Motor Transport 8 November 2021

Sharp ■ Informed ■ Challenging

8.11.21

NEWS INSIDE ‘Shameful’ move

RHA blasts cabotage change p3

Testing the limit?

DVSA speeds up artic testing p4

Fighting back

KNP returns to profit

p8

OPERATORS INSIDE Cullimore Group ............................................ p3 DPD.......................................................p8, p20 Europa Worldwide......................................... p3 Hovis ...........................................................p26 Imperial Logistics International UK ................ p3 KNP Logistics Group...................................... p8 Maritime Transport.......................................p10 Nottingham City Council...............................p24 Panther Logistics .........................................p10 Stan Robinson............................................... p8 Suttons Tankers ............................................ p8 TPN .............................................................p10 Translink Express Logistics............................ p3 Wren Kitchens .............................................p22

ROAD TO RECOVERY: Kuehne+Nagel said it was back on track after results for the third quarter showed an increase in the group’s net revenue of 47%. Its road logistics division saw net turnover increase by 16% in the period to CHF922m (£727m) and gross profit rose 14% to CHF311m (£245m). It said road logistics had been able to significantly increase shipment volume in Q3 and network capacity utilisation was high in Europe, with strong demand in North America. The unit’s net turnover for the first nine months of 2021 was CHF2.7bn (£2.1bn).

In contract logistics, K+N’s decision to sell a major part of its UK business in 2020 to XPO (subsequently GXO) led to a 6% reduction in net turnover to CHF3.4bn (£2.7bn) in the first nine months of the year. Q3 turnover in contract logistics also fell 6%, to CHF1.1bn (£868m).

20% increase at XPO follows other inflation-busting settlements with Unite at Turners and Co-op

Drivers win substantial pay rises

By Chris Tindall

XPO drivers have become the latest to strike a significant pay increase after their union negotiated a 20% salary boost for those working on the logistics firm’s Wavin contract.

Unite said 39 drivers in Chippenham began receiving the pay rise from last month in a one-year deal.

GXO – formally XPO Primary Logistics – has also agreed to increase its drivers’ pay by up to 23% at sites across the UK. The news follows a 17.5% pay increase the union has negotiated with Turners (Soham) for tanker drivers on the Cargill contract in Liverpool, and a 5% increase for more than 1,000 HGV drivers employed by the Co-op on its delivery contract.

The wage hike negotiated with the Co-op will be backdated from 1 February 2021, with a further 5% increase payable from this month.

Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: “The pay victory for the XPO drivers at Chippenham,

along with other inflation-busting deals, shows that Unite’s nationwide campaign for decent pay and conditions for our HGV drivers is winning.”

The 24 Turners tanker drivers are to receive the 17.5% increase for the year starting April 2021, which will be backdated. The drivers will also receive a 4.55% increase for paid meal breaks.

“Fair play to Turners, the employers – they changed their minds and made a dramatically improved new offer,” Graham said.

“That is an example to the rest of the haulage industry about how to go about offering decent wages.”

Added Turners MD Paul Day: “Their last pay increase was 18 months ago and the market has moved on. We and our customer believe this was a fair increase, bearing in mind the inflation we’ve seen in that time.

“You either adjust your pay and compete in the market or you lose your drivers – it’s really that simple.

I don’t think it’s exceptional or will open any floodgates. It’s a question

of each business having to operate on a case-by-case basis. Both sides didn’t get everything they wanted, but we need to accept where the market is and move on.”

Meanwhile, Clipper Logistics is offering all its 9,000 staff the ability to access their wages ahead of pay day in what it claims is an industry first.

Under the Earned Wage Access

(EWA) scheme, staff are offered access to wages already earned and owed.

Clipper pointed to recent research by social impact research firm 60 Decibels and Wagestream showing that 77% of employees using EWA see reduced stress levels, with 72% improving their financial confidence and 55% seeing improved budgeting.

Legal p12 Viewpoint p14 Temperature controlled p16 MT Awards: Customer Care p20; Training p22; Partnership p24; Low Carbon p26

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Easing restrictions on overseas drivers will undermine UK hauliers, insists industry body

RHA blasts ‘shameful’ cabotage rule change The government has effectively ‘offshored’ UK haulage work to foreign operators after announcing it had slackened the rules on cabotage, according to the RHA. The business group said the move to allow continental hauliers to take on unlimited work in this country in two-week blocks seriously undermined efforts to recruit domestic drivers and would suppress wages.

Following a short consultation, HMRC said it was allowing until 30 April 2022 unlimited cabotage movements of HGVs for up to 14 days after arriving in the UK on a laden international journey.

HMRC said the move was expected to alleviate pressures in the supply chain associated with

Photo: Shutterstock

By Chris Tindall

the current HGV driver shortage.

But the RHA said rather than bringing in drivers from outside of the UK to work for UK companies, the cabotage changes outsourced the whole haulage activity, including tax, safety regu-

lations and national insurance obligations.

Rod McKenzie, RHA MD for policy and public affairs, said: “This announcement directly contradicts the government’s stated aim of creating a high-wage

economy. Foreign hauliers will flood the UK, running on cheaper fuel and low-paid drivers, undercutting the work UK hauliers are doing.

McKenzie added: “It is shameful that the government is offshoring UK haulage work to operators from outside the UK who will pay no income tax or national insurance and are unaccountable for safety standards and compliance.”

James Firth, head of road freight regulation policy at Logistics UK, added: “This will increase pressure on the existing allocation of HGV parking spaces, which the government itself assesses as being at least 1,400 spaces short, and will lead to more drivers being forced to sleep overnight on the sides of roads or in insecure locations.”

Politics behind attack on Association, says Cullimore RHA chairman Moreton Cullimore has accused Europa Worldwide chief executive Andrew Baxter of launching a politically motivated attack on the RHA following his open letter criticising the association’s handling of Brexit and the fuel crisis and his call for RHA chief executive Richard Burnett to resign.

Baxter’s letter accuses the RHA of leaking information from confidential government meetings, failing to prepare hauliers for Brexit and “substantially” causing the fuel crisis by leaking information about fuel stocks.

The transport boss, a Tory donor who hosted prime minister Boris Johnson at Europa’s headquarters and liveried Europa trucks with pro-Brexit slogans, called for Burnett to resign and said he had terminated his

membership of RHA. But Cullimore, who is also the MD of Cullimore Group, said: “The timing of this letter feels like it has a political motivation. If the RHA is to be held responsible for the fuel crisis, then why not the toilet roll crisis and the fizzy water shortage as well?”

Turning to Baxter’s criticism that the RHA demanded information during the Brexit negotiations, he added: “It is important that the RHA asks government these questions so it can best inform its members and it is important RHA calls into question decisions made by the government.”

Cullimore added: “Despite being accused of leaking confidential information, RHA is still being invited to attend confidential meetings by the government.”

Pay row causes a Mini rebellion Mini car production at BMW’s Cowley plant could be disrupted after HGV drivers at Imperial Logistics International UK, which delivers components to the factory, backed strike action.

Drivers voted 94% in favour of strikes, said union Unite.

Two 24-hour stoppages will take place on 9 and 17 8.11.21

November, with 48-hour strikes on 23 and 24 November, as well as 30 November and 1 December.

There will also be a continuous overtime ban.

The dispute centres on a rise for employed drivers that is understood to be around £2 less than the hourly rate being paid to agency drivers.

SHORT SHRIFT: RHA chairman Moreton Cullimore says criticism of the body by Europa Worldwide boss Andrew Baxter is ‘politically motivated’

Hundreds flock to recruitment drive A recruitment drive in Leicestershire last month attracted hundreds of potential HGV drivers, according to event organisers.

Translink Express Logistics helped spearhead the Let’s Talk Logistics day at Fosse Park Shopping Centre on 12 October, along with the Department for Work and Pensions, Leicestershire County Council, Aggregates Industries and Samworth Brothers

Distribution. Chris Hobbis, commercial director at Translink, said: “There were simply hundreds of people there from first thing in the morning until the end of the day. It was a great success.”

Translink said it is offering to pay the £2,500 training fee for each successful candidate after an initial six months of employment. It will also upgrade all new-pass Cat C drivers to C+E within six months.

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Testing regime will do away with need for Cat C pass, confirms DVSA

New HGV drivers will go straight to artic test

By Chris Tindall

The DVSA has released more information about how the rules regarding learning to drive an HGV have changed to help resolve the skills shortage.

Subject to parliamentary approval, from 15 November the law will change so that candidates will begin learning to drive in an articulated lorry, rather than a rigid.

Drivers will also take their test in an artic without having to pass a test in a large rigid lorry first.

The DVSA said candidates will still be able to learn to drive and take a test in a rigid – Cat C – if they do not wish to drive anything larger.

When a driver passes their test in an artic, they will then be entitled to drive a medium-sized lorry (C1), a medium-sized lorry towing a trailer (C1E), a large rigid lorry

(C) and a large articulated lorry (CE).

In addition, changes in the law mean drivers can learn to drive a medium-sized lorry towing a trailer and take the test in one without first passing a test in a medium-sized lorry.

When the government announced its proposal to allow drivers to take one test to drive both an artic and rigid lorry, it said the move would make around 20,000 more HGV driving tests available every year and speed entry into the industry.

‘Retention and training key to solving driver shortage’ A think-tank of leading logistics professionals brought together by Driver Require has called for the industry to take action to “fundamentally and significantly” improve HGV driver retention.

