Motor Transport 8 March 2021

Sharp ■ Informed ■ Challenging

8.3.21

Iconic family-owned transport firm acquired after 80 years in business

‘Business as usual’ as Gregory buys Pollock

By Carol Millett

ENTRIES ARE N OW O P E N

NEWS INSIDE Getting the green light

Longer semi-trailer approval p3

Direct Vision stand-off EU hauliers avoid London

Protecting the NHS

Meachers signs PPE deal

p4

p6

OPERATORS INSIDE Bibby Distribution.........................................p26 Campeys of Selby .......................................... p3 Culina ........................................................... p3 DPD UK ........................................................p24 DX Group ....................................................... p3 Europa Worldwide ........................................p20 EV Cargo ....................................................... p3 Malcolm Group.............................................. p3 Meachers Global Logistics ............................. p6 Pallet-Track .................................................. p4 Rendrive Haulage .......................................... p4 The Pallet Network........................................ p4 Walkers Transport........................................p22

Gregory Distribution has completed the purchase of Pollock Holdings and its subsidiaries Pollock (Scotrans) and Pollock Express.

Family firm Pollock, based in Bathgate in central Scotland, operates a fleet of 150 vehicles, with more than 200 staff and over 55,000sq ft of warehousing.

Announcing the deal, Gregory Distribution insisted it was “business as usual” for Pollock, with the company retaining its brand and MD Scott Pollock continuing at the helm.

This is the latest addition to the Gregory Distribution Scottish stable, which includes ARR Craib, purchased in 2018, and joint venture Hayton Coulthard.

The acquisition will boost Gregory Distribution’s already significant presence in the Scottish transport and logistics market.

Chief executive John Gregory said: “Pollock is an iconic name in the UK transport industry, with more than 80 years of serving many fantastic companies, both within Scotland and to and from England.

“We will be maintaining the

strong Pollock brand and we are delighted that Scott Pollock will continue to lead the Pollock business within the group. It will be very much business as usual for all of the Pollock team and its customers.”

Scott Pollock said: “After 80 years as a family business we feel that the time is right for Pollock to become part of a bigger group and I look forward to realising the opportunities which this brings.

As a family-owned company, Gregory shares the same values as ourselves.”

Fa m i l y f i r m Gr e g o r y Distribution, which has its headquarters at Cullompton in Devon, runs a fleet of over 1,100 trucks, employs over 2,500 staff and operates from 49 locations including depots in Exeter, Plymouth, Shepton Mallet, Cullompton, Bristol, Birmingham, Aberdeen, Stockton-on-Tees, Great Yarmouth and Cumbernauld.

Its most recent results for the year to 28 September 2019 revealed a 37% rise in turnover to £239m (2018: £174m) with profit up by 40% to £8m (2018: £5.7m).

SEAL THE DEAL: Palletways member Walkers Transport has secured a three-year £20m transport and logistics contract with sealant, adhesive and building chemical supplier Sika Everbuild. Under the terms of the new deal, Walkers becomes Everbuild’s principal transport and logistics partner, responsible for inbound and outbound logistics and the provision of all transport throughout the UK and Europe. Walkers Transport said that although the two Leeds-based companies had partnered for over a decade, the new deal represented a “significant growth opportunity” for both businesses. Group MD Jason Scott added: “We are delighted to be able to further cement our relationship with Everbuild. To have them show their faith in us by awarding such a huge contract is testament to our ‘can-do’ philosophy, which sees us going above and beyond to always deliver quality-centric service from all teams across the group.” Everbuild will be the first customer to utilise Walkers' new Insight Portal – a recent major technological investment that the company says is an industry first.

News Extra: IR35 p8 Business barometer p10 Viewpoint p12 Tippers & tankers p14 Air pollution p18 Brexit p20 MT Awards winners p24-27

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News

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Longer semi-trailers deliver emissions savings and improved safety

DfT gives green light to LSTs after trial success Transport secretary Grant Shapps MP has given the go-ahead to the widespread use of longer semitrailers (LSTs) on Britain’s roads.

At a transport select committee hearing, Shapps said he had signed off a trial of “heavier, or I think more wheelbases. I’ve signed off trials to make it permanent”.

