Palletforce grabs Dodds

Group will develop scheme in multiple UK cities after London success

Pall-Ex to roll out last-mile delivery

By Carol Millett

Pall-Ex Group is planning to roll out a last-mile delivery scheme across multiple cities after its launch in London delivered service levels above 96.5% and boosted members’ annual revenues by an average of over 29%.

The London Project was developed by Pall-Ex in collaboration with 13 of its members to tackle the cost and difficulties of delivering into London.

The scheme identified and mapped 13 territories, using depot location, vehicle management, and freight volume data, and alloted them to 13 members. Each member has exclusive access to the commercial opportunities within the allotted patch to ensure maximum profitability via improved load and route planning.

The 13 members also enjoy several benefits, including the elimination of multi-network subcontractors, increased market input, exclusive member agreements, increased delivery capacity and improved profit.

Pall-Ex also introduced new and more favourable Inter-Member Rates (IMR) under the scheme.

To remain in the London Project and take advantage of its additional benefits, members are required to maintain above 95% service levels in their designated zone at all times and to work exclusively for Pall-Ex and Fortec. It might rarely feel like it these days, but freedom of the open road was the reason given by many lorry drivers for liking their job the most.

According to a survey conducted among 330 drivers, nearly half (43%) gave that response, with 22% saying it was the pride they felt in delivering a vital service that got them behind the wheel each morning.

Bringing things back down to earth with a bump, a third of drivers said their least favourite aspect of their job was the lack of decent roadside facilities.

A lack of respect came second on the list of dislikes.

Driver Hire, which conducted the survey, also asked what drivers had initially wanted to do when they left school – and found over a fifth (22%) were doing their dream job, although one respondent said he had wanted to be a pirate and another “a coffin lid polisher”.

Co-op sends robot army into Leeds Call of the wild is job’s biggest lure, say drivers

Co-op’s bid to provide sustainable methods of delivery using autonomous robots has reached Leeds, with 20,000 residents able to make use of the novel service.

Following a roll-out in Bedford last year, the food store group has once again teamed up with Starship Technologies, as well as Leeds City Council, to offer autonomous grocery deliveries within the Adel and Tinshill areas of the city.

Orders are made through the Starship food delivery app before being delivered by robots within the community. Residents can schedule their delivery and then drop a pin where they want their groceries sent.

The expansion in the north of England follows their introduction in Milton Keynes, Bedford, Northampton and Cambridge.

Engineer shortage the new challenge, sector warned

Rising competition for vehicle engineers and technicians is the new recruitment challenge for the haulage industry, Fagan & Whalley (F&W) has warned.

The warehousing and distribution company has tackled the problem by hiking wage rates for its engineers and technicians and by ensuring its workshops offer good quality, heated facilities to attract and retain staff.

Business and strategy director Sam Fagan said that while the company had seen a 16% rise in turnover to £30.9m (2021: £26.6m) in the year to 30 April 2022, its pretax profit had fallen to £467,664 (2021: £1.5m).

Fagan said the slump in pre-tax profit had to be seen in the context of two “exceptional years’ performance” during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Other key factors included the driver shortage crisis and the cost and operational challenge of launching the company’s 212,000sq ft warehouse and distribution centre in Blackburn, which opened in February 2021.

Culina buys International Road Ferry

Culina has bought unaccompanied transport specialist International Road Ferry (IRF) for an undisclosed sum.

IRF has offices in Felixstowe, Thetford, Rotterdam and Grubbenvorst near Venlo in the Netherlands. It has more than 25 years of experience in unaccompanied transport of both full and part loads between the UK, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

IRF will sit within the group’s Stobart Intermodal operation headed up by MD Arthur Koutstaal.