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Month: May 2021

Brexit: non-EU imports outstrip EU imports for first time

Posted on by David Priestman

Brexiteers may be celebrating the fact that EU imports to the UK were overtaken by non-EU imports for the first time, but international delivery specialist ParcelHero says that doesn’t mean Brexit is working. It just means non-EU imports to the UK have declined less alarmingly than EU imports.

As recently announced Government trade figures show that UK imports from outside the EU outstripped EU imports for the first time on record, Chancellor Rishi Sunak claimed a victory. He told the BBC that the Government had invested “hundreds of millions of pounds to help businesses adjust to those new trading arrangements and support them in the process”.

However, ParcelHero says these figures do not prove that UK importers are now discovering new products and trading partners in markets beyond the EU. Instead, they simply reveal that non-EU imports into the UK declined less alarmingly than EU imports.

ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., says: “New Government trade figures show that imports from the EU fell by £14bn to £50.6bn in the first quarter (January-March 2021) compared to the final quarter of last year (October-December 2020), before Brexit trading rules were imposed. Imports from non-EU countries also declined, but ‘only’ by £0.5bn, to £53.2bn.

“This means that – for the first time since Government records began in January 1997 – imports from beyond Europe were worth more than those from the EU. Brexiteers may try to claim this as a success, showing Britain is finding new trading partners and products from a wider range of countries; but this fails to see the full picture.

“EU sellers have simply turned their backs on the UK market. Just because non-EU imports declined less significantly than those from the EU does not mean consumers and businesses are benefiting from Brexit. Two negatives do not make a positive.

“As if the latest import figures were not dispiriting enough, British exports also declined significantly in the first quarter. The value of Britain’s exports to the EU fell a whopping £7.1bn to £32.2bn, compared to the last quarter of 2020.

“Why are these numbers so woeful? Last week, ParcelHero revealed that Brexit regulations are having a significant impact on British businesses. Over 39% of UK importers are struggling with new customs duties and 38.6% are battling increased transport costs. Exporters report similar challenges.

“It’s all because the hastily cobbled-together UK-EU free trade agreement is simply not fit for purpose. Under the deal, goods flowing between the UK and the EU that are sourced and manufactured in the UK or Europe don’t have to pay tariffs. However, how many products are entirely sourced and made in a single area in today’s world of global supply chains? The answer is very few. Electronics, for example, incorporate components from across the globe, while clothing can include materials from many continents.

“Any products unable to prove all their sourcing meets the new regulations are likely to be slapped with new duties. This has resulted in higher fees for UK importers as well as EU-based customers of UK exporters. In addition, transport costs are rising due to mounting delays and returns.

“However, there were some small, green shoots in the latest trade figures. Exports and imports both crept up by £2.3bn between February and March this year. Businesses and consumers alike will be hoping this could signal the beginning of a welcome increase in profits for exporters and more choice for shoppers.”

For more details on the increasing problems facing UK importers, CLICK HERE to see ParcelHero’s new EU-UK e-commerce report.

Riske: “KION better positioned than ever”

Posted on by Keith McKinley

At its Annual General Meeting, KION Group reflected on a financial year in which the Group managed to navigate the coronavirus pandemic in robust shape: “The KION Group has remained on course even through choppy waters. Our structure is resilient and we operate with a focus on the future,” said Gordon Riske, Chief Executive Officer of KION Group AG, in his report to shareholders. The encouraging results for the first quarter of 2021, published by the Group at the end of April, provide very solid foundations for the current year.

“Our KION 2027 strategy, our resilient financial position, and our flexibility in capitalizing on market potential are paying off,” emphasised Riske. “We are now better positioned than ever and remain on-track for growth.”

The CEO paid tribute to the hard work of the Group’s more than 36,000 employees in the last financial year: “The pandemic has also brought tremendous personal challenges and stresses for our employees. I am therefore all the more impressed by the extraordinary commitment of our teams. In a situation unlike anything that anyone of us had ever experienced, we all pulled together.”