A Department for Transport (DfT) spokesman told MT that Shapps was referring to the DfTs trial of LSTs. The trial of 2,600 LSTs, which was set to run until 2027, became the subject of a DfT consultation last November after it delivered significant reductions in both mileage and emissions, while boosting productivity. The consultation, which closed in January, looked at whether the trial should be halted early and LSTs be allowed to operate permanently.

Two sizes of LSTs were included in the trial – 14.6m and 15.65m.

The longer length proved far the most popular as it can carry two

more rows of pallets or three more rows of roll cages than a standard 13.6m trailer.

Results from 2012 to 2019 revealed the 2,600 LSTs had cut road mileage by 33.5 million miles, reduced CO2 by 48,000 tonnes – like taking over 20,000 cars off the road – and been involved in fewer personal injury collisions than standard HGVs.

n The Malcolm Group has already put in an order for 63 LST licences in response to the government’s announcement. Chief executive Andrew Malcolm told MT: “With ongoing challenges, road congestion and driver shortage – coupled with the obvious environmental benefits – these trailers have proved to be a valuable asset.”

Redundancy row as EV Cargo loses dairy work A dispute has broken out between EV Cargo and Culina over which company is responsible for redundancy payments for 65 EV Cargo warehouse workers.

The workers, who are based at EV Cargo’s Daventry site, are set to be made redundant after Culina won the retendered Lactalis contract last year.

If the row escalates it could see delays to the delivery of the dairy giant’s products across the UK. The dispute flared when Culina took over the warehousing contract earlier this week, MT has learned.

It centres on which firm is responsible for paying for the redundancy of 65 staff that worked on the contract while it was held

by EV Cargo.

Redundancy costs are estimated to be around £350,000, sources say. EV Cargo argues that under TUPE regulations it is Culina’s responsibility to make the workers redundant. Culina says EV Cargo should pick up the bill.

Initially 90 staff were facing redundancy, but EV Cargo found roles for 35 who had worked on the Lactalis contract.

Campeys pulls back curtain on new deal growth North Yorkshire haulier Campeys of Selby has added 35 new high-capacity curtainsided trailers to its expanding fleet after landing a number of new deals.

Transport manager Harry Campey (pictured) said the Lawrence David trailers are of bespoke specification, with 2.9m internal height to ensure maximum load volume and enhance operational efficiency. The pillarless trailers also have flat floors to maximise load fill and a range of safety features including interior LED lighting and additional access steps. The additions leave Campeys with a fleet of 80 units and 140 trailers.

DX Group readies £10m spree following strong freight performance Delivery firm DX Group has opened a new security control room as part of a £10m expansion programme. The group is also planning to open six new depots this year – three for DX Freight and three for DX Express.

The security control room, at Tipton in the West Midlands, aims to improve group efficiency and capacity across both divisions.

DX’s transportation services include overnight delivery services, the transportation of confidential documents, and delivery of large, 8.3.21

awkward-to-handle freight. Around £6m of investment in the group’s technology, equipment, sites and fleet is scheduled for 2021.

DX Group has also come out of the red to deliver pre-tax profit of £1.7m, aided by “very strong growth” in its freight division, formerly Nightfreight.

Reporting its half-year results, the group said revenue had increased by 7% in the 27 weeks to 2 January 2021 to £182.7m, with adjusted profit before tax rising to £3.8m – a £5.5m

swing from last year's pre-tax loss of £1.7m.

Its recovery was driven by the performance of DX Freight, where revenue rose by 19% to £103.4m. This helped drive an operating profit of £8.1m – a £9.5m improvement against the prior period, which generated a loss of £1.4m.

However DX Express is still feeling the fallout from the loss of the Passport Office contract last year and saw revenue fall by 5% to £79.3m.

Operating profit also fell to £7.4m compared to £11.1m in the same period last year.

MotorTransport 3

News

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UK firms likely to benefit if overseas operators boycott London rather than make fleets compliant

Euro hauliers turn back on DVS Supply chains could be significantly disrupted by the Direct Vision Standard (DVS) as European hauliers said they would continue to avoid London after enforcement began on 1 March.