In its report ‘The Answer to the HGV Driver Shortage’, it notes that while there has been a steady flow of up to 30,000 new HGV test passes per year, this has been offset by 10,000 per year retiring and a further 20,000 quitting the job.

The group calculates that over the past decade the sector has trained around 200,000 HGV drivers under the age of 40, yet the under-40 HGV driver pool has remained at around 67,000.

“Assuming an average of £3,000 per HGV test pass, this equates to over half a billion pounds invested by drivers over the past decade to pass their test, only to leave the industry.”

The report makes three key recommendations: increasing HGV driver training capacity and throughput; attracting back UK HGV licence-holders who are not currently driving; and permitting EU HGV drivers to work in the UK. The report also asks whether it is feasible to get HGV driving declared as a ‘shortage occupation’, but notes this may be hampered by the worsening driver shortage on the continent.

Tesco full of praise for logistics arm Tesco Distribution displayed “incredible resilience and agility” in the face of the pandemic last year to deliver a 23% boost in pre-tax profits.

Reporting its latest annual results to 28 February 2021, the company revealed a rise in turnover to £1.895bn (2020: £1.791bn) and a boost in pre-tax profits to £88.5m (2020: £72.1m).

The Tesco Distribution network typically operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, delivering stock to the supermarket and customers.

It noted that the pandemic may have a “significant and prolonged impact” on global economic conditions and “disrupt” the supply chain, adding that it has put in place contingency plans to deal with these risks going forward.

The report added: “In what has been one of the most challenging years the business has faced, Tesco Distribution has shown incredible resilience and agility. The company did not accept any of the financial support available or make use of the furlough scheme.”

Transport sector gives mixed response to Budget initiatives The RHA has welcomed moves to help the transport and logistics sector contained in the government’s Autumn Budget, which it said were “campaigning wins for the organisation”.

However, Logistics UK said its concerns over inadequate HGV parking facilities had not been fully addressed, while the BVRLA said fleet operators needed far more clarity over the government’s Net Zero strategy.

Measures announced by chancellor Rishi Sunak included a continued freeze on fuel duty, which remains at 57.95p per litre, and new investment in roadside facilities of over £32m.

The HGV Road User Levy will also be suspended 4 MotorTransport

for another year, along with vehicle excise duty.

Referring to the new investment in roadside facilities, RHA MD for policy and public affairs Rod McKenzie said: “This is a major victory. It is crucial that the government continues to work with the industry to improve conditions as this will also act as an encouragement to potential truck drivers, particularly women.”

Logistics UK chief executive David Wells also welcomed the news on parking, but added: “There is currently a shortfall of more than 1,400 spaces nationally, so there is still more to be done. The business group will remain in close contact with government on this issue,

to ensure that the spaces needed are finally delivered, after more than three years of promises which are yet to be fulfilled.”

The RHA also hailed new government investment in zero-emission HGV technologies.

However, BVRLA chief executive Gerry Keaney claimed the chancellor had “missed an opportunity to give the industry essential clarity when it is most needed”.

“At a time when the uptake of electric vehicles is ready to accelerate, the silence around areas such as benefit-in-kind tax rates is deafening,” he said. “This only grows fears that rates will be drastically increased down the line.”

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VOX POP Where are the big opportunities for your business?

Bob Terris, chairman, Meachers The opportunities depend greatly on external influences.

We must consider the driver/ warehouse operative situation, warehouse facility availability and the worldwide shipping situation.

Our performance has further improved this year. We are optimistic that this will continue, but our cost base is escalating rapidly in terms of wages, premises rents, energy, new equipment, and service and repair costs. However, this will only be achieved by maintaining high levels of efficiency and increasing our charges on a regular basis. We will continue to invest, but the biggest challenge is to find and retain skilled people.

Kevin Buchanan, group chief executive officer, Pall-Ex The opportunity is to deliver service excellence when others fail to do so. We’ll invest in people, facilities and technology and specifically in the B2C markets and in our international operations.

In Q1 next year we’ll launch our new driver app, Nexus Go, and in Q2 new scanning, dimension check and weighting systems.

We’ll also continue the roll-out of the Nexus core operating system in Poland and France in Q3 and Q4 ,which will complete the roll-out across the entire European business. In addition, we are planning a new

Daimler Truck and BP unite behind hydrogen Daimler Truck and BP have teamed up to deliver hydrogenpowered fuel-cell HGVs and deploy the infrastructure required for refuelling the vehicles in the UK by the end of the decade.

Daimler said it expected to be able to offer hydrogen-powered trucks to UK customers by 2025 and BP intends to design,

6 MotorTransport

location for a central hub facility for Pall-Ex UK, which will be started in early 2022 and finished in early 2023.

Caroline Green, chief executive, Pallet Track The technology to coral data has advanced very quickly in the last decade or so and hasn’t been embraced as much as it could be by the sector. We have a lot of data and not a lot of information. Having data means I know which customers put in what freight, to which haulier, under what sort of services.

So how do I translate that data into information that helps that haulier maybe market differently or approach that customer differently? How do I use data better to forecast what my peak flows of volume are? How do I use dashboarding to alert me to problems before they happen?

It’s definitely an area of massive focus for us.

Andrew Malcolm, chief executive, Malcolm Group Firstly, there will be plenty of opportunities next year on the back of the last 18 months of disruption, and more recently the resource availability to support customer and sector demand. This will in turn require a certain level of holding firm and consolidating to allow us to take on the opportunities.

Secondly, as we already have a very strong

construct, operate and supply 25 hydrogen refuelling stations by 2030.

BP said hydrogen was “critical to decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors” and that for heavy and long-distance freight the clean fuel was sometimes the only answer: “Working with a leading manufacturer like Daimler Truck, we can accelerate the deployment of both vehicles and infrastructure and pioneer the use of hydrogen to fuel the next generation of UK freight,” said Emma Delaney, BP executive vice-president for customer and products.

Daimler Truck said its ambition was to offer only vehicles that are CO2-neutral in Europe, North America and Japan by 2039.

“In this state, the energy carrier has a far higher energy density in relation to volume than gaseous hydrogen,” the manufacturer said.

“As a result, the tanks of a fuelcell truck using liquid hydrogen are much smaller and, due to the lower pressure, significantly lighter.”

footing in the full multimodal integrated logistics of road, rail and warehousing, I see this as a strong area of focus for us.

Charlie Shiels, chief executive, Arrow Group The importance of our people in our business success has never been more important and will continue to be so.

Many years ago, the great Peter Drucker suggested that “culture eats strategy for breakfast” and never has it been more important. Great people are harder than ever to find and keep.

Drucker also said that “the greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence. It is to act with yesterday's logic”, and this feels incredibly relevant.

Dionne Redpath, chief operating officer, Europa Road Since the launch of Europa Flow in January we are now doing 60% of our export business through our specialist customs system. We are optimistic that we will be able to build on our investment in Flow in 2022.

There are challenges ahead with the January Brexit change, but we have been collaborating across our departments. In spite of the recent challenges, Europa has its sights set on substantial and continued growth and optimism remains very high.

Report questions benefits of LNG HGVs powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) are no better for the climate than diesel trucks and pollute the air more than manufacturers claim, a clean transport campaign group has concluded.

Transport & Environment (T&E) said only zero-emissions HGVs such as battery electric vehicles should be supported by lawmakers and called for gas fuelling stations to be kicked out of EU fuel infrastructure targets, with an end to subsidies for LNG trucks.

However, the renewable gas industry criticised the study and said it was poorly referenced and failed to meet scientific standards.

T&E commissioned on-roads tests of Iveco’s S-WAY LNG truck and a Stralis diesel model and said the analysis showed the LNG vehicle emits 13.4% more greenhouse gases over a 20-year timeframe.

T&E also said that the LNG vehicle was far worse for cancer-

causing particle emissions in cities and rural driving. And while it accepted that gas trucks performed better than diesel for NOx emissions, it said that it did not deliver the 90% savings claimed.

Iveco said it was “fully aligned” with the comments and analysis published by the European Natural Gas Vehicle Association, which backed methane over diesel.

Supplier Gasrec said T&E “put far too much weight on performance during stop-start journeys in rural and urban environments”.

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Resilience of customers and new contract wins turn around fortunes of Kettering-based group

KNP fights way to profit

By Carol Millett

KNP Logistics Group, formerly known as Knights of Old Group, has climbed out of the red, delivering its first pre-tax profit in five years despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The group, which includes hauliers Knights of Old, AE Parker, Nelson Distribution, NDL Holdings, Steve Porter Transport, and driver training firm Merlin Supply Chain Solutions, has fought to turn a profit since 2016.

However, in its latest annual results to 31 May 2021, the Kettering-based company revealed that it had transformed last year’s

Lloyd-Roberts steps up for Suttons growth Suttons Tankers has promoted Chrisi Lloyd-Roberts to the role of operations director, leading a team of 700 drivers and 100 staff. She takes over the role from Steve Hassall, who was promoted to fleet director last month.

Both promotions are part of a wider strategy to strengthen the company’s fleet and operations as it continues to win new contracts and experience rapid growth.

Lloyd-Roberts has been with Suttons since 2014, when she left her role as senior procurement and project manager at Cheshire West and Chester Council to b e c o m e Su t t o n s g r o u p procurement and transformation manager. Her most recent role at the company was as

loss of £388,805 to a pre-tax profit of £1.2m in the period, with revenue leaping 15% to £76.5m (2020: £66.6m).

