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Tag: road transport

Tiger Trailers Provide New Vans for Warburtons Fleet

Posted on by David Priestman

One of Britain’s leading bakery brands, Warburtons, has selected Tiger Trailers to supply 38 rigid box vans to its nationwide fleet of trucks, that transport fresh bread to around 18,500 locations daily, around the nation.

When Warburtons approached Tiger in the winter of 2022, they needed the vehicles to be built to match their specific operational requirements. Expected to become part of a busy retail delivery fleet, they needed a custom, clever, and ergonomic design with robustness and usability as key components.

With regular visits to Tiger’s factory and 3D-model review sessions during the initial design phase, Warburtons was impressed by Tiger Trailers’ thorough build quality, consistency, and attention to detail displayed in their vehicles, as well as an ultra-modern facility and assurance of on-time delivery.

Steve Gray, Head of Transport at Warburtons, comments: “It has been reassuring to have been involved throughout the design and manufacturing process. We have taken delivery of 10 of the vans already and are very impressed with the final product. We are looking forward to a further 28 due joining our fleet in spring this year.”

Transport Truck
Warburtons’ New Rigid Box Van

Building the Fleet

Built on 14-tonne DAF chassis from local firm Lancashire DAF, each rigid is fitted with Warburtons-specification racking along its sides, along with adjustable centre aisle load bars to suit the customer’s loading requirements. The rigids also boast crew doors on each side of the body’s rear, to expedite the loading process, access to which is covered with a hinged alloy floor section, maximising load capacity. The Dhollandia tail lift aids drivers with large loads, and the two Labcraft B3 Banksman reversing lights help in low-light conditions. They are finished in Warburtons’ trademark orange, painted in house at Tiger.

Tom Stott, Technical Sales Manager at Tiger Trailers, comments: “It’s been a pleasure to work closely with Steve and his team at Warburtons. At Tiger we are proud to offer competitive lead times, and guarantee a premium product without compromising on quality. To have done so for one of Britain’s most-recognisable brands is something to be celebrated, and we are hopeful to build on the relationship we have established with Steve and Warburtons in the future.”

Ten of Warburtons’ new Tiger rigids, delivered in late 2023, can already be seen out on the roads, operating out of several of Warburtons’ 22 nationwide depots.

Travis Perkins invests in new loader cranes

Posted on by David Priestman

Travis Perkins plc, the UK’s largest distributor of building materials, has announced a multi-million pound investment in 400 new truck loader cranes.

These new HIAB iX.162 HIPRO BSS-2 cranes are the first of their kind and will replace the existing cranes on the Group’s heavy side delivery vehicles in the Travis Perkins merchanting and Keyline Civils Specialist businesses over a three-year period.

This version of the HIAB iX.162 crane is around 150kg lighter in weight than the previous model, HIAB X-HIDUO 162. This allows the truck to increase its payload and lower its fuel consumption. To further reduce carbon emissions, the new cranes have been developed so the engine can be stopped and restarted from the crane remote control. This results in a significant reduction in idle time emissions and noise.

Despite being lighter, the new crane model is stronger than the previous model. This gives operators more flexibility and enables them to deliver heavy loads in even the most challenging customer environments safely and with greater accuracy. They also come with Hiab’s all-new CombiDrive 4 remote control, which has confirmed view sensors and automatically detects operator positioning to minimise accident risk and promote better safety for operators, customers and the public.

“These new cranes represent a significant investment. They support our plans to innovate and grow, and they cement our place as a leading partner to construction by serving our customers with improved safety and efficiency. All new cranes will come with a maintenance contract, which means they will be maintained to the highest standards by Hiab. They also support our own commitment to net zero and the decarbonisation of our customers’ supply chain; a commitment we share with Hiab, whose values very much align with our own,” explained Richard Byrne, Travis Perkins Group HSE & Fleet Director.