SmartWitness UK said it had found non-UK hauliers were “really frustrated” by the new scheme and many were looking to boycott London rather than shell out thousands of pounds to make their fleets compliant.

However, the decision could prove beneficial to UK hauliers who are ready for the safety scheme.

“The result has been that many south-eastbased haulage firms that have done compliance with us are picking up lots of new contracts to take EU goods on into Greater London from depots outside London, or from northern Europe,” said SmartWitness UK MD Fearghal MacGowan.

“Increasingly, UK fleets have taken up the opportunity to get the 90-day extension to the TfL deadline and SmartWitness has been inundated with new orders for our DVS Safe Systems, which we will fulfil in the next three months.

“Fleets that have sorted their compliance will be able to charge a premium for their services inside the capital as a lot of European-based hauliers are effectively looking to boycott coming inside the M25.”

But some hauliers are becoming increasingly concerned that their supply chain will collapse in the face of the onerous safety scheme.

Tony O’Malley, MD of Kent-based Rendrive Haulage, said: “One major operator told me he was not prepared to pay near £100,000 for a local standard just to deliver to one city in the UK.”

Parkes hands over reins at Pallet-Track Nigel Parkes is stepping down as MD of Pallet-Track and will be replaced by the network’s chief financial officer Caroline Green, who will take on the role of chief executive in April.

Parkes, who founded PalletTrack 19 years ago, will remain a significant shareholder of the business, taking a seat on the board of parent company Palman.

Green, who was appointed as Pallet-Track’s CFO in September 2020, was offered the role after impressing Parkes with her “fresh

4 MotorTransport

TPN recycling scheme is worth the energy

perspective” on the business.

She began her career at global copying giant Xerox and joined Pallet-Track from e-commerce returns solutions provider ReBound Returns, where she was

chief operating and finance officer.

Parkes said he had been searching for a successor since selling a controlling stake in the business to private equity firm TPA Capital two years ago.

The Pallet Network’s recycling scheme, which allows its members to take expired pallets to TPN’s hub for use in energy generation, has saved 300 tonnes of wood from landfill in its first six months.

The scheme, started in July 2020, had recycled 144 tonnes of pallets by November, an average of 28 tonnes per month. The figure had more than doubled by midFebruary, with January alone contributing 78 tonnes.

The strategy saves hauliers the cost of disposing of broken or expired pallets.

8.3.21

London has new vehicle safety standards To improve the safety of all road users, Heavy Goods Vehicles over 12 tonnes must now meet the new safety standards and have a safety permit.

The permit is free to apply for.

If you do not have a safety permit you may receive a penalty charge of up to £550.

Ensure you also meet the Euro VI emissions standard.

Search TfL check heavy vehicle

News

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ADVERTORIAL

Firm will deliver PPE to local NHS Covid hubs

Meachers signs PPE supply deal

Tim Campbell is a leading commercial vehicle/ electric fuel cell consultant

The future of battery power and hydrogen

By Tim Campbell The automotive industry will see more change in the next decade than in the last 100 years, with vans and trucks very much at the centre of things.

Current thinking anticipates vehicles powered by batteries for urban delivery and hydrogen fuel cells for the long-distance or trunking operations, but that could change.

As batteries become more efficient and energy density increases, so the range of the vehicles will expand. I can see battery powered trucks migrating from urban to regional operations, creating a crossover point with hydrogen fuel cells beyond what we see currently. This is certainly viable when combined with a number of trailer manufacturers looking to fit battery powered trailer axles (e-axles), further increasing range and capacity. Indeed, according to the Climate Change Committee’s December 2020 report, ‘The Sixth Carbon Budget – The UK’s path to Net Zero’, small rigid trucks are likely to predominantly adopt BEVs by 2035.