In its strategic report to the business improvement director.

In her new role, board member Lloyd-Roberts will be responsible for service delivery of the customer base, P&L performance and excellence through operations, drawing on her previous experience in the efficient implementation of major new contracts and systems, process improvement and procurement.

Suttons said Lloyd-Roberts will build on the success that Hassall has achieved in strengthening the structure of the operations team.

She will also focus on the future scalability of the business to prepare it for further growth.

annual results the company said that, whilst the impact of the pandemic had been “considerable”, particularly hitting the group’s hospitality sector clients, “several

of our customer markets have held up well during the pandemic, for example books and food”.

The group also reports “considerable success” in the contract distribution sector in the year with new contract wins of £3m per annum, adding that it is now “well positioned to secure significant additional business in the sector”.

The group, which operates over 350 trucks and 500 trailers and has 636 full-time employees, said that it had recently acquired a modern 139,000sq ft warehouse and office accommodation, bringing its total warehousing capacity to 450,000sq ft.

DPD heralds green Hinckley hub DPD’s £150m parcel hub in Hinckley, Leicestershire will be fully operational ahead of the Black Friday and Christmas period, the group has confirmed.

The depot is the company’s fifth in the UK and one of the largest fully automated domestic parcel hubs in Europe.

DPD said Hub 5, close to junction 1 of the M69, was also its most eco-friendly and technologically advanced, featuring a Solar PV

system with over 6,000 panels, providing an output of 2.4MW. The power generated will enable the hub’s offices to operate off-grid during daytime working hours, with excess power exported back to the national grid.

The main hub is over 500m long, 42m wide and occupies a 40-acre site. DPD added that 3km of conveyor will enable the hub team to sort 72,000 parcels per hour.

Stan Robinson results show benefits of running tight ship Family-owned Stan Robinson has delivered an “exceptional” financial performance for the year ending 31 May 2021, with profits rising by more than 200%.

Its latest results showed that revenues also increased, by 10.3% to £25.9m, from £23.4m the year before. Pre-tax profit soared to £2.3m, compared with £748,000 in the previous period.

The Stafford company, which undertakes 8 MotorTransport

nationwide haulage distribution as well as storage and holds operator licences in four traffic areas authorising a total of 230 HGVs, said it had been a very successful year for the group.

“A strong profit performance and the continued tight control on cash resulted in a very healthy cash position despite the repayment of the deferred VAT outstanding from the final quarter of last year,” its business review said.

The firm has invested significantly in fixed assets, with almost £1.9m spent on vehicles and a further £470,000 committed at year-end.

“The haulage business is always exposed to diesel price risk as diesel fuel is a key supply to the transport fleet of vehicles,” it added. “With new operational efficiencies continually being sought, the directors are hopeful of profitability being sustained.”

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Mark Lee Transport brings blue-chip heritage to TPN The Pallet Network (TPN) has welcomed new member Mark Lee Transport to its fold, after the Bradford operator sought out an additional service to complement its blue-chip haulage business.

The company said it approached TPN after industry contacts said the network was the “preferred option”.

MD Mark Lee said: “We know that TPN can do what it says it will do.

“That’s important to us because we promise a high service level to our clients and always expect to meet it.”

The haulier has now opened a new site at Stalybridge with 16,000sq ft of warehousing, chosen for its motorway access.

It has already allocated some vehicles for TPN work and may extend to smaller vehicles for collection and delivery purposes.

TPN said it takes new partners through a

training and support programme weeks before operations go live: “Our mission is to help our partners succeed,” explained TPN MD Mark Kendall.

“That begins long before their official start date so that we can set them up for success.

“This is important for service levels; it’s a proof of our commitment to the partner and it’s very motivating for a new team to be so good out of the gate.”

RHA warns MPs that industry cannot bear cost of ‘lost’ fossil fuel taxes

A national road pricing scheme to replace an emissions-based tax regime must not penalise the road haulage industry, MPs have been warned.

Giving evidence to the transport select committee, the RHA said UK hauliers already paid more tax than competitors anywhere else in Europe and any new road pricing scheme should not punish them further.

The plan to phase out diesel and petrol vehicles over the coming decade will create a £34bn black hole in Treasury coffers and national road user pricing is seen as an obvious way to raise new revenue.

Duncan Buchanan, policy director at the RHA, told the committee:

LETTERS

Photo: Shutterstock

Road pricing scheme ‘must not hit hauliers’

“As commercial operators, we wouldn’t want to see anything that net increases the cost of operation and feeds into inflation and feeds into costs.”

n Drivers from Maritime Transport have given a 100% approval rating of Midland Expressway’s new ANPR technology being piloted on the M6toll.

Send your letters to the editor at steve.hobson@roadtransport .com

We know the remedies for what ails our industry It must be 25 years since I wrote to MT, suggesting that the industry should carry out formal job evaluation of its driving workforce.

At that time, few were persuaded. Now that the industry is in real difficulty, perhaps it is the time to raise the suggestion again.

Like most occupations, the work of lorry drivers has changed. Vehicles are easier to drive, and the driver’s attention has transferred from controlling the vehicle to monitoring and reacting to what is outside.

Nights out are part of the job, but proper truck stops with proper facilities would make camping out more bearable.

How many industries have to cope with predatory enforcement of complex and difficult 10 MotorTransport

legislation, especially in a country where journey times are so variable? Drivers are too easily placed in situations of transgression. This must be a disincentive to taking up the job.

The industry needs to know where a driver’s pay and benefits should lie relative to occupations of similar skill, responsibility and conditions. Only then will it have a clear sighting of what has to be done to resolve the twin crises of recruitment and retention. Merely throwing money at the problem will not solve it.

That said, the days of logistics being a cheap commodity are coming to an end: the process might be painful, but it is likely to be better for everyone involved.

Ralph Ingham-Johnson, retired fleet engineer

Panther Logistics takes starring role for Sky TV Panther Logistics has sealed an exclusive partnership with Sky to deliver the broadcaster’s new Sky Glass TV. The Northampton-based company, which specialises in white glove, two-person deliveries, will be distributing Sky’s new streaming TV to customers across the UK. Under the contract, Panther Logistics will provide customers with delivery to room of choice, stand assembly and attachment to the TV, premium time slots, collections, exchanges, and removal of all packaging if requested by the customer.

Panther said the partnership with Sky, which has 23 million customers, marks a “significant milestone” since the company launched 10 years ago.

Panther MD Gary McKelvey said: “In what has been a fantastic year for Panther, that has seen the company achieve unprecedented levels of growth and being acquired by AIT Worldwide, we have now achieved yet another landmark in partnering with one of the country’s most prestigious brands.

“The company’s customercentric ethos, combined with its relentless pursuit for excellence in its service offering, will allow Panther to provide a seamless and professional delivery experience for Sky customers.”

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With the temporary visa scheme stalling, what needs to be done to attract foreign HGV drivers?

By Tijen Ahmet, legal director, Shakespeare Martineau

It’s no secret that supply chains are currently facing immense pressure due to a significant shortage of HGV drivers. However, after the government’s temporary visa scheme only attracted 127 applicants, it’s clear there is more to be done to get people behind the wheel.

According to the RHA, the UK is currently short of around 100,000 HGV drivers. The Covid19 pandemic, along with Brexit, forced many foreign drivers to return home. To help combat the shortage, the government announced that a new temporary visa scheme would be introduced, with the aim of recruiting 4,700 HGV drivers and 300 HGV fuel drivers.

Both temporary visa schemes are open to EU, EEA and Swiss licence holders only, with all applicants needing to hold a UK-recognised HGV licence. The application process for HGV drivers remains open until 1 December. Individual employers wishing to take advantage of this scheme must do so via one of the four approved scheme operators, which will act as sponsors in place of the employer. For HGV tanker drivers, who are in particularly high demand, the process was particularly time-pressured.

Applicants were required to arrive in the country between 1 and 15 October with a job offer and an endorsement letter from their future employer. To obtain this letter, it fell to the employer to contact the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), putting additional time onto an already lengthy process.

Slow starter

Unfortunately, despite the government’s hopes of recruiting HGV drivers in their masses, the scheme had a very slow start. So, where did it go wrong?

Rather than including HGV drivers as part of the temporary visa scheme, the government introduced a temporary concession outside of the standard immigration rules, which led to a more restrictive criteria that ruled out drivers from visa national coun12 MotorTransport

tries, which require a prior entry clearance before entry to the UK. In addition to this, processes via BEIS and scheme operators added a considerable amount of time onto the application process for employers. Each scheme operator had a different process and cost, creating a lack of uniformity.

This added level of complexity created a lengthy and unattractive opportunity for prospective applicants. UK visa authorities, BEIS and scheme operators were stretched thin, and processing was taking considerably longer than anticipated.

It’s clear from the low number of applicants that more must be done to make the visa scheme an attractive option to foreign workers. One way to do so would be to add HGV drivers to the skilled worker shortage occupation list, which lists occupations that are allowed to be filled with migrant workers. Even if only done for a temporary one-year period, this would allow HGV drivers to score the required points to enter the country on a work visa, fast-tracking the overall process.

Alternatively, introducing an official document that migrants from non-visa countries, which are countries that have an existing visa-free agreement with the EU, could present on arrival, would also help speed up the process.

Another possible solution would be to introduce a temporary visa scheme aimed at the logistics sector, such as the one created for the NHS during the pandemic.