Gage Roberts, Hiab Key Account Manager – UK & Ireland, said: “We are all very excited to introduce the first HIAB iX.162 HIPRO  BSS-2 to Travis Perkins and get this unit out working in the field. It became very apparent that when specifying a crane for our customers, the safety features alongside the environmental factors are much more prominent considerations than they ever have been previously. The new crane has an abundance of innovations that will all work towards this crane being the safest, most efficient and most productive crane in the industry. It is also great to work alongside a strategic partner such as Travis Perkins plc; a company that always demands the very best – something that benefits both businesses enormously.”

“There has never been a product on the market before like the HIAB iX.162 HIPRO BSS-2 in its category. Our innovation teams have been working on this round-the-clock for several years and no stone has been left unturned, from hose routing and weight savings, to enhanced safety features and technology that will help companies achieve sustainability  targets. When the new HIAB iX.162 HIPRO BSS-2 cranes are rolled out, we expect the crane operators to see immediate benefits. We look forward to working with Travis Perkins and bringing about real change to the wider UK industry,” Vice President for Sales & Product Management, Loader Cranes Light & Medium, at Hiab, Alexander Gelis, added.

The new 400 HIAB cranes will be rolled out from January 2024, and will be supplied to Travis Perkins and Keyline with HiConnect telematics in order to monitor the performance and safe operation of the crane.

They will also be supplied with the comprehensive service contract solution ProCare, available for Hiab equipment. It provides proactive maintenance and expert assistance to maximise equipment performance, reliability and lifespan.

 

IFOY Test Report: Loady by Loady

Posted on by Keith McKinley

In the next of our comprehensive looks at all the IFOY Award finalists ahead of the announcement ceremony in Dortmund on June 22nd, we put the Loady SaaS solution under the microscope.

Loady provides standardised, reliable requirements for loading and unloading at industrial sites for the first time. Trucks are no longer rejected at gates or loading points, because equipment and document to be brought along or processes to be known are communicated reliably and comprehensibly. A higher planning accuracy of transport services means savings of millions of euro to the industry and logistics service providers – and the constant troubleshooting on all sides finally comes to an end. Loady is fundamental to further digitise and automate logistics processes.

IFOY category: Start-up of the Year

IFOY Test Report

Loady is a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution and industry-wide reference source (single source of truth) for loading and unloading requirements that all logistics partners in the supply chain can refer to. For the first time, shippers and consignees can enter all the information and requirements that need to be considered for loading and unloading a truck at their location and for specific products into a standardised data structure.

The software includes a modular data model that can be used for complex, large sites and hazardous goods, as well as smaller and simpler goods deliveries. By assigning transport lanes, data can be shared with business and logistics partners for the respective operational processes. Data changes are tracked in the software, and there is a data history. This means that it is always possible to see which data status was valid at which point in time. Authorised business and logistics partners can be informed directly in the event of changes to relevant data fields. The data is used in the company applications via API, and there is also a mobile, multilingual interface for drivers.

There is no predecessor, just a long-standing breaking point that can be overcome with the software. Loady is the first solution on the market to manage loading and unloading requirements in a structured data model and be a reliable source for all logistics partners. The software is also the first centralised pre-product database.

Loady thus offers a meaningful alternative to free-text fields, in which companies currently try to track their requirements for loading, but also for unloading at their customers, in continuous text format, laboriously and sometimes incorrectly. In SAP, this mainly concerns the fields G12 and G14 in the forwarding orders. The software can also be used to replace manually compiled Excel files for logistics tenders, cleaning requirements and preliminary products.

Loady is relevant for all supply chain companies and their logistics service providers, Europe-wide and globally. This means a market volume of over 60,000 medium to large industrial companies and more than 20,000 logistics service providers worldwide.

IFOY test verdict: Industrial companies and logistics service providers benefit from Loady by providing reliable master data that is used along the processes. Responsibilities for relevant information are clearly defined. This is ensured by established data management roles with clear data governance rules. As a result, the risk of trucks being rejected at the loading or unloading point is also a thing of the past. In this way, the software helps to avoid extra or empty kilometres (reduction of carbon dioxide emissions). The effort required for problem solving, root cause clarification, data maintenance and mutual verification of information is reduced. Relevant changes are automatically communicated to business and logistics partners. This is associated with increased responsiveness, which leads to better understanding among all parties involved. Overcoming language barriers through a multilingual interface with direct translation for data managers, drivers and freight forwarders also contributes to this.