Hydrogen fuel cell technology and the infrastructure to support it are undoubtedly further behind the curve than batteries, but recent developments suggest we are now talking about ‘when’ not ‘if’ they enter the market. The EU funded ‘Study on Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Trucks’ by Roland Berger, published in December, identifies 22 barriers to the uptake of hydrogen fuel cells for road transport, but concludes none is considered a show-stopper for commercialisation for the trucking and logistics industry. Perhaps one of the most significant moves to help with this adoption is the announcement that Volvo Group and Daimler Trucks will collaborate to develop hydrogen fuel cells for all their truck brands. Two global players who have traditionally competed fiercely on nearly every continent are now partnering in the move to hydrogen!

The UK government is enthusiastic about both battery electric and hydrogen energy solutions. Indeed, the ‘UK’s Path to Net Zero’ does not take sides on the battery versus fuel cell discussion, but does project there to be “around 170,000 zero-emission HGVs and coaches in operation by 2035” and expects zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) to make up almost 100% of new sales of HGVs, buses and coaches by 2040.

While obstacles remain for hydrogen production and distribution, the 1MW High Power Charging for Commercial Vehicles (HPCCV) initiative, which is the proposed standard for Europe and North America, should help address the infrastructure needs of battery-powered heavy trucks.

That just leaves the challenge of producing green hydrogen. As the move to renewable energy generation continues to progress, we should expect to see considerable focus on this part of the green industrial revolution.

So when people ask which will win, my answer is simple: both – and that’s also the view of the government.

6 MotorTransport

Meachers Global Logistics has sealed a new partnership with Southampton City Council and Wessex Procurement to provide local NHS Covid hubs with urgent PPE supplies. The partnership sees Meachers support the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust with the storage and delivery of PPE. The new PPE supply arrangement is being offered through the Southampton Sustainable Distribution Centre (SDC), a service procured by Southampton City Council and operated by Meachers Global Logistics.

The SDC has over 600 pallets of PPE in secure storage, giving the hospital a central point to review stock levels and enabling direct delivery to local NHS hubs at convenient times and

on-demand. By consolidating stock, the total number of deliveries made into the city is reduced, easing congestion and reducing emissions.

The SDC also offers a business storage facility on the edge of the city, where goods can be consolidated, delivered on-demand, and stock levels monitored and managed.

Gary Whittle, commercial director of Meachers Global Logistics, said: “We had already started to store a small amount of PPE for the Trust, but when we were asked to provide a more complete logistics solution, which includes inventory management and onward distribution, as well as warehousing, we were happy to be totally flexible and provide the range of services that are required.”

Gray & Adams founder dies Gray & Adams founder Jim Gray died peacefully in his sleep on 10 February 2021, aged 86.

Gray formed Gray’s Motor Body Works in 1957 after leaving national service, as a car and body repair facility in Fraserburgh, near Aberdeen.

In 1960, Gray was joined by Jim Adams and the company became Gray & Adams.

The company diversified into building flatbeds and mobile shops, before developing its first insulated bodies on rigids and trailers.

In 1978, Gray and his team created their own 40-foot refrigerated chassis-less trailer using techniques which involved a one-piece structural panel.

‘Big Jim’, as he was fondly known, remained fiercely loyal to his Fraserburgh roots and was well known for his philanthropy.

He also inspired other family members to follow in his footsteps, including three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

He leaves behind two sons, James and Peter, and a daughter, Marie.

8.3.21

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News extra

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What will be the impact of new tax regulations on hauliers, self-employed drivers and wage rates when they are introduced in April? Carol Millett assesses the implications

As hauliers battle against the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government is preparing to throw another challenge into the mix.

Updated tax rules, which were delayed last year as the pandemic hit, are set to be introduced in April, bringing with them some of the most significant changes to haulage working and employment practices in decades.

Changes to the IR35 regulations could hike hauliers’ wage bills by 20% and slash self-employed HGV driver numbers.

From 6 April 2021, large and medium-sized haulage companies – with net turnover of above £10m or employing 50 or more staff – will no longer be able to hire drivers that work as limited companies. Instead, drivers will need to be employed as a PAYE (pay as you earn) worker, either by the haulier, the agency or via an umbrella company.

Tax evasion

The changes make it easier for HMRC to prevent tax evasion by switching the onus from the limited company driver to the end client, who must ensure their agency worker is employed within the rules and will be responsible for any underpayment of tax by the driver.

