Month: July 2019

The UK’s University of Bolton has launched a pioneering degree course in partnership with well-known transport and logistics company Eddie Stobart.

The Eddie Stobart and University of Bolton’s three-year BSc degree programme in Logistics & Supply Chain Management guarantees a graduate job for successful students.

Students will be interviewed by representatives of both the university and Eddie Stobart before being accepted on the course.

They will combine classroom learning with a variety of work placements and get the opportunity to be exposed to all key areas of the business.

Once they have successfully completed the degree, they will be taken on in a graduate job role in the company.

The university is now inviting applications for the degree programme, which will start its first cohort in the forthcoming academic year (2019-20).

To apply for the course, visit https://www.bolton.ac.uk/eddie-stobart/

Pictured: Kondal Reddy Kandadi, Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Bolton, joined Alex Laffey, Chief Executive Officer of Eddie Stobart, at the company’s headquarters in Warrington to sign the contract.

The construction of European plastic pallet specialist Q-Pall’s new Netherlands headquarters has begun. The new location in Veghel along the A50 and is expected to be complete by the end of this year. The new building will house both the new European headquarters and a new industrial hall and will further expand this company, which was founded in 2005, and also offers good opportunities for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which is especially important to Q-Pall.

Q-Pall’s commitment to CSR is shown by the design and the construction of the new headquarters and the new industrial hall. Foundation piles were already present at the building site, which were taken into account in the design of the location. This not only saves on construction costs, but also prevents unnecessary use of materials. In addition, the new construction enables Q-Pall to take other major steps in the field of CSR. For instance, an air/heat pump and solar collectors will not be missing on the roof, and the new building will be virtually energy-neutral.

The design of the building is sleep and simple, but due to large windows, large overhangs and the integration of things like the awning into the facade, it will be a beautiful building. It is the next and large step in Q-Pall’s desire to produce sustainable plastic pallets in an efficient way.

Q-Pall is a major European player in the field of manufacturing plastic packaging materials, particularly plastic pallets. What is characteristic is that Q-Pall has the production of plastic pallets take place on the location where there is a need for those pallets as much as possible. This is achieved by transporting the moulds that are used to create the pallets to the local production facility. Transporting only those moulds results in enormous savings on transport kilometres, and therefore, on CO2 emissions and the costs of trucks.

A concrete example: if plastic pallets are produced in the Netherlands that are intended for the French market, this means many full trucks need to make long trips to the south and back. By only transporting the mould to France and producing the pallets locally, huge savings are achieved in terms of transport kilometres and, as a result, the CO2 emissions. There are currently production locations in Balk (NL), Ringe and Marktoberdorf (D), Ribe (DK) and Nantes (F).

Narrow Aisle Ltd – the VNA materials handling solutions specialist – recently hosted a series of distributor open days at its UK Flexi manufacturing plant in Great Bridge, West Midlands. Attended by some 200 visitors, the open days gave guests the opportunity to see a live presentation of the latest additions to the Flexi range of articulated forklift trucks – the Flexi LiTHiON.

Powered by lithium-ion batteries, the Flexi LiTHiON features state-of-the-art digital electric motor technology to control all drive, hydraulic and power-steering functions and is described by Narrow Aisle Ltd as a ‘tour de force’ in articulated lift truck technology.

“The development of digital multiplex control systems for our battery powered trucks’ key functions delivers a more integrated performance and results in fantastic reliability and higher productivity, combined with significantly reduced operating and maintenance costs,” said Narrow Aisle Ltd’s managing director, John Maguire.

With all drive, hydraulic and power-steering functions digitally controlled and integrated with the truck battery’s advanced software systems, the Flexi LiTHiON is able to perform at full power throughout a typical shift with no drop off in performance levels. This ability to distribute consistent power levels means maximum efficiency is achieved even during the busiest multi-shift operation.

Furthermore, Flexi LiTHiON trucks require no battery maintenance – the truck monitors the battery function constantly and reports the battery status in real-time. And the combination of fully integrated digital motors and lithium-ion power is so effective when it comes to eliminating wasted power that truck availability is typically increased by 25 per cent every day.