IFOY Innovation Check

Market relevance: Chemovator’s Loady product addresses the enormously important issue of standardised data exchange in the awarding and execution of transport orders in the forwarding environment, both in the industrial and the commercial environment. It thus provides “standardised and reliable requirements for loading and unloading at industrial sites” – undoubtedly a highly relevant problem for an extremely high number of companies today. There is almost no manufacturing company or trading company that is not affected by the issue.

Customer benefit: Standardised data storage and maintenance are already an enormous lever for error prevention. If necessary, this data is then also exchanged automatically and standardised on a case-dependent basis. This eliminates significant causes of errors and significantly increases process reliability. This does not only offer an advantage when all contractual partners of a process use the system, but already when one of the contractual partners has it in use, the first important advantages already become usable, through the then as free text, but nevertheless structured and standardised as well as previously checked provision of the data.

Novelty / Innovation: The problem, which is actually of far-reaching relevance, has simply not been addressed to date; it is the first solution of its kind. The market behaviour regarding the acceptance of data handling has not yet been fully clarified. The usability on the basis of different clients allows the product to be quickly implemented and accepted by users. The standard must be accepted as such by those responsible for the company.

Functionality / Type of implementation: The product is implemented with a convincing architecture, which also provides suitable clients with easy-to-use functionalities for the different user groups. Particularly is the conception, which already makes a significant advantage convertible also with initial few users. This makes a possible successful implementation profitable even in the initial phase for individual customers – a topic that is unfortunately often neglected in many products.

Verdict: At the interface between supply chain and intralogistics, this start-up is positioned in the area of loading. “The future standard” (own statement) offers a structured linking of data to optimise the overall process of freight from tendering to ramp approach. In addition, there is an architecture of applications up to an app for the driver. The challenge here is whether the proposed structure will actually be accepted as a new standard by stakeholders. However, the product can also function on its own, without another company being connected, and then outputs the data as free text, but in an optimised structure.

Market relevance ++
Customer benefit ++
Novelty / Innovation +
Functionality / Type of implementation +
[KEY: ++ very good / + good / Ø balanced / – less / — not present]

TEG Launches ‘Industry-First’ Transport Data Service

Posted on by David Priestman

Transport Exchange Group (TEG), a leading UK online freight exchange platform, is helping its members to operate more dynamically and competitively in a highly volatile marketplace with the launch of what it describes as an ‘industry-first’ load pricing data service. Price Per Mile (PPM) will offer simple, timely and accurate insight into changing road transport rates for the first time, so hauliers, couriers and owner drivers can better shape their pricing strategies in real-time.

“The road transport sector has faced a period of unprecedented instability over the past few years because of multiple economic factors such as Brexit, COVID, driver shortages, and the war in Ukraine,” explains Lyall Cresswell, CEO of Transport Exchange Group. “The resulting impact on small-and mid-sized operators in terms of pricing strategy and capacity planning has been significant, so we have launched PPM to provide our members with the business intelligence needed to compete and grow.”

PPM can be tailored by both postcode and vehicle type to provide a weekly update of average, high and low pricing data into and out of a specified area. The aggregated and anonymised information is calculated using data from millions of transactions. The service was initially launched as a pilot involving owner drivers, but it has now been rolled out to all members of the Haulage Exchange and Courier Exchange, with self-service functionality soon to be introduced to simplify the order and delivery process.

PPM follows the introduction of the TEG Road Transport Price Index in November 2021, which provides a monthly, macro-level summary of pricing and market trends to industry operators and policymakers alike. This valuable and validated insight tracks changes in the marketplace using a unique data set, based on many thousands of different freight buyer and seller combinations that that take place on TEG’s online freight exchange platform.