Riske added that it had been an enormous challenge to keep the Group’s supply chains going in order to ensure that it was ultimately able to deliver to its customers. “And sometimes, we are still having to operate in difficult circumstances when we provide services to our customers, and when we install new systems and bring them on line,” Riske pointed out.

The Company always regards the health and safety of every single employee as its number one priority. In early March 2020, the KION Group developed and implemented a package of health and safety measures. Riske explained that these measures were adapted continuously to reflect changes in the course of the pandemic and new scientific findings.

Growing demand for material handling technologies

2020 also created opportunities for the KION Group: The boom in e-commerce coupled with automation technology in warehouse logistics boosted growth in the Supply Chain Solutions segment. Software-driven solutions for global supply chains proved to be an important stabilising factor. The Group’s structure with two strong operating segments, Industrial Trucks & Services and Supply Chain Solutions, has proven its worth.

“The challenges were – and still are – immense,” said Riske. “And yet we still managed to increase the value of our order intake by 3.6% year-on-year to around €9.4 billion in 2020. That is a new record for the KION Group. And our employees are rightly very proud of that!” Despite the pandemic, the Group continued to invest in bringing new products to market, expanding global production capacity, and developing the sales and service network, in order to ensure that the business is well positioned for the future.

Key trends: digitalisation and automation

In his report to shareholders, Gordon Riske also emphasised the significance of industry trends in the fields of automation, digitalisation, and energy. “We all see it, every day: The digital transformation and the increasing degree of automation are game changers in intralogistics. The acquisitions of Dematic in 2016 and the software company DAI last year have thus been tremendous additions to our business.” Riske expects that the trend toward fully automated warehouses will gather further pace. He explains that rapid, reliable, and efficient supply chains are the backbone of the web economy.

New energy systems were also a particular focus of research and development in the KION Group. From internal combustion engines to various types of electric drive systems and fuel cells – the products of the brand companies Linde Material Handling, STILL, Baoli, Fenwick, and OM, along with Dematic’s material handling solutions, offer customers the full range of drive technologies: “Our intelligent trucks, our data management, and our automated storage systems keep supply chains running smoothly all over the world – which is particularly important at the current time as we continue to live with the pandemic,” said Riske.

Sustainability is an integral element

Aspects of sustainability are having a growing influence on the way in which businesses are operated. In his report, Riske highlighted their importance: “We are taking responsibility.” The KION Group further developed its strategy in the past financial year with a focus on people, products, and processes, as set out in the recently published sustainability report.” We aim to be an employer where people feel motivated and recognised,” said Riske.

“Health and safety in the workplace is absolutely fundamental for us.” The KION Group’s products and solutions are highly efficient and could thus improve not only the environmental footprint of customers but also their safety. And last but not least, the Group’s processes have been designed in a way that limits their impact on the climate as much as possible.

Survey: e-commerce consumers have high delivery expectations

Posted on by Keith McKinley

GreyOrange, a global software provider that leverages artificial intelligence, machine learning and smart robots to optimise fulfilment operations, has revealed the results of a new survey which shows that almost half (45%) of consumers across EMEA expect online orders to be delivered within two days.

The survey, which polled 1,500 consumers from the U.K. and Benelux, found that the pandemic has accelerated consumers’ demand for immediacy when it comes to delivery options, and that poor and slow delivery options are impacting their choice of retailer. Almost half (49%) of the respondents agree that shipping and delivery options are factors they consider when making a purchasing decision, with the 45% claiming they expect their order to arrive within two days.

More than half of the consumers (57%) stated that three late orders would be enough to put them off purchasing from the same retailer again. Yet, despite this 22% of consumers stated that up to three-quarters of their online orders were delivered late last year.

With four-in-five (79%) consumers shifting the majority of their shopping to online during the pandemic, and almost half (45%) claiming they expect to keep their shopping online post-pandemic, these findings emphasise the importance of fast and efficient fulfilment as retailers look to kickstart their post-pandemic survival.

Terrie O’Hanlon, Chief Marketing Officer GreyOrange, said: “These survey results emphasise the importance of fast and efficient fulfilment operations. Consumers are spoilt for choice when it comes to making a purchase, with an abundance of different retailers all able to deliver to them the same, or similar, products.