While this could be deemed a drastic measure, the crisis facing supply chains and

Photo: Shutterstock

Driver plan falling short

its lorry drivers shows no signs of slowing down and a solution is needed.

While there is currently no alternative temporary visa route available for HGV drivers, if the situation continues, the government may add HGV drivers to the shortage occupation list. To help businesses prepare for this possibility, it would be advisable to seek professional advice around hiring foreign workers and securing a sponsor licence to ensure the business is able to do so.

By anticipating what the government may do next, businesses can avoid the backlog of sponsor licence applications that is likely to occur.

Since Brexit, we have already seen over Time to act: Tijen Ahmet (left) says the goverment needs to find a solution to the driver shortage fast

18,000 businesses secure a sponsor licence to enable recruitment from both Europe and beyond and many are taking at least eight weeks to be processed.

For businesses concerned about footing the cost of a sponsor licence before it is necessary, it’s important to note that you only pay an initial processing fee for a four-year licence. Any subsequent costs for sponsorship are incurred as and when used, so businesses can start the application process early in preparation. It is evident that a sponsor licence has become a necessity for any business who recruits non-settled or UK and Irish workers and provides the flexibility of employing a talented workforce from anywhere around the world.

There is no surprise that the temporary visa scheme has had little take-up. A three-month visa that takes three weeks to process is not enough to attract workers from the EU and the beyond. More must be done to both ensure drivers are more accessible to the UK labour market and overall working conditions are improved. The HGV driver shortage is a clear issue impacting supply chains that the government must take more seriously.

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Viewpoint

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Weathering the storm T here can be few rational people left on our over-heating planet who seriously doubt that man-made climate change is a real threat to the lives of millions of people in low-lying and drought-stricken countries. If Covid doesn’t Steve Hobson get them due to a somewhat less than Editor generous approach by the rich nations Motor – including the UK – to sharing out the Transport vaccines, then the carbon emitted by the same countries probably will.

We have been told that each of the recent COP climate summits is the last chance to head off catastrophic climate change so many times it is becoming yet another cry of ‘wolf’. Whatever comes out of Glasgow, it now seems inevitable that global temperatures will rise well above the 1.5 degrees that we are told is the threshold for life as we know it. But perhaps some of the environmental whingers would be better off cutting down on their air miles and staying at home rather than adding to the smog of hot air hanging over Glasgow.

Like driver shortages, fuel prices and a lack of decent truck stops, climate change is one of those things that ‘they’ should be sorting out. I always wonder exactly who ‘they’ are when I hear people tell me it is someone else’s job to fix problems.

Government often seems to be in the frame of course, but ‘they’ also include the media and the general public.

With these and a host of other issues, the problem and how we got ourselves in this mess are relatively easy to identify – coming up with speedy, practical and affordable solutions is always far harder.

Even if there were thousands of electric commercial vehicles sitting in showrooms ready to take to the roads, I’m not convinced switching overnight from diesel to electric is the answer to climate change.

The transport industry desperately needs a better steer on how it is going to decarbonise without going bankrupt before operators are able to take the plunge and make that change.

Driver shortage is no big surprise L Iain Speak MD Iain Speak Consultancy

ike many people in our industry, I’ve been around a long time personally doing my bit to raise the average age across all roles, not just drivers.

It should come as no surprise to management and employers that we have a current driver shortage; we’ve known for years and have not done enough to address it. Brexit and Covid haven’t caused the issue, they have simply accelerated what we already knew. It’s not the fault of government, it’s down to us, and those that use our services.

There isn’t a quick fix, but what are our options? They are the same as they have always been!

We and our clients firstly need to recognise and unconditionally accept that our services and especially our drivers are of absolute and irreplaceable importance.

We keep UK plc (and the global economy) going – we are of strategic importance.

The current crisis demonstrates this point.

We now need to have the confidence to demand financial recognition for the work we do. No longer are we competing to get to the bottom on price, we are competing to get drivers! If you have a driver, you will have the work.

Secondly, we need to recognise that society has changed around us. Younger employees don’t want, nor will accept, the conditions we have offered to date.

14 MotorTransport

We need to build the jobs around the employees rather than expecting them to work to our historic rigid terms. This is an easy statement to make and much harder to do, but we must at least try.

Lastly, we need to attract younger people into the sector and, in my view, this can only start when we recognise their expectations in life. We need to use a modern language and means of communication. For example, if you were in your 20s today, would you be attracted to a job called ‘tramping’ in an ‘HGV’?

The vehicle of today and the technology we use to manage it is highly sophisticated, yet we describe it like we always have. In reality, the opportunity for young people is fantastic, and much better than many of the alternatives. It struck me it’s a little bit like motor mechanics, who are now called technicians working in a clean environment, who use laptops to diagnose faults. Gone are the days of ‘grease monkeys’ and Swarfega!

To conclude, we need to step back, get creative and take the challenge on board – no one else is going to do it for us, especially the government!

The newspaper for transport operators

To contact us: Tel: 020 8912 +4 digits or email: name.surname@roadtransport.com Editor Steve Hobson 2161 Head of content Tim Wallace2158 Events and projects editor Hayley Pink 2165 Group production manager Isabel Burton Layout & copy editor Nick Shepherd Senior display sales executive Barnaby Goodman-Smith 2128 Event sales Tim George 0755 7677758 Classified and recruitment advertising rtmclassified@roadtransport.com Sales director Emma Rowland 07900 691137 Divisional director Vic Bunby 2121 MT Awards Katy Matthews 2152 Managing director Andy Salter 2171 Editorial office Road Transport Media, First Floor, Chancery House, St Nicholas Way, Sutton, Surrey SM1 1JB 020 8912 2170 Free copies MT is available free to specified licensed operators under the publisher’s terms of control. For details, email mtsccqueries@roadtransport.com, or call 01772 426705 Subscriptions Email:customercare@dvvsubs.com Quadrant Subscription Services, Rockwood House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DH Rates UK £146/year. Europe£176/year.

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Temperature controlled

D

iesel-powered refrigeration units have been key to the success of temperature-controlled transport, particularly in semi-trailers, for decades – and it is easy to see why. Diesel technology is reliable and flexible. If a reefer trailer needs to be parked up before hitting the road, the fridge unit will ensure that the required temperature is maintained, independently of a tractor unit and with no external input or connections.

The UK’s 2050 Net Zero ambitions will ensure that diesel-powered vehicles will not be on price lists for new trucks from 2040. The idea that trucks will be free of tailpipe emissions by then but diesel engines will still be powering refrigeration units on vehicles and trailers doesn’t seem likely.

Not surprisingly, refrigeration manufacturers have been working on alternative power systems. Some electrically powered systems have been operating successfully for many years. Operators can already choose refrigeration systems designed to reduce diesel consumption, or opt for an alternative power source, which will reduce emissions significantly. Inevitably, more systems are under development.

Horses for courses

“I think the key to moving forward with electric/nonfossil fuels is that there is not going to be an off-the-shelf product that fits every operation,” says Ian Gilbert, head of national sales at Marshall Fleet Solutions. The company, which handles Thermo King sales in the UK, has recently developed its own solar-kinetic powered fridge unit, branded Titan.

The system combines solar panels on the roof of the body or trailer with lithium-ion batteries and kinetic energy from the vehicle. “That really converts a fossil fuel-powered fridge into an EV-powered fridge. We’ve done a lot of work and a lot of R&D around that too, to look at the various options and look at what we can do with it,” says Gilbert.

The electricity generated by the solar panels is stored in the lithium-ion battery pack. In addition, the vehicle PTO drives a generator that produces three-phase electricity, which is also stored in the batteries.

16 MotorTransport

A chilling thought?

As diesel-powered trucks are phased out, vehicle operators will also need to look to alternatives for refrigeration systems, writes John Kendall “The key thing is that it’s only as good as the power bank you’ve chosen,” says Gilbert. “We know that batteries are heavier than the equivalent amount of fuel needed to power it, but the benefit is that we can take a standard V200 fridge unit or a standard engine-driven fridge and remove a lot of the furniture like the road-going compressor, the pipework and the associated items with that, because in layman’s terms, you’re running the fridge on standby operation, albeit instead of plugging it into the mains you’re plugging it into the system that’s within the vehicle or trailer.”

Thermo King already has a range of alternatives at its disposal, including its Eutectics systems, which require no power from the vehicle as the Eutectic plates are frozen in advance. “They’re very popular for larger trucks in Spain, the Middle East and with some operators in France and Belgium,” David O’Gorman, Thermo King’s commercial director for north and western Europe, told MT. “On the larger refrigerated trucks, we’ve introduced a new vehicle-powered unit called the V1000. It runs off

8.11.21

motortransport.co.uk

the truck engine, with an additional compressor on the engine. It’s the highest capacity non-diesel vehiclepowered truck unit in the marketplace. We’ve got a variety of different customers that are seeing this as a real alternative to a nose-mount diesel unit on a rigid truck.”

The system is driven directly off the engine crankshaft pulley via belt drive to an additional compressor that powers the system. Like other engine driven systems, it only refrigerates when the engine is running.

Thermo King’s Frigoblock system is the company’s standalone electrified unit which has been in use for around 30 years. In addition, the company has been using the technology from the Frigoblock system to power its hybrid systems. “So, we can have the Frigoblock generator as a supplemental power source for T-series truck units,” says O’Gorman.