The end client or agency also becomes responsible for deducting the relevant tax and National Insurance contributions at source.

Kieran Smith, CEO of specialist driver recruitment agency Driver Require, calculates the new rules could add 20% to the cost of employing an agency driver and prompt employers to bring drivers back in-house, only using agency drivers to cover variability.

He welcomes the move, and says his business has always catered for variable, specialist work, rather than as a provider of cheap outsourced labour.

“We expect most professional blue-collar agency workers will migrate to PAYE, resulting in a level playing field where ethical and specialist agencies can compete fairly, growing their market share by providing superior services,” Smith said.

He warned that any attempt to recover additional labour costs by 8 MotorTransport

Image: Shutterstock

Taxing self-employed drivers

depressing drivers’ wages will only exacerbate the driver shortage.

“Over 15,000 of 40,000 EU drivers have returned to the EU since the pandemic, of which around 30,000 are agency workers. That underlying shortage will soon manifest itself as the economy recovers,” Smith continued. “My advice to operators is start budgeting for rising labour costs now and assume these will be 20% higher than at present.”

HMRC is not the only government agency taking a dim view of the use of self-employed drivers.

The Office of the Traffic Commissioner (OTC) has been cracking down on operators’ use of self-employed drivers for some years.

Its latest annual report warns: “IR35 is designed to tax disguised employment at a rate similar to employment – drivers and operators need to review their employment status as a matter of urgency and ensure they have the level of control required to deliver the operator licence requirements.”

Case in point

A key ruling in 2019 clarified the OTC’s stance, when Skelmersdale haulier BridgeStep came before transport commissioner (TC) Simon Evans, following a bridge strike.

The TC’s written decision, upheld on appeal, noted the owner

“had no power to give to his drivers any instructions on which route was required to be taken by them, if they were to be regarded as having their self-employed status”.

He added this reliance on “purported self-employed contractors” was against the current advice from HMRC and led to the bridge strike.

Non-compliance

TCs may also report non-compliant companies to HMRC. One small haulier using self-employed drivers was recently subject to an HMRC investigation that stretched back six years and landed him with a tax bill of £20,000, which was negotiated down from an initial £50,000.

Jonathon Backhouse, a partner at transport law firm Backhouse Jones, says the case illustrates that hauliers of all sizes using selfemployed drivers are at risk of scrutiny.

“Larger firms have been bringing their drivers in-house in anticipation of these new rules for some time,” he says. “Smaller firms have not, since they’re outside IR35 rules. But if they cannot prove to the OTC their drivers are genuinely self-employed, then their reputation is at stake.

My advice to smaller operators is to comply with IR35 regardless of their size.”

Kieran Smith says smaller companies will struggle to find limited company drivers after 6 April, regardless of being outside IR35, as many will migrate to PAYE. Jonathon Backhouse also urges hauliers to avoid looking for a loophole: “There are operators with swathes of drivers provided by pseudo agencies, often owned by the same firm. But these arrangements will not stand up to scrutiny by the TC. These operators often think its fair game and have absolutely no idea they’re risking their licence, but scamming the government out of taxes is an issue of repute.”

The risk is that in response some drivers will disappear into the black market or hauliers could resort to zero-hours contracts.

“If the regulators, HMRC and the government do not rigorously enforce the IR35 legislation, it will tempt all parties to exploit tax avoidance methods to suppress costs,” says Smith. “We could find ourselves in a marketplace where the unethical and unscrupulous operators have a competitive advantage over professional, ethical agencies – ultimately damaging the entire sector and the haulage industry as a whole.

“The more strictly the legislation is enforced, the quicker the transition to a stable and fair marketplace, which will be beneficial to all of us.”

8.3.21

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Business barometer

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Important economic indicators are pointing up, but watch out for the oil price and exchange rates

Hope tinged with caution

GDP

We usually evaluate GDP by tracking its tiny quarterly movements – 0.5% up this quarter, 0.3% down in that quarter. But after its huge swings in 2020, it is worth stepping back to consider GDP in absolute terms.

Two successive quarters of growth in the second half of last year – up 16.1% in Q3, followed by 1.0% in Q4 – sound encouraging, but as the accompanying chart shows, this still leaves UK GDP well down on its pre-pandemic level.