“This means offering a strong customer experience, which includes delivery options that meet the customer’s expectation, is an even more important factor for retailers to consider as they look to retain current customers and attract new ones.”

“Retailers need to have a resilient and agile fulfilment operation in place that enables them to pivot seamlessly between channels to meet consumer demand – whether that be in-store, online, or a mix with buy-online, pick-up in-store or at-curb or at-locker. Without this, the data suggests retailers will be simply be left behind,” O’Hanlon added.

Cargo up 72% at Brussels Airport

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Cargo traffic through Brussels Airport in April 2021 continued its strong growth, with a 72% increase on the same period in 2020. But it handled only 250,065 passengers, down 89% on April 2019. This very low number is due to the ban on non-essential travel which remained in effect until 18th April and the array of travel restrictions and conditions.

The very good start of the year with strong growth in cargo volumes continued and even accelerated through April, largely due to the high demand for air cargo across Europe.

Contrary to the passenger figures, cargo volumes compared to the 2020 figures as the COVID pandemic has had only a limited impact on 2020 volumes.

The growth of air freight compared to 2020 is remarkable in all segments, in the integrator segment (+ 55), the full-freighter segment (+59%) and even in belly cargo, which rebounded from very low volumes in April 2020 (+492%).

In the full-freighter segment, Brussels Airport records general growth in the activities of all existing clients. Four new cargo carriers have come to strengthen the logistics platform at Brussels Airport by opening new routes to Asia: Azul, Japan Airlines, SpiceJet and China Central Longhao Airlines. The activity in the integrator segment structurally remains at a higher level than in previous years thanks to the strong increase in online purchases.

Import and export volumes have increased, especially inbound volumes coming from Asia and North America.

Covid-19 vaccine shipments to and from Brussels Airport continue, with several tens of millions of vaccines handled at Brussels Airport to this day, making Brussels Airport an important hub in the global distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

Passenger traffic down by 89%

250,065 passengers passed through Brussels Airport in April, a decrease of 89% compared to April 2019. Although this is a very poor number, it is slightly higher than the number of passengers recorded in February and March 2021. After the ban on non-essential travel was lifted on 19th April, passenger traffic at Brussels Airport picked up in the second half of the month, a trend that is expected to continue through May.

However, the array of conditions imposed on travellers, e.g. testing and especially the quarantine requirements for travellers returning from a red zone, as well as the fact that several countries refuse travellers, have a negative impact on passenger numbers.

Passenger numbers are compared to those of 2019 because, in April 2020, Belgium was on lockdown and the number of passengers was limited to a minimum because of the travel ban. As a result, the number of passengers recorded in April 2020 was already much lower than it would have been in normal times (17,042 in 2020 compared to nearly 2.3 million in 2019).

In April 2021, 25% of the passengers were transfer passengers, thanks to the network operated by Brussels Airlines and its partner airlines between North America, Europe and Africa. The share of intercontinental passengers is again at a high level of 30%. The majority are transfer passengers and passengers who travel for essential reasons. The travel ban imposed by the Moroccan government on the other hand will continue to have a negative impact until the 10th of June at best.

Flight movements

The total number of flight movements decreased by 70% in April 2021 (5,879 movements compared to 19,710 movements in pre-COVID April 2019). The number of passenger flights decreased by 83%. The average number of passengers per flight was 85.

The number of full-freighter flights remains well above the level forecast for 2020, with a high number of additional flights operated with passenger aircraft used to carry cargo only. Proportionally, there is no increase in night flights or the use of noisy wide bodies. Several airlines continue to use these aircraft to provide additional cargo capacity to compensate partially for the loss of belly capacity on normal passenger flights.

Wooden pallet industry sets sustainability goals

Posted on by David Priestman

European manufacturers of wooden pallets and packaging are working towards setting targets for their use of sustainable, certified timber within the next few months, according to the European Federation of Wooden Pallet & Packaging Manufacturers (FEFPEB). The move is one of the next steps in the organisation’s initiative to increase usage of certified wood and highlight the sector’s sustainable and environmentally friendly credentials.