Working with truck manufacturers is also important to ensure power is available on the vehicle. “I think one of the other things we are working through with the various chassis manufacturers, particularly on the rigid

REEFER NIRVANA: Vector eCool (left) is claimed to be the first fully electric trailer on UK roads; while Hultsteins’ Ecogen (right) provides a neat hybrid solution

CHARGING AHEAD: Dawsongroup has recently taken on 10 18-tonners from Volvo with Hultsteins refrigeration systems

chassis, is having access to their batteries, or having space made available for additional batteries, because they are all very protective of their technology and their power source,” says O’Gorman, “But increasingly now, more of them are creating what we call an e-PTO, an electrical pick-up point where you can take power from their batteries. And we are actively working with those companies and we’ve got tracking devices on a number of trials that we’re doing to highlight the impact of the refrigeration system on the range of the vehicle. Then going back from that, how we can modify the operation to increase the range but maintain the temperature.”

Thermo King began working with BPW on a trailer axle driven system back in 2019. The system is still under development, but likely to make its debut soon.

“From a future technology perspective, it’s not going to be a one-hat-fits-all anymore,” says O’Gorman.

“Traditionally you put a diesel fridge on a truck or trailer.

Everybody had the same thing and off you went. Whereas in the future, it’s going to be, well, do you really need all that capacity? How do you want to use the battery, how big a battery? I know there are some customers saying, ‘I want this trailer, but I don’t want the axle and I don’t want one of those batteries, I want two’, so it’s going to be very much a bespoke solution depending on the customer requirements.”

Hybrid approach

Swedish refrigeration company Hultsteins provides two alternative systems to drive refrigeration units. The company ceased manufacture of diesel-powered systems some years ago. Its Ecogen system is a hybrid driven from the vehicle PTO which drives an hydraulic system that in turn drives a generator to provide electricity to run a 400V refrigeration system. “All we need to deliver is 50 litres of oil and a high-quality permanent magnet generator that rotates at 1,500rpm. As long as we can do that, it produces 400V at 50Hz, which will run any fridge,” Hultsteins UK MD Graham Usher explains. “Basically, it turns any fridge that it’s coupled to into an electric fridge.”

Usher sees the Ecogen as a bridging system to the company’s Ecofridge, which offers greater efficiency by eliminating the generator drive and using the hydraulic system to drive the fridge unit directly. “Because we can set it up at the pump, we can provide 100% cooling at idle,” explains Usher. “Because we use a swashplate pump, we deliver full refrigerant capacity at idle and then all that happens is that as the revs increase at the truck, the swashplate pump comes down, just allowing that same amount of oil.” In theory, Usher reckons that compared with a diesel-powered fridge, the fuel ➜ 18 8.11.21

MotorTransport 17

Temperature controlled

POWERING UP: Hubbard has already begun electrifying its van units and plans to electrify its entire range soon

motortransport.co.uk

saving is between 80% and 90%. Obviously, diesel will power the Hultsteins systems at the moment, but the PTO drive system will be adaptable to any future power source.

Electrification route

Hubbard sees electrification as the future route, as Alby Wilson, transport business unit manager at Hubbard Products, tells MT: “We have started the electrification of our portfolio, initially with the smaller units, as tangible demand has started building up already. Our van units are available in full-electric with autonomous and vehicle battery power, as well as in traditional directdrive configuration. The remainder of our portfolio is planned to be electrified in the next few years.”

Visitors to the recent TCS&D Show in Peterborough may have seen the Vector eCool on display, developed jointly by Gray and Adams and Carrier Transicold.

Claimed to be the first fully electric trailer on UK roads,

Vector eCool was built into a dual-temperature, twinmember triaxle trailer. The drive system uses an electric axle to generate electricity, which is then used to charge a battery pack that powers the fridge unit. According to Gray and Adams, even accounting for the weight of the axle generator and battery pack, the trailer tips the scales at less than a standard diesel unit with a full tank of fuel.

“Our design teams have seamlessly integrated the axle, braking and battery systems that make up the eCool into a trailer that has the potential to completely change the face of refrigerated transport and will help the industry to move forward into a more sustainable future,” states Peter Gray, joint MD at Gray & Adams.

Several of the firms MT spoke with suggested that there would not be a single replacement for diesel and it’s clear that as things stand, electrical and hydraulically driven systems have the potential to provide the necessary power. Undoubtedly cost and convenience will play a big part in the choices that operators make. ■

ADAPTING THE INFRASTRUCTURE Perhaps the biggest issue to be resolved where future refrigeration systems are concerned is how distribution centres will need to adapt to future power needs.

“I think for us, most operators don’t have an infrastructure currently to get back and plug 200 trailers in on charge. They are just not equipped for it,” says Ian Gilbert, head of national sales at Marshall Fleet Solutions. “Most of these distribution centres have been custom-built. They’re not off-grid, but they are out of the way.

They will potentially need their own power station to do that. For me, always the biggest thing is getting that infrastructure right.

“If you look at the solar option, they can charge up while they’re on the road. They may get 20-40% of the battery back, but there’s going to be a big change around the infrastructure, the electrical supply and how we manage that.

“Speaking with some of the operators who we deal with and looking at what they are doing, they’re actually saying, well, for so many hours a day we may have a yard full of trailers, so if we can get them on charge on a sunny day, we’ve got the solar – we can actually be powering back into the grid and potentially making a bit of revenue on the back of it.”

“It’s not even just the fact that they can’t do it; the National Grid can’t support it,” says Thermo King’s David O’Gorman. “So we know we’re very much in a chicken and egg situation.

“We do have some customers that are starting to use their units more on electric standby, when they’re parked up at the DC for pre-cooling, etc. We’re actively working with them to highlight the fuel savings by pre-cooling on electric and all that background work that nobody ever sees, but from a loading perspective and 18 MotorTransport

when they’re back at base, the infrastructure is going to be a challenge.

“I know some companies have already committed to the investment to upgrade their facilities, with electric plug-in points for refrigeration, but then the next step will be in 2035-40. They will have to make sure they have upgraded for charging stations for chassis, so a big change coming for us all on that.”

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MT Awards 2021 winner profile Customer Care Award

People skills Winning this category has become a habit for DPD, which impressed the judges by rising to the challenge of delivering great customer service during the pandemic as lockdown led to an unprecedented surge in volumes

TIM JONES: “We cannot compromise on the quality of our drivers”

20 MotorTransport

D

PD has won the Customer Care Award six times in the past seven years. One judge of the 2021 awards said: “This entry demonstrates breathtaking attention to detail, and a winning combination of dedication and innovation.”

Another judge described it as “a truly exceptional entry from a truly exceptional company” which “answered the brief and addressed all points clearly with good supporting evidence”.

DPD is the UK’s number one domestic B2C parcels carrier, more than doubling turnover since 2015 by establishing itself as the go-to carrier for retailers who value a personalised home-delivery experience. Its 22,000-strong team delivers more than 350 million parcels per year for 7,500 customers, including brands such as ASOS, Currys, Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason, Gousto, EE and Next.

The pandemic meant 2020 was the most challenging year in DPD’s 50-year history – but another successful one, with turnover up £544m to £1.93bn. One of the strongest indicators of customer loyalty is that nearly 70% of its top 100 customers have been with DPD for five years or more.

Rigorous research

DPD’s goal every year is to give customers compelling reasons to stick with the company, and that starts with regular and rigorous research to find out what is most important to them. Its January 2020 survey of its top 100 customers revealed that 92% were ‘very satisfied’ or ‘satisfied’, 93% were likely to remain a customer, and its Net Promoter Score was 68%.

While this has since risen to a world-class 70% in the latest survey, DPD is never complacent and works hard to understand why 27% of its customers in 2020 were not promoters of its service.

“The whole point of doing these things is not a backslapping exercise,” says Tim Jones, director of marketing, communications and sustainability. “It is to identify what we need to do to get to the standard we want to be at. It is the same as ‘rate your driver’ on our consumer app – while it is overwhelmingly positive, what we want to know is where we got it wrong.

“The last thing anyone who is serious about customer care – which we are – should be saying is ‘we have 70% NPS, that’s brilliant’. It is all about the people you haven’t got it right with because it isn’t just a parcel, it is someone’s present, someone’s promise and even someone’s dream.”

With a million parcels per day going through the hubs, it takes only a slight glitch to affect a customer’s service and Jones knows that pleasing every customer every day is very difficult.

“The NPS is like taking someone’s pulse at a moment in time,” he says. “A customer might mark us down on that day and three months later would give us 100%.

While NPS is a very important measure, it is a moment in time – and by the nature of a fast-moving, high-volume business, things will change.

“With our regular contact with customers, issues are quickly identified and resolved. The culture at DPD is never to rest on our laurels and we always want to do better and make the customers even happier.”

The key to delivering great customer service during the pandemic was the way DPD’s network rose to the challenge of coping with a huge surge in volumes while improving service levels, a great tribute to the operational team at HQ in Oldbury as well as the 84 depots.

With high-street retailers forced to close in March, a huge surge in online shopping saw volumes leap by 55% within 10 days of the start of the lockdown. By the end of 2020, the equivalent of three-and-a-half years’ projected growth had hit the company in just nine months. Before the pandemic Jones predicted that the 15% share of retail sales that had gone online was just the beginning.

“For me, online was just getting going and all the pandemic has done is give it a big boost,” he says. “We see the current levels of online activity will be sustained and that is part of our plans.”