“We are investing heavily in data science as we continue to enhance the functionality and guidance available on our platform. By constantly innovating we can add value to our members and give them the business and operational tools needed to operate profitably and focus on what they do best,” concludes Cresswell.

 

UK Hauliers Join Forces

Posted on by David Priestman

Specialist Logistics Services Ltd (SLS) is a UK freight forwarder that offer a turnkey service for the movement of out of gauge and abnormal cargo and has been successfully delivering to clients old and new, for many years. It says it prides itself in offering bespoke solutions for the movement of all challenging cargo.

Following a long and successful career in project cargo, its owner and founder Martin Burgess decided to retire from the board with effect from April this year.

Reimer Ltd, which also owns Doherty Heavy Haulage, is now the new owner of SLS and its partner company Martin Burgess Logistics Ltd.

The new Managing Director of SLS, Hasan Huseyin, says: “I’m excited about the new takeover. I have a fantastic and knowledgeable team working alongside me and we all look forward to the bright future ahead.” Huseyin will also remain at the helm of Doherty heavy haulage.

Luton-based Doherty is well established in the field of heavy haulage with an ever-growing fleet of low-loaders, variety of specialist trailers and equipment.  SLS and Doherty have worked together seamlessly for many years and described the takeover and merge of skills as an obvious choice and a smart business move.

This new takeover will enable SLS to directly utilise Doherty’s fleet of vehicles, offering more competitive rates on UK moves. However, both companies are still running independently.

Martin Burgess concludes: “I will always be indebted to my former directors and current colleagues for making the business the success it has become and the sheer hard work and effort has paid off in the end, allowing for the business to have bright future ahead of it under Reimer’s control.”

 

Cambridge’s First Net Zero Urban Consolidation Centre Opened

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Cambridge (UK)’s first Net Zero Urban Consolidation Centre (UCC), pioneered by Cambridgeshire-based Welch’s Transport, has opened. The new venture will support the city’s sustainability goals by delivering clean, emissions-free last-mile deliveries and is at the heart of the company’s new Net Zero logistics fulfilment operation that also includes one of the first fully electric HGVs in the country.

Building on Welch’s Transport’s 89 years’ experience in supply chain management and transportation, the UCC comprises full warehousing and logistics management facilities. Goods ordered by organisations in Cambridge, and delivered to the Welch’s depot in Duxford, will be consolidated for more efficient last-mile deliveries using smaller, more eco-friendly vehicles. The UCC will minimise the number of heavy goods vehicles operating in the city centre, potentially reducing the number of vehicle trip deliveries by 46%.

Chris Welch, Director of Welch’s Transport, said: “Our aim is that organisations in Greater Cambridge can quite literally ‘share the load’ when it comes to reducing C02 emissions. Our UCC will reduce the number of delivery vehicles in urban areas across Greater Cambridge and will, therefore, emit fewer greenhouse gases. The new UCC further supports our efforts in Cambridge to deliver clean, emission-free last-mile deliveries in the city. With the support of local businesses in the city, we could decrease CO2-EQ emissions per consignment by up to 88%.”

The UCC, and new fully electric HGV, is the company’s first step to creating a greener Cambridge, with the 19 tonne vehicle able to deliver zero-emissions general haulage, palleted, parcels and hazardous goods.

Welch continued: “The combination of our knowledgeable local drivers, new electric vehicle and Urban Consolidation Centre will revolutionise last mile deliveries in Greater Cambridge. With the UK’s commitment to reaching Net Zero by 2050, we can support every local organisation – as well as those in business parks – that are looking to meet their sustainability goals.”

Caption: [L-R] Sophie Home, Chris Welch and David Welch, Welch’s Net Zero

Volvo Receives Order for 1,000 Electric Trucks

Posted on by David Priestman

Volvo Trucks has signed a letter of intent to sell 1,000 electric trucks between now and 2030 to Holcim, one of the world’s largest building solution providers. The deal is the largest commercial order to date for Volvo electric trucks, and the first 130 trucks will be delivered in 2023 and 2024.