At FEFPEB’s spring meeting, held online at the end of April, Secretary General Fons Ceelaert (pictured) said following a successful pilot scheme with PEFC in the Netherlands, FEFPEB is now defining a strategy through its working group on sustainability and certification.

The goals will be set with the help of national associations across Europe. They will focus initially on manufacturing (not repair) and will vary according to awareness of sustainability issues and the market dynamics of different countries.

“Working closely with our national member associations, we are looking to ascertain how much certified wood is currently used to manufacture pallets and packaging and together set ambitious but realistic targets. The industry is already well on the way to using mainly certified timber, but we intend to accelerate this trend,” said Ceelaert.

“Our aim is to ensure we have an increasing trend across our membership so we can demonstrate clearly the environmental credentials of our business, in the same way as the B2C sector is doing already.” He added that the next step would be to set concrete European targets.

There followed a presentation on the opportunities and threats to the wooden packaging industry of the New Circular Economy Action Plan (NCEAP), led by Roeland Moens, member of the FEFPEB Executive Committee and Chairman of FEFPEB’s pallet pools section. Moens detailed the main changes in progress under the Sustainable Product Initiative – which aims to ensure the high environmental credentials of all products on the EU market – and the forthcoming legislation under the Packaging Waste Directive in quarter 4 of 2021. He stated that FEFPEB has been proactive in representing the industry in both processes.

Two sessions during the meeting focused on the exceptional and worsening availability and prices in global raw materials markets.

Sampsa Auvinen, President EOS and elected President CEI Bois 2021-2022 highlighted a Russian ban on log exports which will start on 1st January, 2022 and is expected to cause ‘aggressive’ competition for other sources of logs, particularly from buyers in China, making an already difficult global wood supply situation worse. This, combined with ongoing factors such as the bark beetle outbreak in central Europe, an imbalance in the movement of shipping containers, and general international pressure on availability, will likely keep prices high for the foreseeable future.

Alessandro Sciamarelli, Director of Market Analysis and Economic Studies at EUROFER, which represents the European steel industry, outlined the continuing availability issues and price rises in this raw material, which is another key input into the wooden pallet and packaging industry.

Brent J McClendon, President and CEO of NWPCA in the US gave a presentation to the meeting on how collaboration across the international wooden packaging sector – including through the Global Wood Packaging Forum – was progressing its common goals on issues such as the environment.

Other presentations during FEFPEB’s three-hour meeting included:

  • ISPM15 implementation status in FEFPEB’s member countries, compiled as part of its submission to the EU on the harmonisation of the standard, focusing on pallet repair, re-heat treatment and marking rules.
  • Developments in the lightweight packaging market by Olivier de Lagausie, secretary general of SEIL/GROW (France), including environmental and hygiene credentials.
  • FEFPEB updates including European statistics, finances and composition of its Executive Committee.

RMGroup partners with ASTI Mobile Robotics

Posted on by David Priestman

Robotics and automation specialist RMGroup has announced a distributor partnership with ASTI Mobile Robotics, a leading European manufacturer of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs). The move will see RMGroup include AGVs and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in its extensive product portfolio of packaging machinery and robotic automation solutions.

ASTI Mobile Robotics Group, with offices in Spain, Germany, France and United States, provides automated intralogistics solutions for large manufacturers, helping them to optimise productivity, streamlining production processes and cutting operational costs.

The company specialises in the engineering of Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs), serving global blue-chip customers across a wide range of sectors, including automotive, aerospace, food, e-commerce, pharmaceutical and cosmetics. As part of its commitment to excellence and continuous improvement of its products and services, ASTI Mobile Robotics invests heavily in research and development year after year.

Having recently become the first integrator in the UK to be accredited under the RIA/BARA Robot Integrators’ Certification Scheme, the RMGroup supplies and manufactures a wide range of manual and automated packaging systems, including manual bagging machines, weighing systems, robot palletising systems, bulk filling and material handling systems, as well as supplying high-speed form fill and seal packaging lines.