DPD adapted to the huge rise in volumes with four key initiatives: Activating the Intelligent Operations Centre (IOC) – its ‘mission control’ for handling a crisis; Developing a new ‘continuous wave’ operation to squeeze more capacity from existing depots; Further enhancing its app, inviting consumers to rate their drivers; Measuring and motivating depot managers to deliver the best-possible customer experience.

The initial surge in volumes caused by lockdown was handled by drivers switching from their usual four-day week to a six-day week, which is a flexible working pattern agreed with them three years ago to handle the pre-Christmas peak.

The IOC was also the main forum to monitor progress on an ambitious goal to recruit and train 4,350 new delivery drivers and 3,000 other operational staff in order to have high-quality people in place in time for the preChristmas peak, when volumes traditionally rise by 40%.

DPD’s three pillars – soon to be joined by a fourth, sustainability – are service, technology and people, and, despite the skills shortages facing the logistics industry, Jones says DPD was not short of applications from good people leaving retail, hospitality and travel; one successful applicant was a former airline pilot, for example.

“We cannot compromise on the quality of our drivers,” he says. “All new drivers go through a start-up programme, and we are a prestige brand offering the best kit. There is also the potential for our self-employed drivers to earn significantly more than the national wage. Those factors help attract and – crucially – retain quality staff.”

8.11.21

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NO BRIDGE TOO FAR: DPD delivers more than 1.4 million parcels daily on 12,000 routes

Before the pandemic hit the UK, DPD’s existing operation meant that delivery drivers could only leave the depots knowing that they had all their parcels on board for their route once all inbound trailers had been tipped.

In a typical depot this would produce a surge of up to 120 drivers all leaving in a tight time window between 8am and 8.45am. While such volumes are manageable in normal times, the process was not coping well with a sudden 49% increase in home shopping.

So DPD speeded up the development of a new route allocation system known as ‘Quantum’, designed to spread out driver departure times and ensure that 1.4 million parcels are correctly allocated to 12,000 routes.

Delivery drivers leave each site in three continuous waves, with one batch leaving by 7.30am with their full route, a further batch at 8.30am and the final group of drivers at 9.30am, with all their parcels on board. This means that the same postcode can be served in different waves by different drivers, making the operation much more flexible.

Data collection

Executing this new operation meant finding a way for drivers to leave depots before all the inbound trailers had been tipped by changing a process that had been part of DPD’s operation for 25 years.

This was done by employing the Google app engine to collect data about each parcel’s destination at the time of collection from the customer (say, 5pm on the day before delivery) rather than at the end of sortation in the hubs (around 4am on delivery day).

DPD believes this is a first for the parcels sector and that it helped improve its annual service performance to its best-ever result of 99.99% in 2020, a performance DPD describes, with typical understatement, as “decent”.

Although handling the pandemic occupied much of its focus in 2020, DPD continued to improve consumers’ doorstep experience. The biggest innovation was to add a ‘rate your driver’ function to the app, which DPD believes is another important step forwards in terms of setting it apart from the competition.

Drivers have received 1.5m thumbs-ups since launch in October 2020 – and while the 8,700 thumbs-downs represent only 0.58% of feedback, Jones regards this as 8,700 too many and each one is investigated thoroughly.

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This real-time data from the doorstep also enables DPD to reward its best drivers, while also holding accountable the tiny minority of drivers who consistently fall below the expected high standards.

Giving consumers and customers a great delivery experience relies heavily on the managers at DPD’s 84 nationwide depots producing a near-flawless operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week. DPD’s approach to motivating its managers is simple: Define what great looks like; Give their teams the tools they need to do the job; Rigorously measure how each site is performing; Call out failures and celebrate success.

Depots that consistently deliver performance above 99.85% receive up to £5,000 per year for their social fund.

This focus on data-driven performance management produced best-ever results in 2020. In the busiest week of 2020 (three weeks before Christmas) it delivered 9.8m parcels, up from 6.5m in 2019. Despite this unprecedented 50% increase, overall annual service performance rose from 99.84% in 2019 to 99.99% in 2020.

While DPD is primarily a next-day carrier, the company recently acquired same-day courier CitySprint and Jones hints that same-day deliveries will be an increasingly important part of DPD’s service offering.

“Our business is next-day, but same-day is definitely on our radar,” he says. “I can’t say too much as the CitySprint deal hasn’t yet been ratified, but as soon as it is we will have plenty more to say about same-day. We think there is a growing demand for same-day deliveries and we will have some very exciting opportunities for DPD’s and CitySprint’s customers.” ■

DPD TOP WITH RECIPIENTS AS WELL AS RETAIL CUSTOMERS Just after the Christmas 2019 peak, a MoneySavingExpert poll asked 11,440 home shoppers to rate all the major UK delivery companies based on their experiences. This poll is the biggest independent UK-wide customer satisfaction survey in the parcels industry.

For the eighth successive year,

DPD was the clear winner, with 71% of voters rating DPD Local’s service as ‘great’ and DPD close behind on 68%. Its biggest rivals in the domestic home delivery sector scored 35% (Hermes), 43% (DHL Parcel UK) and 23% (Yodel), while Royal Mail scored 49% and Amazon Logistics 61%.

MotorTransport 21

MT Awards 2021 winner profile Training Award

‘We want lorry drivers, not truckers…’

Wren Kitchens has developed a training and personal development programme producing some of the most professional drivers in the sector

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lthough the clamour to suspend the Driver CPC may be intensifying, the winner of our 2021 Training Award takes a different view.

Wren Kitchens scooped four other MT trophies this year, including our Safety in Operation award, and fears standards could slip, and accidents increase, if the qualification is reviewed – especially when insurers are warning of a rise in premiums for hauliers after the government proposed to streamline tests to ease the driver shortage.

“Suspending CPC training is suspending the hard work the industry has put in to make the job and the roads a safer place,” argues national fleet manager Lee Thompson-Halls. “Wren is keeping CPC going as it not only keeps drivers up to date, but it can also attract new drivers.”

Instead of a suspension, the industry needs a plan in place to catch up, he believes. Otherwise the industry risks seeing the same backlog effect as the Covid MOT extensions.

“Obviously ex-forces tend not to have CPC, so there

WREN INDUCTION COURSE FOR NEW EMPLOYEES All new employees start on a Monday and are immediately enrolled on a five-day induction programme ending on Friday.

Three-day classroom training modules include: ■ Wren seven-steps delivery process ■ Manual handling course and practical training ■ Covid (personal, colleague, customer and public) compliance practices ■ Workplace safety transport ■ Wren transport SWPs including: pre-use vehicle checks, vehicle refuelling, automated vehicle wash, general driving, reversing, vehicle movement in yard, use of underslung tail-lift, use of step ladders, retaining bars, sack barrows, use of net-lifts, collapsible cones, threat of violence delivery/collection loading/ unloading, access and egress vehicle ■ Fatigue course ■ Advanced driving skills ■ Vulnerable road users ■ Drivers’ hours and Working Time Directive ■ Smart device training ■ All new starters complete a 40-question digital tachograph/drivers’ hours assessment, which is worked on until they achieve 100% ■ One-day practical (loading/unloading, demounts, etc) ■ One-day driving with their mentor. The drivers are accompanied by their mentor for the first four weeks, following a rigorous assessment which they must pass before they go solo and are assigned their own porter.

22 MotorTransport

could be a benefit there to attract them in sooner,” Thompson-Halls adds. “But again you could argue a lack of training and knowledge could have an impact in other areas with infringements, etc. Gone are the days of doing drivers’ hours CPC every year. We keep our CPC relevant to the job to include topical subjects like bridge strikes and vulnerable road users.”

Wren insists training and personal development underpin its success, which saw it deliver an impressive 96,296 kitchens last year, despite the new challenges brought on by the pandemic.

With safety, compliance and continuity taking centre stage, the Humberside-based company assessed, employed and trained an unprecedented 123 new drivers in four months to manage a spike in orders. In parallel, it continued training and coaching that delivered efficiencies, increased performance, improved safety and supported individuals in their personal development.

Recruitment drive

The company’s transport and logistics team now exceeds 770, with a recruitment policy that is about finding people with the right attitude rather than aptitude. It is then Wren’s mission to identify their training needs and provide the right environment to develop their skills.

“We’re looking for the lorry driver as opposed to the trucker,” explains training manager Dave Cooper. “A trucker is more interested in the frills in the cab and the curtains, as opposed to doing a proper job. And if that view upsets a few people, then tough. A trucker goes away for a month at a time, they’ve got a V8 Scania with all the bells and whistles, and they’re on about 10p an hour. But their boss says they can do 50 hours per week when it suits.

“Whereas I want professional lorry drivers who understand how to do manual entries, understand what’s involved in a walk-round check, know their drivers hours rules, and know how to treat customers and deliver a product.”

So does he agree with Thompson-Halls that suspending the Driver CPC would be a mistake?

“While DCPC is not in the perfect format, if we take away training standards they will drop even more,” Cooper says. “For me, a more structured approach would be a better way forward, with support from the industry to profile and format the driver training. If we look at other industries – pilots, fire fighters, train drivers… the process is completely different.”

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Wren has 15 RHA trained assessor/training managers (all Level 3 PTLLS, IOSH, FORS and Transport Manager CPC trained/approved) working out of dedicated training academy facilities at its six sites, delivering training and development programmes. During Covid, the company doubled its training days as facilities designed to accommodate 12 to 15 delegates could only take six Covid-safely.