Holcim is a global manufacturer of building solutions, with headquarters in Switzerland. Now the company and its contractors have, with Volvo Trucks, agreed to plan for the deployment of 1,000 electric trucks across Holcim’s operations in Europe over the course of the next seven years.

The first 130 electric Volvo FH and Volvo FM trucks will be delivered to markets including France, Germany, Switzerland and the UK during the fourth quarter of 2023 and throughout 2024. The agreement is a result of a wider partnership between Holcim and Volvo Group.

“Long-term collaboration and a strong commitment to really make a difference are essential for making big CO2 reductions a reality. I’m very proud of the partnership we have developed with Holcim, and the results we are achieving together,” says Martin Lundstedt, President & CEO, Volvo Group.

“The net-zero transition requires deep collaboration across value chains. We are excited to be partnering with Volvo to decarbonise our European operations’ logistics with electric fleets, advancing our goal to reach 30% of zero-emission heavy-duty trucks by 2030,” says Jan Jenisch, Chairman and CEO of Holcim.

By replacing 1,000 existing Volvo FH diesel trucks with Volvo FH Electric trucks using green electricity on a typical route, up to 50,000 tonnes of CO2 could be saved every year. Both companies are committed to the Science-based targets initiative (SBTi), which drives ambitious climate action in the private sector, and both are also founding members of First Movers Coalition (FMC) – a coalition of companies that use their purchasing power to create early markets for innovative clean technologies across eight hard-to-abate sectors. SBTi targets are considered ‘science-based’ if they are in line with what the latest climate science says is necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement – limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Holcim is a global company in sustainable building solutions, headquartered in Switzerland. It has a presence in more than 60 countries and around 60,000 employees.

 

VisionTrack Duo Appointed to Road Safety Body

Posted on by David Priestman

VisionTrack, a provider of AI video telematics and connected vehicle data, is taking a major new role in the fight against worldwide road deaths and injuries. CEO, Simon Marsh, and President of Global Sales, Richard Kent, have been appointed to the Governing Board of global NGO, Together for Safer Roads (TSR), to help shape the response to the road safety crisis and support the Vision Zero initiative.

“We share TSR’s vision to create a world where roads are safer for everyone, so Richard and I are honoured to be joining their Governing Board and expanding our roles within the organisation,” explains Simon Marsh, CEO of VisionTrack. “With traffic fatalities at near historic highs in many countries, there needs to be a collective effort amongst governments, the public and private sectors, health and safety organisations, and technology innovators to prevent these tragic road collisions.”

Collaboration to improve road safety

VisionTrack will serve on the board alongside leading executives from Anheuser-Busch InBev, Republic Services and UPS. VisionTrack has a strong relationship with TSR, having started working with the organisation in 2021 and last year entering into a membership agreement. The collaboration to improve road safety is gathering pace, with VisionTrack contributing advanced AI video telematics to TSR’s Truck of the Future pilot program, which aims to eliminate collisions between HGVs and other road users through enhanced driver visibility.

Andres Penate, Board Chair and Global VP Corporate Affairs at Anheuser-Busch InBev, commented: “On behalf of the Board of Directors, we are thrilled at this announcement. Together for Safer Roads is at our best when we have innovative, safety-driven companies all working together.  VisionTrack is a leader in their field and will help strengthen our organisation’s ability to drive progress and save lives.”

Peter Goldwasser, Executive Director of Together for Safer Roads, added: “VisionTrack possesses invaluable road safety, Vision Zero and technology expertise, so we are excited about them joining us and making a major contribution to our global ambitions. Simon founded VisionTrack based on an ethos of reducing injuries and saving lives, having seen first-hand the devastation caused by fatal road incidents, while Richard has spent over 20 years improving road, driver and pedestrian safety for some of the world’s largest fleets.”

Richard Kent, President of Global Sales at VisionTrack, said: “As true advocates of road safety, we are hugely grateful for the work TSR is undertaking and want to play our part in helping eliminate traffic deaths. VisionTrack is at the forefront of AI-powered fleet safety systems, so our aim is to use our unrivalled expertise to share industry best practice and determine how vehicles can best use the latest technology to avoid road collisions.”