GDP for 2020 as a whole was 9.9% down on the previous year.

10 MotorTransport

BRENT CRUDE OIL PRICE 70

Monthly average ($/barrel)

Unsurprisingly, this is the largest fall on record.

The Bank of England warned in last month’s Monetary Policy Report that lockdown rules made it inevitable that GDP in the current quarter would fall back again, to about 4% below Q4 2020.

Then the Bank expects a steady upward trend as Covid restrictions unwind, forecasting that 2021’s GDP will be 5% up on last year’s.

That would still leave 2021 around 5% down on 2019’s pre-pandemic level.

Further growth of 7.25% is forecast for 2022, taking the economy just past 2019’s level and finally shaking off Covid’s effect.

But Brexit is here to stay. “GDP is projected to be around 3.25% lower in the long run due to lower trade with the EU,” warns the Bank.

Earnings

The latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests earnings grew surprisingly strongly in the final quarter of

50 40 30 20 10 0 Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan ´21

Feb

QUARTERLY GDP 600,000 500,000

Exchange rates

After taking a hammering at the onset of Covid last spring, sterling has rallied strongly in 2021. The pound bought an average of nearly €1.15 in February, its highest monthly figure for a year. And its performance against the dollar was even better, reaching a 33-month high to average $1.39 in February.

It is easy to explain the latter: the dollar has been shedding value.

The dollar’s downward trend is expected to continue for several more months, but sterling may not benefit for much longer. Some analysts opine that $1.40 to $1.43 is about as good as it will get.

And sterling’s appreciation against the euro may not be sustainable. The uncertainty of the Brexit trade deal/no-deal drama blighted the pound in December, so January’s uplift was unsurprising.

But February’s appears to be fuelled by optimism over the UK’s rapid vaccine roll-out, signalling economic rebound. When vaccination gathers pace in eurozone countries too, the UK’s optimism may be overtaken by the realism of Brexit’s European trade impact, putting sterling under more pressure from the euro.

60

Aug ´20 Sep

GDP (£m)

The last Business Barometer of 2020 (MT 14 December) reported that the latest forecasts for the average price of Brent crude oil in 2021 centred around $44 to $47 per barrel. But the price has surged in the three months since then, hitting a 13-month high in February to return to a pre-Covid level of $60 for the month as a whole.

Various reasons are given: a unilateral production cut by Saudi Arabia; low US oil inventories; Covid vaccine positivity; and consumer stimulus measures coming in the US. But is this a sustainable recovery or just a market spike?

The US government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecast last month that after averaging $56 in Q1 this year, Brent would fall back to average $52 in the remainder of 2021. The median of recent UK forecasts for the 2021 average (HM Treasury, ‘Forecasts for the UK economy: a comparison of independent forecasts’, February) is slightly higher, at $55.

Luckily, sterling’s improvement against the dollar has mitigated the rising oil price, but many operators will still have seen diesel prices jump by around 4ppl during February.

Those forecasts suggest bulk diesel could average 91ppl to 96ppl for the remainder of the year, providing sterling holds firm. But some analysts believe oil will continue to soar, hitting a threeyear high of $75 to $80/barrel by Q3. That could put bulk diesel closer to 105ppl.

400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 0

Q3 ´19 Q4 ´19 Q1 ´20 Q2 ´20 Q3 ´20 Q4 ´20 Q1 ´21 f´cast

STERLING EXCHANGE RATES 1.50 1.40

€

$

Sep ´20

Oct

1.30

£1 buys...

Oil and fuel

1.20 1.10 1.00 0.90 0.80

2020. Average total nominal earnings were 4.7% higher than a year ago. Inflation was modest, so even earnings in real terms were up by 3.8%.

But be wary of these headline statistics. First, average earnings growth had turned negative in Q2, so the overall picture is volatile.

Nov

Dec

Jan ´21

Feb

And second, the ONS points out that the average is skewed upwards by the Covid-related loss of many lower-paid or part-time jobs.

The ONS reckons that without this effect of the changing workforce, Q4’s underlying average total nominal earnings growth is just under 3%.