Driver apprentice scheme

To address the ongoing driver shortage and the ageing profile of qualified drivers, Wren has a policy of growing its own employees. Working with RHA approved training partner TRS, its apprentice programme is aimed at porters who want a career. And what helps is that they are already familiar with the company’s team culture and progressive nature.

Apprentices have opportunities to progress through van, LGV and HGV licences. During 2020, another 11 apprentices joined Wren’s programmes. All started as drivers and two took the opportunity to be transferred to the office programme. Another 16 apprentices were given full-time positions within the organisation following successful graduation from their apprenticeship schemes.

Wren has training academies at each main site – which are JAUPT-approved CPC training centres – geographically placed for ease of access. Its 15 dedicated, in-house RHA-trained trainers are also experienced driver assessors, who deliver all training, assessments and coaching. For maximum effectiveness, all 15 trainers have at least at a Cat C or CE driving licence, an LGV driver assessor certificate, a PTTLS level 3 teaching qualification, and an IOSH Health & Safety certificate.

Each classroom has personal computer terminals for online training, assessments and examinations. For highly effective and engaging practical hands-on training, each classroom also has a simulated vehicle box and rear-of-vehicle – with items such as cabinets, cookers, fridges and larder units – so that manual handling and product care training is ‘life-live’, but carried out in a safe and controlled environment.

What particularly impressed our judges about Wren’s entry was that it measured the benefits of its training programmes with supporting statistics. In the past 18 months, for example, it has introduced a number of initiatives that it can prove have brought safety, commer8.11.21

cial and personal benefits. These have included a speed awareness focus, which in 31 weeks achieved a 194% increase in speed limit adherence, and a Safe Driving Techniques programme. Over the last 12 months this has increased fuel efficiency by 1.3mpg, given operational savings of £189,290 and reduced CO2 emissions by 154,245kg.

The spike in orders during Covid resulted in an unprecedented number of new drivers, Wren says, and its driver infringement rate (circa 2%) inevitably increased from September to November 2020.

To tackle this, e-learning modules, refresher training, driver assessments, one-to-one mentoring/ coaching and specific manual-entry tachograph training was introduced for offending drivers, with online refresher training for all. Infringements have since reduced from 4.76% (Nov 2020) to 2.25% (Feb 2021). ■

CAREER PATH CASE STUDY Steve Clarke, US transport operations manager “I joined Wren in 2016 as a Class 2 home delivery driver. After three months on the road I was asked by the transport manager to take on the early morning dispatch of routes, which involved getting all vehicles and paperwork ready for a timely departure when the delivery teams arrived.

“Over the next six months I learned as much as I could about daily operations and was offered the opportunity to assist in setting up a new depot in Bristol, working away from home for four months, during which time Wren trained me to be a driver assessor/trainer and induction course trainer.

“In 2018 I had the opportunity to train for my Class 1 licence, which I passed first attempt. I was then offered training for the International Transport Manager CPC. I completed an intense six-week course and passed both exams. In late 2019 I took on the challenge of opening a new depot in Tipton – interviewing/ recruiting drivers and setting up site utilities.

“With the support of the national transport manager and transport and logistics director, the depot opened four months later and was fully operational three months ahead of schedule and has continued to grow successfully over the last 18 months.

“The next challenge was to set up and launch our first transport operation in the United States, which I started in February 2020, and although I returned to the UK in May 2020 due to Covid, I am now back in America.”

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MT Awards 2021 winner profile Clean Fleet Van Operator of the Year

Bright sparks Nottingham City Council’s fleet electrification programme has proved something of a lightbulb moment in addressing the city’s air pollution issue

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n 2016, the air quality in and around Nottingham City was so bad it was creating more fatalities than road traffic accidents and alcohol consumption combined, with an estimated social impact cost of £500m a year across Nottinghamshire. It was clear something had to be done. The result was the launch of Nottingham City Council’s (NCC’s) Fleet Electrification Programme, which aims to transition the authority’s fleet to a zero tailpipe emission one by 2028.

Back in 2016, the programme met with some scepticism, recalls Matt Ralfe, NCC’s innovation and change manager. “When we started our move towards electrification in 2016, there were concerns about the performance of EVs, their price and that there simply were not electric alternatives for over half of our fleet,” he says. “However, with careful research we ensured that all vehicles purchased could do the job and setting the Fleet Electrification Strategy to take place over a number of years allowed time for technology to catch up and provide reduced prices and an increased range of vehicles.

In 2016, the idea of a fully electric refuse collection vehicle was laughed at; four years later, we had two.”

The number of EVs in the council’s fleet has grown from two in 2016 to 196 in 2021, of which 130 are electric vans, making the council’s van fleet 48% electric.

NCC’s vans cover locations across the city, providing critical support and services to local residents. With the fleet of electric vans travelling over 590,000 miles a year, the council has calculated that over 115,000 fewer litres of diesel are being combusted per annum, reducing the

THUMBS-UP ALL ROUND Not surprisingly, the MT Awards judges were mightily impressed by NCC’s submission. One said: “NCC is doing what several others have shied away from,” adding that despite the challenges of being a pioneer in this field the council had grasped the nettle and shown “real commitment – and that is to its credit”.

Another judge praised the “exceptional leadership in displacing diesel vehicles from a very wide range of applications in socially responsible ways”, while a third praised the “excellent roll-out” and the programme’s “impressive programme of outreach and education”.

“This is a great story from a local authority which is both ambitious and keen to make a huge impact locally and lead by example,” said the fourth judge.

“The way it has gone about this, including now looking at tools for its operatives also being electric, is to be highly commended and it leads the way ahead of many, not only in this sector, but across the wider fleet community.

“Showing a great range of vehicle breadth in electric is again a positive way of embracing new technology as it becomes available and NCC sets the pace for all other local authorities to follow,” he added.

24 MotorTransport

yearly CO2 emitted by over 190 tonnes – the equivalent of the quantity of carbon absorbed by over 7,000 trees.

The council has also introduced electric cage tippers to clean and maintain public spaces and parks, electric panel vans to deliver hot and frozen meals to families, and electric minibuses to transport high-dependency children to and from places of care.

While the benefits of these services are difficult to quantify, the council says the social contribution the vehicles make towards sustaining and supporting the well-being of Nottingham residents is invaluable.

The programme does not stop there, either. Across the wider municipal fleet NCC is also pioneering the adoption of new EVs. These include compact sweepers, minibuses, cage tippers and OEM electric refuse collection vehicles (eRCVs), all of which were the first of their kind to be operational in the UK – showing the council’s leadership and commitment to being an early adopter of all types of EVs and highlighting the range of applications in which EVs can be effective.

NCC is also breaking new ground in its approach to vehicle-to-grid and battery storage, adopting emerging innovative technologies such as V2G and battery storage.

As part of this strategy it has launched its CleanMobilEnergy Project, which will connect 40 of the council’s electric vans to a network of solar PV panels and the national grid using an energy optimisation platform.

By predicting periods of good weather and low electricity pricing, it will charge vehicles at the most cost-effective times, while enabling the vans to act as short-term energy-storage units by discharging energy back to the grid during periods of high demand.

The council is also at the cutting edge of EV maintenance, having launched the UK’s first local authority-run ULEV-exclusive workshop. Dubbed the Nottingham Electric Vehicle Services (NEVS), it was not only created to service NCC’s own fleet, but also to offer informed, value-for-money ULEV maintenance to the public, to help encourage greater public uptake of EVs. The council’s technicians have also been upskilled to IMI Level 3 and 4 to ensure they have the skills and qualifications to safely maintain EVs. Ralfe says this is one of the programme’s most significant achievements to date, helping to spread the word about the benefits of EVs to others: “Being open to the public and offering them the benefits of our team’s expertise, as well as being an independent hub for ULEV maintenance, allows us to speed up the shift to cleaner vehicles across the local area rather than just being focused on our own fleet’s direct impact on the air quality of Nottingham.”

The strategy has also brought financial benefits. NCC’s operational savings from electrifying its vans amount to over £160,000 per year and are ringfenced to meet the 8.11.21

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purchase cost of ULEVs, such as the council’s electric minibuses. These play a key role in enabling highdependency children to get out into the community in clean vehicles producing no diesel particulates to harm their health.

NCC is also electrifying the handheld equipment used by operatives, reducing diesel fumes and also the vibration impact of strimmers, lawn mowers and leaf blowers.

Warm welcome

Unsurprisingly, the programme has received a warm welcome from both employees and the public, says Ralfe: “Despite some initial scepticism, all of our vehicles are now embedded in the service areas. The drivers in particular have told us of the benefits of reduced vibrations, noise and smell, and they no longer feel as stressed by the end of the day; their reaction has been one of the reasons we have been so confident in pursuing our goal of a fully ULEV fleet by 2028.”

He adds: “The reaction from the public has been very positive, particularly in areas where vehicles and the public mix, such as our sweepers which clean the city centre and our cage tippers in our parks and cemeteries.

In particular, Nottingham City Council has been applauded for the eRCVs and how quiet they are when collecting waste in the early morning.”

Not content with rolling out its own electrification programme, NCC is also helping others achieve their electrification goals under its ULEV and Hybrid Vehicle Procurement Framework. This uses NCC’s electrification experience to make it easier for other councils to follow in its footsteps and to cut their costs and risks when buying ULEVS. NCC also supports local authorities with fleet reviews, information on charging infrastructure, and advice on vehicle operation and maintenance – all for free.

The creation of the framework was accelerated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, says Ralfe. “The first lockdown provided an ideal opportunity for other councils to assess their approach to carbon neutrality 8.11.21

and this has led to a large number of councils getting in touch to discover what Nottingham City Council is doing.