Operating in the food & beverage, horticultural, aggregates, chemicals and agricultural industries, the company’s partnership with ASTI Mobile Robotics will provide a complementary offering.

Commenting on the partnership, RMGroup’s Rosie Davies, said: “Becoming a partner of ASTI Mobile Robotics provides a natural extension of our automation capabilities, meaning that we can now offer a seamless, integrated solution for all product and pallet handling requirements. Together we have a shared desire to remain the leaders in innovation within our respective fields, which will in turn provide a unique and unrivalled platform to support our customers.”

“We have key synergies with the RMGroup, who share similar core values. We very much look forward to developing our relationship in the future and creating opportunities to add value,” added Borja González López, ASTI’s partner network manager.

Thermo King approves fossil-free diesel fuel

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Thermo King, a leader in transport temperature control solutions, has approved the use of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) fossil-free, diesel fuel as a more sustainable fuel alternative to power its truck and trailer refrigeration units.

The use of biodegradable HVO instead of traditional diesel, leads to even 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and particulate matter pollution from the engine, with unchanged performance.

“Thermo King has the largest range of zero- and low-emission transport temperature control solutions in the industry,” said Francesco Incalza, president of Thermo King in Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Our customers value us for our commitment to advance the technology and capability of the refrigerated transport. We keep innovating to reduce the environmental footprint of our products, and by testing and validating the use of HVO in our units give our customers another option to increase the sustainability of their operations.”

Thermo King has thoroughly tested the HVO biodiesel in its truck and trailer units on the road and conducted endurance tests in its laboratory in the Galway, Ireland manufacturing plant. The results showed the units’ performance is not affected even in low ambient, freezing temperatures. The HVO biodiesel can be used as a drop-in replacement or mixed with regular diesel, with no requirements for unit’s engine modifications or more frequent maintenance intervals.

This step by Thermo King is part of the actions taken by parent company Trane Technologies to make progress against its 2030 Sustainability Commitments, including its Gigaton Challenge to reduce customer emissions by one billion metric tons. Trane Technologies plans to cut its product carbon emissions by nearly 50% by 2030, and that its ambitious emissions reduction targets has been validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi).  It also supports the Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which will require net-zero global carbon emissions by 2050.

 

 

Cooperative Logistics Network updates TMS

Posted on by David Priestman

The freight forwarding industry is evolving very fast, and for this reason the Cooperative Logistics Network has decided to expand its accessibility and offer as many opportunities as possible to all users.

The Coop’s IT department has added a new feature to its members-only TMS, FreightViewer, that enables members to send and receive quote requests to any of their partners both within as well as outside the Network. This quote request comes in the form of an interactive quotation link that can be filled up by the recipient.

This new feature allows members to easily communicate and exchange the necessary information with their partners. The most important advantage of this new tool is that henceforth members will be able to store the rates from independent freight forwarders outside the Network in FreightViewer. In other words, the addition of this new feature enables the agents to speed up the process of quote generation and even allows them to store all quotes provided by any freight forwarder in a unique platform.

Even though conducting business with the network partners is a tried and tested way to work in a safe and secure environment, many agents have already successfully partnered with several companies that are not Coop members before becoming a part of the network. This is precisely why the Coop’s FreightViewer department considered it essential to open the system to external agents.

This has enormously facilitated communication even with companies who are not part of the network alongside the trustworthy Coop partners.

“The digitisation of the freight forwarding sector has ushered in numerous challenges for logistics companies,” says CQR Founder and President Antonio Torres. “One of the most important challenges is the capacity to centralise and store all the data and exchange of information on one single platform. This where FreightViewer comes into play.

“Apart from allowing the agents to generate instant, accurate door-to-door quotations, it also simplifies the steps to request quotes from overseas agents thereby bringing more efficiency into the daily business operations.”

Regardless of whether the freight agent is a Coop member or not, all users can now send and receive quotations from this platform.

The logistics sector has recently been through several changes including globalisation and the rise in e-commerce trends. These changes have irrevocably altered the landscape of this industry and have given rise to a more international and multimodal form of business entailing a large number of components.

