths.
# Verify broken portal — confirms DNS NXDOMAIN
curl -o /dev/null -s -w "%{http_code}" http://customerportal-supplychain.ecs.be
# → 000
# Check portal HTTP/HTTPS
curl -I http://customerportal-intermodal.ecs.be | grep -i "location\|strict-transport"
# Inspect ECS main site headers
curl -IL https://www.ecs.be/nl | grep -i "strict-transport\|content-security\|x-frame"
# Retrieve T&C page links
curl -s https://www.ecs.be/nl/algemene-voorwaarden | grep -oP 'href="[^"]*\.pdf"'
# LinkedIn URL redirect check
curl -I https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecs-european-containers/ | grep -i location
# → 301 to /company/ecs-intermodal-supply-chain
# GDPR config: extracted from eu_cookie_compliance JSON in ecs.be page source
# → allowed_cookies field shows advertisement + social_media categories
# → popup config shows only functional + analytics categories in UI
# robots.txt
curl https://www.ecs.be/robots.txt
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Banner | LinkedIn default grey-teal abstract | ECS branded · #8D1D45 · #F8CE3E |
| Brand signal | None | Company name · tagline · fleet imagery |
| Time to fix | — | 15 minutes |
| Cost | — | €0 |
Most B2B buying decisions involve looking up the people behind the company. LinkedIn is often the first touchpoint — before a meeting, before a proposal, before a hire. A CEO profile with a generic grey banner communicates nothing at the exact moment it should communicate everything.
- B2B buyers check LinkedIn profiles of key contacts in 76% of purchase decisions (LinkedIn B2B Institute)
- CEO profiles receive on average 10× more profile views than the company page per follower (LinkedIn internal data)
- Profiles with a custom banner have 21% higher connection acceptance rates (LinkedIn)
- First impressions online form in under 50ms — visual brand elements are processed before a word is read
| Element | Signal sent |
|---|---|
| Brand colours + logo | "We are a serious company with a visual identity" |
| Tagline | Instant value proposition — no scrolling required |
| Industry imagery | Domain expertise and operational reality |
| Consistency with company page | Attention to detail; controlled brand |
ECS has 8,471 LinkedIn followers on the company page. The CEO's profile has 1,949 followers — every one of whom sees an unbranded page. That's 1,949 warm contacts, customers, prospects, and candidates who get zero brand reinforcement from the most senior profile in the company.
The fix requires 15 minutes and zero budget. The barrier is not resources — it's awareness that the gap exists.
| Action | Effort | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| CEO LinkedIn banner | 15 min | Immediate brand lift on highest-traffic executive profile |
| Fix Supply Chain Portal DNS | 30 min | Removes dead link from customer journey |
| GDPR consent category fix | 2h dev | Closes compliance gap, reduces legal exposure |
| Align company name across channels | 1 sprint | Eliminates "ECS Group / European Containers / Intermodal" confusion |
| UK carrier T&C review | 1 day legal | Removes outdated contractual language post-Brexit |
| Instagram + YouTube launch | 1 quarter | Opens employer branding and organic reach channels |
Auditing ECS's digital ecosystem naturally led to understanding their operations — which led to building tools designed to run directly on ECS's existing infrastructure (TAS terminal system, Microsoft Business Central, Azure).
| Project | What it does | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| eco-match-engine | Eliminates empty return mileage by AI-matching open trips across ECS's network. Integrates with TAS + Business Central. Estimated 15–25% reduction in empty km per route. | Python · FastAPI · Power Platform |
| delay-dna | Predicts shipment delays hours or a full day before they materialise — combining weather, ferry schedules, customs hold patterns, and historical delay data per route. | React · Node.js · ML |
| ecs-ecoload | Super Mega Trailer load optimizer, live reefer container monitoring via SignalR, Brexit customs document validator. | .NET 10 · Angular 17 · DDD · Docker |
Philippe Godfroy · philgodf@gmail.com
github.com/KippieG