“We are always happy to discuss with others and help them to de-risk the process with some lessons learned from ourselves. It was these discussions which lead to the creation of our ULEV procurement framework as many public sector organisations were unsure of what should be in a procurement specification or what the capabilities of EVs were in a ‘real world’ setting.

“Since the launch of the ULEV Framework less than a year ago, five other public sector business have used it to purchase EVs and begin their journey towards fleet electrification.”

Another initiative launched by NCC is the Electric Van Experience (EVE) project, which gives Nottingham and Derby businesses the opportunity to experience different types of electric vans first-hand.

In partnership with Highways England, NCC has purchased 50 electric vans, which are being loaned out in a try-before-you-buy scenario.

The awards judges were mightily impressed by the council’s achievements, and the NCC team was thrilled by the award. Ralfe says: “Winning the MT Award came as a real shock as we were shortlisted with some huge companies like UPS and DPD. To be the only public sector organisation to make it through to be a finalist at the awards was already fantastic, but to win was great recognition of the work that many local authorities are doing towards electrifying their fleets.”

He adds that he hopes the award will help the council continue to spread the word: “We are keen to support other public sector organisations electrify their fleets, with our ULEV procurement framework, ULEV-only maintenance garage and consultancy services offering help on tasks such as fleet reviews, charging infrastructure plans and business cases. We have now switched 44% of our fleet to electric across a range of vehicle types, so we have a lot of knowledge and experience that will help smooth the journey for others.” ■

CURRENT THINKING: NCC has achieved operational savings of over £160,000 per year from the use of electric vans

MotorTransport 25

MT Awards 2021 winner profile Low Carbon Award

Driving change Winner of the Low Carbon Award Hovis set out its fleet carbon-reduction strategy in 2015 and its four main initiatives are now paying serious dividends

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ince its launch in 1886, bread-maker Hovis has ensured its brand remains synonymous with all things fresh, wholesome and healthy. So it stands to reason that behind the scenes, the business is playing its part when it comes to the sustainability of its operation, from plastics reduction initiatives through to recycling partnerships.

And its own-account fleet operation, comprising around 400 vehicles and 250 trailers, is no exception to this rule, making Hovis a standout winner of this year’s MT Low Carbon Award.

In 2015, Hovis set out its fleet carbon-reduction strategy and road map for achieving its emissions targets, with four key pillars underpinning the plans: reduce operating miles; improve MPG; reduce or remove the need to burn diesel fuel; and to improve driver performance and data.

Focusing on these key areas of fleet operation has put Hovis on track to remove 1.3 million road miles, equating to 100,000 gallons of fuel use (based on an average fleet MPG of 13mpg), in 2020/21 alone. This has all been achieved with increased sales volumes during the Covid-19 pandemic, without increasing the fleet size or driver pool.

Driving force

Hovis employs around 800 drivers on its fleet, so focusing on improving behaviour behind the wheel was a key element of the carbon-reduction strategy to get right.

Leading the way was Tony Stuart, head of logistics operations support, who took inspiration from an eye-opening course at Cranfield University in 2014 that looked at the psychology of how drivers react to everyday circumstances on the road.

If a driver has experienced a negative event in their home life, for example, then this can easily get translated into reactions behind the wheel, such as harsh braking and acceleration, or not giving way to other road users.

To get a better insight, the first thing Hovis did was to install in-cab cameras and Microlise telematics to its fleet to understand why particular driving styles were occurring. With this knowledge to hand, the company then began to shape its training strategy, including a dedicated driver behaviour day into its CPC courses each year.

“It’s vitally important we tell the driver what we expect from them, and teach them coping techniques for how to deal with street furniture and everyday ‘craziness’ on the roads created by other road users,” says Stuart. “And 26 MotorTransport

that was really the foundation for driving better.”

As a result, MPG has improved by between 4% and 5% across the fleet, alongside its Microlise driver ratings.

The latter so much so that Hovis has scooped a number of Microlise accolades in the past few years culminating in the Driver Excellence Award as the company with the most drivers in the top 1,000 based on telematics data from 225,000 UK drivers.

Reducing mileage

To further slash its carbon footprint, Hovis has worked closely with its customers to explore new routes to market and make deliveries more efficient.

Much of this has stemmed from helping shift the traditional customer mindset from needing a daily delivery of bread, when in fact the shelf life of products means this isn’t at all necessary. Or moving customers away from all wanting an AM delivery, when again, it is likely just as efficient to have a delivery in the afternoon.

With deliveries being made to around 4,000 stores across the UK, this is a continuous process with much more scope available to reduce vehicle mileage further.

And collaboration with other manufacturers will likely play a fundamental role in this, believes Stuart – particularly as the driver shortage continues to challenge the sector.

“As an industry, I think we need to now look at how we do more with less drivers,” he says. “And that will likely bring more collaboration.

“I think there’s room now in the next two, three or four years for some form of tighter collaboration, with companies delivering on the same vehicles as we all try to reduce miles.”

Convenience vehicles

As the popularity of convenience stores has soared with Hovis’s consumers, so too has the fleet transitioned to support this growth.

At the beginning of the convenience store surge, the smallest vehicles on the Hovis fleet were 12-tonners at 25ft in length. “But they were too big, burning up too much fuel, and there were problems getting in and out of certain areas,” says Stuart.

However there was no point in Hovis investing in smaller vehicles if the payload wasn’t sufficient for the amount of bread it needed to deliver.

After looking at several vehicles, Hovis decided a 7.2-tonne Iveco chassis that could carry up to a 3-tonne payload was the best fit for the job.

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Stuart then worked with trailer firm Tiger to build a bespoke body to fit its requirements, as there wasn’t anything already on the market that suited Hovis’s needs.

The lightweight body features a large side door with steps for kerbside unloading, while goods can also be accessed from the rear door too. An innovative trapdoor mechanism was built in to store the stairs when not in use. It is also lower to the ground to give the driver more visibility and control in built-up areas.

Hovis currently has 50 ‘convenience’ vehicles on the road covering 2.5 million miles annually, which are on track to save around 35,000 gallons of fuel compared with 7.5-tonne and 12-tonne counterparts. Stuart has also ordered a further 50 vehicles for future rollout on the fleet.

In terms of any additional cost compared with standard diesel, Stuart adds that the use of HVO has been by far the most economical way to reduce significant amounts of CO2 emissions from the company’s fleet. Particularly when looked at in comparison with the upfront cost of electric trucks, for example.

“HVO puts us in a position now where if I’m saving roughly 90% of carbon emissions, that final 10% is going to cost me a lot of money at some point to try and negate down to zero,” he adds.

He also argues that right now, a truck running on HVO is still likely a more sustainable option than an electric truck on a well-to-wheel basis when you take into account things such as how electricity is generated, manufacture, battery disposal, and so on.

Going electric

Legislation should be adjusted to encourage more operators to use HVO in their fleets for instant carbon-reduction and air-quality benefits, Stuart urges, rather than simply waiting for electric or hydrogen technology to become mainstream.

“You can revolutionise city deliveries overnight, making legislation that they use HVO. You could acknowledge that it will cost a little more upfront, but then operators won’t be charged to enter zero-emission zones in London, for example.

“I know there’s a lot of debate around it, but the reality is most operators are going to move towards HVO, I believe over the next three or four years, once they realise the benefits over any other biofuel.”

He adds: “The electric truck, or the alternative fuel truck, whatever that means, is still some way down the line.”

But when electric or hydrogen trucks do come into their own, Hovis will be at the front of the queue.

Indeed, Stuart is already in talks with manufacturers and has further electric truck trials in the pipeline once vehicles are ready to roll. But he certainly isn’t ready to ditch the ICE just yet – not until the vehicle lifespan enables the technology to become cost-viable. “I think they’ll get there,” he says of the major OEMs. “And we will get there.”

“But for now, we’ve done what we can to put ourselves in a strong holding position where we don’t need to panic.

We can continue on this journey of trying to reduce road miles and using HVO for the foreseeable future. And then introduce the right type of vehicle. Whenever that becomes available.” ■

Hovis is also very impressed with the operational performance of its two FUSO eCanters, which Stuart describes as “loved by the drivers” and “the perfect vehicle” if the range could be increased in future.

“It does about 65 miles per day on a charge,” he says.

“If it were to double that then we could really take advantage of this time. But at the moment, it’s literally the mileage restrictions that stop us for now to go to that next level.”

He adds: “But yes, electric vehicles are heavily on the agenda. They have to be, but they have to be viable.”

While Stuart doesn’t think electric trucks are quite there yet in times of cost and viability, he certainly hasn’t sat on his hands waiting for technology to advance.

Instead, Hovis has embraced the instant carbonreduction and air-quality benefits of HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil), supplied by Green Biofuels.

GREEND+ HVO is a sustainable renewable paraffinic diesel substitute, which is known as a ‘drop-in’ fuel due to its ability to be simply used in a diesel engine without any modifications.

The entire fleet made the switch across in 2018 and by the end of this year will have saved more than 40,000 metric tonnes, or 91%, of CO2 compared with using diesel.

Stuart says the switch to HVO had no impact on fleet performance or refuelling infrastructure, making it an easy transition for the business. In addition, the drivers are also positive about the new fuel, as it doesn’t smell or leave any residues when refuelling in the way diesel can.

8.11.21

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MotorTransport 27

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