Added to that, the pandemic and the ensuing lockdown have also considerably influenced and affected the freight forwarders. The pandemic has made overseas travel extremely difficult. In this situation, freight agents can no longer consider travelling to a different city to meet their partner in person. This is why, now more than ever, it’s even more vital for freight forwarders networks to provide their members with efficient tools for facilitating the easy exchange of data.

Automation becoming suitable for SMEs

Posted on by David Priestman

Automation used to be about the multi-billion turnover, blue-chip global players putting out global tenders for eye-watering sums. Not any more. Return on Investment (ROI) on warehouse automation is becoming both faster and more visible for a whole new tier of organisations.

For some, it’s a scary prospect. Seasoned managers who have had very successful careers making decisions about trucks and material handling equipment (MHE) are having to go out of their comfort zones to explore frighteningly complex technology and solutions. Where do they start?

Step forward, Iain Gillard and Big Box Group. A UK industry veteran steeped in the world of MHE hardware, Iain founded his East Yorkshire-based concern initially as a highly effective storage and racking supplier, but over the past decade it has made increasing strides as a full integrator, now with three companies within the group: Big Box Intralogistics, Big Box Automation and Big Box Buildings. Big Box’s core racking base has now expanded to also include full service options – its forklift partner is UK-based Flexi, it works with Balyo on AGVs and with GreyOrange in goods-to-person picking robots. Big Box Buildings designs and builds warehouses, including temporary and semi-permanent structures in steel and aluminium.

“We see the customer warehouse as an empty box, and we build solutions from there,” he tells me. “It’s about offering a turnkey solution with full service capability. That’s propelled us to where we are now, with storage solutions and automation solutions. It’s a great, highly competitive proposal for any end user or any client looking at this area of their business. We know they’ll go to other suppliers also, we know we’ll be pricechecked, but as long as we can come up with a solution which is right and which is competitive, we stand a very good chance against anyone.”

The crucial word there is ‘right’. What gives him the confidence that he is providing the right solution for the client?

“Because we are much more than just a racking supplier. Let’s think of an imaginary example. Let’s say a client wants 10,000 pallets as a capacity. A standard racking supplier will simply quote for 10,000 pallets. We will dig deeper and may find out, for instance, that the customer is sending out 40 lorries a day. It’s pretty clear now that the system can’t breathe, it can’t function. So it’s about finding a solution that works for the customer and improves his processes, rather than us thinking purely in terms of our own profit, or in just winning the business at whatever cost.

“Once we model that solution with the MHE, then we are providing a unique offering to the customer. We can put a raft of ideas to them: ‘if you go down the VNA route, this will be your capacity, if you prefer reach trucks then this is your capacity’, and so on. So the end user can have comfort that we know what we’re talking about, that we have the right answers for them.”

It’s a small team which, he says, packs a considerable punch and provides the personal attention that comes from lean structures. “We offer a specialist service based on our years of experience in the industry, we know from first-hand experience what works and what doesn’t and we have no hesitation in being very honest about that. Add the building side of the business, we become a very tangible prospect for a customer to consider as a full-service provider.”

Iain Gillard makes no bones about automation’s place at the centre of the offering. “We know which direction the industry is headed and we think the pandemic has brought it forward by five years,” he asserts.

The result is a new opportunity for SMEs, he explains. “Of course, all the big blue-chip multibillion turnover businesses are likely to have established systems and relationships in place, global tender agreements etc. But the ROI now for AGVs and AMRs is based on one-and a- half to two-and-a-half-year returns, so the prices have become tangible for SME markets.

“You don’t need to be a £500m business at all to understand that the ROI is very available, especially if you’re running a two- or three-shift process. Remember that AGV technology has actually been around for a long time, but it’s only recently that the flexibility of SLAM technology has made it easier to implement and reconfigure as required.”