 

Gebrüder Weiss Continues to Grow

Posted on by David Priestman

The international transport and logistics company Gebrüder Weiss posted turnover of 3.01 billion euros for fiscal 2022. This translates into a year-on-year gain of 18 percent (2021: 2.54 billion euros), and builds on the positive trend of recent years. “We have succeeded in adhering to and advancing our strategic goals in a challenging environment. We have expanded our position in the core markets of Central and Eastern Europe, the United States and Asia, while moving forward with our focuses on digitalization and climate neutrality by 2030. The rewarding results across our divisions are proof positive that we are a solid organization that is fit for the future,” says Wolfram Senger-Weiss, CEO at Gebrüder Weiss. The equity ratio also rose and has been restored to its previous level of 60 percent (2021: 57 percent); this increase underlines the company’s resilience and demonstrates that Gebrüder Weiss offers its workforce secure jobs.

The Land Transport division posted 1,479 million euros in sales, a gain of 16 percent (2021: 1,277 million euros). The Home Delivery service performed at last year’s level, delivering some 1.53 million shipments to private households in Austria and Eastern Europe (2021: 1.58 million consignments). As a result, Gebrüder Weiss maintained its market leadership in this segment. Major progress was also reported by Air & Sea, which closed fiscal 2022 with sales at 1,272 million euros, a plus of 24 percent (2021: 1,024 million euros). This surge was driven mainly by the high freight charges of the shipping companies and airlines. DPD Austria, which is partly owned by the Gebrüder Weiss parcel service, was able to sustain its volumes: in 2022 it shipped 66 million parcels (2021: 66.5 million).

International network expanded

Despite economic challenges in 2022 deriving from the war in Ukraine, energy issues and rising inflation, Gebrüder Weiss adhered to its investment strategy. A total of 67 million euros were devoted to consolidating the company’s own network and augmenting its international locations and services. The main focuses were Germany, Hungary, Romania and the United States, along with Turkey and Georgia. The latter two countries are chief links on the Middle Corridor, along which the logistics specialist extended its services to Central Asia and China.

In the key German logistics market, Gebrüder Weiss was able to cement its position in both Air & Sea and Land Transport. In southern Germany, the renaming of the Bavarian freight forwarding company Lode as Gebrüder Weiss Waldkraiburg was concluded. The continued expansion of the land transport network is planned for the south of Germany, with the takeover of the Rentschler shipping company (Baden-Württemberg) in early 2023 marking a first step. Having an enlarged network naturally prompted growth in the workforce: employee numbers rose by six percent to some 8,400 (2021: 7,900)

Continued focus on digitalization and sustainability

The year 2022 also saw the company sustaining its digitalization strategy “Best of Both Worlds,” which Gebrüder Weiss views as a winning combination of operational and digital competence. This included the next stage in the rollout of the digital service portal myGW, which delivers real-time information as to the exact whereabouts of customers’ goods – thus ensuring optimum transparency along the entire supply chain. “Our goal is to give our customers the best solutions for their supply chains, while confining our environmental impact to a minimum. Toward that end, we are constantly investing in our logistics terminals and digital tools, while simultaneously training our staff and identifying environmentally friendly transport options,” Wolfram Senger-Weiss explains.

To underscore the company’s commitment to sustainable goals and its pledge to contribute to climate protection globally, Gebrüder Weiss published a Sustainability Report in 2022. In line with its targets, the logistics specialist intends to achieve carbon neutrality at all of its terminals by 2030. One key element in this transition is an increase in power from regenerative sources; last year Gebrüder Weiss installed four new photovoltaic systems at sites in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. All told, 22 such systems are now already in operation, reducing CO2 emissions by 1,110 metric tons annually. In 2023, the rollout will continue in these countries and in Eastern Europe.