During the open days, Narrow Aisle also demonstrated the grocery retail order picking capability of its FlexiPiCK layer picking system.

Customers in the USA and the UK have adopted the layer picking concept as an effective way of reducing manual handling fatigue and accuracy in high volume case picking facilities. Layer picking allows retail customers to distribute fully locked multiple layers of products safely and effectively on pallets. Layer case pick rates of over 1500 per hour can be achieved with the FlexiPiCK and, importantly, the unit requires no additional infrastructure investments to implement. Users have achieved payback for the system in fewer than nine months.

Guests were also given a tour of Narrow Aisle’s Flexi production facility. The current site in the ‘Black Country’, which Narrow Aisle has occupied since the mid-1980s, has recently benefited from a sizable investment that has increased production capacity to allow the sustained and growing demand for Flexi trucks – both from within the UK and worldwide – to be met.

John Maguire added: “As sales of trucks in the Flexi range continue to grow, we have to ensure that our production facilities are able to keep pace with demand. The recent and ongoing investment in our UK manufacturing site is a reflection of our confidence in our business, our products and our hugely skilled engineering teams.”

DP World PLC handled 35.8 million TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units) across its global portfolio of container terminals in the first half of 2019, with gross container volumes growing by 0.5% year-on-year on a reported basis and 0.5% on a like-for-like basis.

Strong performance across Asia Pacific, Indian Subcontinent and Africa drove growth in 2Q 2019, but weaker volumes in the UAE and Australia offset this trend, it said.

At a consolidated level, terminals handled 19.5 million TEU during the first half of 2019. Consolidated volumes in 2Q2019 grew by 10.6% on a reported basis but down 0.6% on a like-for-like basis. The strong reported growth in Americas and Australia region is due to the consolidation of Australia and acquisition of Pulogsa which consists of two terminals in Chile.

DP World Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, said: “In line with our expectations, we have delivered a broadly stable volume performance in the first half of 2019. Encouragingly, despite uncertainty from the trade war, we have seen robust volumes in Asia Pacific and Indian Subcontinent, while growth in Africa remains strong. In contrast, UAE and Australia volumes have been soft due to a loss of lower-margin cargo and challenging market conditions. However, we expect a more stable throughput performance in the UAE for the second half of the year.

“On our broader portfolio, we have made good progress in strengthening our product offering, allowing us to enable trade and connect directly with end customers to deliver a range of logistic solutions. Our near-term focus is on integrating our recent acquisitions, managing costs and disciplined investment to cement DP World’s position as the trade partner of choice.”

Pallite, an innovative UK-based paper pallet and shipping crate maker, which recently secured over £1,150,000 funding on Crowdcube, says it will use the funding to ramp up production to ensure supply should the UK leave the EU without a deal on 31st October. The company says its products can help combat a potentially severe pallet shortage in that scenario.

Because they are made from paper, Pallite products are exempt from ISPM-15 requirements which require heat treating or fumigation of wooden packaging to prevent disease transfer. The EU applies lower standards to members, allowing untreated pallets to move across borders but this benefit would be lost in a no deal scenario. It has been reported that only 1/3rd of existing UK pallets would be compliant should we leave with no deal.

If suitable pallets were unable to be sourced, millions of tonnes of goods carried between the UK and EU may not be allowed to be transported. According to The Guardian more than 3m pallets move between the UK and EU every month and this scenario “could potentially lead to food shortages”.

Pallite’s products reduce raw material use and carbon emissions to help businesses reduce their impact on the environment. Its pallets and pallet boxes are up to 83% lighter than traditional wooden and plastic alternatives – which can weigh over 60kg – and this reduces emissions in transit. If 30,000 pallets were air freighted from the UK to New York using Pallite® rather than wooden pallets you’d reduce CO2 emissions by 4,612 tonnes.

CEO Ian Hulmes (above) said: “Any business concerned about being able to move goods between the UK and EU should consider our sustainable and regulation-exempt pallets and boxes to ensure they can keep their supply chains moving.”