He makes a strong claim for the business case and its increasing affordability. “When you add it up, 70% of the cost of material handling is the labour, the driver. And we know the labour is not available. It’s not about replacing jobs – it’s about giving the ROI back to the client. If you are a company looking at your ROI over five years, and we present you with an AGV product, that company can now see that it’s worth investing £400k because their historic five-year costs might be £1-1.2 million. So, we want to open all ideas and all doors to our customers. Our worst-case scenario is if an enquirer simply wants a price for racking – then it’s simply about competing on price. Where we shine is when a customer says, ‘I’ve got a problem, help me sort this out.’”

Can he offer examples of where such an approach has reaped benefits for his customers? “On the storage side, we have a customer in West Yorkshire, his business has grown well, but because of that speed, it had to fight fires in getting there. We’ve implemented vertical carousels, order picking solutions, reconfigured the racking to suit the new processes, as well as an unloading conveyor for containers, where previously they had been manually unloading.

“Then there are customers who’ve never explored the opportunity presented by articulated forklifts. We’ve reconfigured a production area for a customer in Grimsby to get them another 4000 pallets onsite.

“We’ve also implemented 28 AMR sortation robots in Rugby a fulfilment business. That’s just gone live with a 2500 per hour throughput.”

For such an integrator, it’s essential to work with proven partners in whom all sides can have complete confidence. “I’ve known Flexi for a long time and I’m very happy with both their trucks and their product support,” he reflects.

“We’ve signed with GreyOrange for our Automated Mobile Robot (AMR) offering. The bot market is growing very fast, there are over 100 manufacturers already, with many coming out of Asia. You can buy a bot from £20k up to £100k, but it’s important to bear in mind that the bot is only 20% of the system, the real cost is in the software. And GreyOrange software is absolutely first-rate in my view.”

Picking the right solution for your business is the key. “There are no bad forklift trucks out there – there is a forklift out there to do anything you want,” Iain Gillard promises. “The question is, do you want it to do a couple of hours a day, or do you want to use it seven days a week for three shifts? The bot world is just the same. That’s why our job is to be aware of all the options and be able to present them with expertise to our clients.”

For now, the Covid-induced challenge for Big Box Group is getting out to see people face-to-face to show what they can do. When that time comes later this year, they have big plans for your business.

 

 

McGregor meets heavy demand with Schmitz Cargobull reefers

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Long-standing Schmitz Cargobull customer McGregor Logistics has taken delivery of 10 new S.KO COOL reefers to meet increasing work volumes, with each asset offering increased durability and payload.

The new trailers, manufactured in Vreden, will run on multi-drop fresh and frozen work across the UK and internationally and are expected to cover up to 150,000 kilometres a year.

They join McGregor Logistics’ existing fleet of 40 multi-temp units and 70 fixed roof curtainsider trailers – more than 70% manufactured by Schmitz Cargobull.

McGregor Logistics’ Managing Director, Keith Law, says: “We have been lucky enough to have experienced an increase in customer demand recently, and had a need to extend our trailer fleet. We’ve been purchasing assets from Schmitz Cargobull for many years and knew we would be going back to them due to the robustness and exceptional build quality of all their trailers.

“The vehicles hit the mark each time, and we can always rely on them to do the job well. They’re also the lightest we’ve come across, which means an increase in payload on each journey. That easily makes them the best value trailers you can get.”

The box bodies are constructed using Schmitz Cargobull’s patented Ferroplast technology – a high-quality expanded, closed-cell, polyurethane foam housed between steel skins. This technology ensures a complete vapour diffusion-tight surface, meaning each S.KO COOL trailer is energy efficient, hygienic, age-resistant and easy to repair.

Each trailer is built upon a Modulos galvanised and bolted chassis which reduces weight without compromising on strength, and individual components can be easily replaced, ensuring inexpensive repairs in the event of damage.

When repairs are needed, McGregor Logistics relies on Schmitz Cargobull’s Parts and Services team to rapidly provide replacement components.

Law adds: “We’re very pleased with the level of service and support Schmitz Cargobull offers. If we ever have any problems, the team are always on hand and everything is turned around in lightning time.”

Established in 2004, McGregor Logistics works across mainland UK, Ireland and Europe, with depots in Doncaster, Cardiff and at Tilbury Docks. The team transports and stores a wide range of goods including full loads, part loads and pallet distribution.

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