Nor has time stood still when it comes to alternative drive options. After successful long-distance trials with the company’s own hydrogen-powered trucks, Gebrüder Weiss is planning further investments in this technology. In 2023, five new H2 powered trucks are due to hit the roads in Germany. Moving forward, the number of electrically powered vans used in urban goods deliveries is due to further increase in Austria and Eastern Europe.

For 2023, Gebrüder Weiss is anticipating a renormalization of the logistics industry. Shipment numbers are currently declining somewhat, and the cost of transport by air and sea has dropped to 2019 levels. As a result, lower sales are expected. Global geopolitical factors may bring additional challenges. Wolfram Senger-Weiss: “The pandemic has proven that the logistics industry can perform under pressure and react swiftly to changing conditions. In the past year, Gebrüder Weiss has been able to further solidify its financial base and drive innovations – while remaining close to our customers and answering their needs with relevant digital services. In light of the current economic forecast, the high inflation rate and the war in Ukraine, we are – needless to say – circumspect and concerned. However, ultimately we remain a strong organization and that gives us confidence.”

2022: Year of 10 Million Pallet Movements

Posted on by David Priestman

Upholding its position as industry leader, between 1 January and 31 December 2022, the Palletways Group belonging to Imperial, a DP World Company, which operates in the UK, the Benelux, Germany, Iberia, Italy and Hungary, transported almost ten million pallets.

To further strengthen the network, ensure operational efficiency and enhanced customer service levels, last year the Group appointed 27 independent transport companies to work within the network with recruitment hot-spots in the UK, Iberia, Italy and Germany.

The Group also celebrated four years since it expanded its coverage across the continent with the launch of its Hungarian network in Biatorbagy. Since its launch in 2018, Hungary’s 110+-team have handled 550,000 domestic and international pallet deliveries, its 80-strong fleet have moved 240,000 tonnes of consignments – the equivalent of 10,000 fully-loaded trucks – which have covered more than four million kilometres. Members provide 100 per cent coverage across the country and the network handles the shipping requirements of more than 700 customers.

Luis Zubialde, Palletways’ CEO, said the Group is proud of its performance during 2022. “We’re encouraged with our volumes, particularly when set against the backdrop of numerous external factors including Brexit and the driver shortage.

“As we look ahead to 2023, with the prospect of global economic uncertainty and the knock-on effect on spend, I’m reassured with the resilience across the Group. I’d also like to commend our member recruitment team who have performed excellently over the past 12 months to strengthen our network. I know they’ll continue to do so as we look to increase our presence across the UK and Europe into 2023 and beyond.

“With several exciting developments in the pipeline for Q1 2023, including the launch of two new hubs in our Iberian and Italian networks, we remain focused on delivering an even greater service for our members and their customers.”

Network pallet movements

Rob Gittins, Managing Director for Palletways UK, added: “Our network of members in the UK worked exceptionally hard during 2022 to overcome a challenging market, while still providing excellent service. We also welcomed 11 new members to the UK network. It is this targeted recruitment of resilient and dedicated logistics companies that creates a buoyant and cohesive membership. Despite the economic outlook, I’m confident the robustness of our network will stand us in good stead during the next 12 months.”

Founded in the UK in 1994, Palletways specialises in the express delivery of palletised freight. It is Europe’s largest pallet network, with more depots and larger volumes than any other freight forwarder, handling more than 45,000 pallets every day which equates to one pallet every two
seconds.

About Palletways

Palletways is part of the Imperial Group. Founded in the UK in 1994, specialises in the express delivery of palletised freight. Palletways has Europe’s largest pallet network, with more depots and larger volumes than any other freight forwarder. Palletways handles more than 45,000 pallets every day. This equates to one pallet every two seconds.

Since its launch, Palletways has built a strategic network of over 400 depots and 20 hubs, serving 24 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Spain, Slovakia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

As Palletways’ operations continue, we’re committed to keeping essential supply chains open, despite the challenge of COVID-19. Palletways’ top priority is the health and safety of our employees, customers and communities. That’s why we closely follow government and medical advice to put safety at the forefront of our daily activities.

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