8.3.21

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Viewpoint

Fuel for thought T

he Chancellor in his Budget last week – as many of his predecessors often did – gave with one hand and took away with the other – albeit a delayed taking away.

The decision to freeze fuel duty for the Steve Hobson 11th year running was widely welcomed, Editor not least by FairFuel UK, whose sole Motor mission in life is to see duty cut or at least Transport frozen. While the extra few pence in motorists’ pockets should help the economy as a whole – especially as the majority of working age people who haven’t had the Covid-19 vaccine continue to avoid public transport – it is in reality small beer for the majority of the road transport industry. Most hauliers who survived the last fuel price shock have built fuel surcharges into their contracts, so any rises in fuel price – whether down to duty or a rise in oil prices – are passed on to the customer.

Far more concerning is the fact that this is the first Conservative government since the Thatcher era to increase corporation tax – though the delay until 2023 of the increase

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The newspaper for transport operators

to 25% has some sceptics wondering if faster-than-forecast economic growth might enable the Chancellor of the day to reverse this measure. Everyone knows that taxes will have to rise at some point to repay the £1.9tn national debt amassed in the Covid-19 response, but taxing the businesses that drive growth seems perverse.

However, companies with annual profits less than £50,000 will remain on the 19% tax band – one of the lowest in Europe (except for that offshore tax haven that is the Republic of Ireland, where corporation tax is just 12.5%). A quick glance at the 2020 MT Top 100 reveals that only 78 of the Top 100 hauliers made more than £50,000 profit last year, so it is a fair assumption that the vast majority of the 26,000 hauliers with standard national O-licences in the UK will remain in the lower tax bracket.

Far more important to operators in the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic – food service, events and entertainment – is how quickly they will return to something like normal – and that remains very hard to predict.

RHA welcomes coach sector on board A Richard Burnett Chief executive RHA

utumn 2019 saw us trying to understand the best way to increase our influence, our membership, and the areas where we could drive that. It was important to take stock and understand exactly who we should be representing.

We wanted to get a handle on what the wider commercial vehicle market thought of us. It was interesting when our research highlighted that the brand, ‘Road Haulage Association’ actually limited our ability to speak for different sectors. The perception was that we only represented road haulage operators.

It was decided that we would fade out ‘Road Haulage Association’ as a brand and simply replace it with ‘RHA’ along with the strapline ‘Driving business on the roads’.

It made sense that we should be representing any operator of commercial vehicles – owner-drivers, SMEs or large fleet owners – truck, van, plant or coach. In October 2020 our board signed off the strategy and we were all set to roll it out.

Then, like thousands of other businesses, we were hit by the coronavirus.

At the end of 2020 we were approached by the coach sector. It had been hit hard by the virus with cancellations, social

12 MotorTransport

distancing and reduced demand from events and tourism. Around 90% of the UK fleet was parked up. Coach operators were concerned that they didn’t have a strong voice, that they were not being represented and they were frustrated.

I was asked if the RHA would be willing to try to build their credibility and influence with government?

Our board unanimously agreed that the time was right to support the sector and create a niche focus on coaches. From that point it’s been non-stop. The structure is in place and I am pleased to say that on Monday 1 March we launched RHA Coaches.

There are many synergies and similarities between coach and truck operators. Both are heavily regulated, both have similar issues and challenges, and both have been hit by Covid-19.

That’s why the time is right for the RHA to support a commercial sector that desperately needs our help.

To contact us: Tel: 020 8912 +4 digits or email: name.surname@roadtransport.com Editor Steve Hobson 2161 Head of content Tim Wallace 2158 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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Got something to say?

If you would like to contribute to MT’s Viewpoint, email steve.hobson@roadtransport.com 8.3.21

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Tippers and tankers

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Eliminating risk Collaboration between customers, logistics companies and specialist bodybuilders is driving innovation in the tipper-tanker sector, writes Louise Cole

14 MotorTransport

T

he tipper and tanker sectors have become much safer in recent years, with specific builds matched carefully to the needs of individual sectors. Developments in pump design, loading and discharge methods have made horizontal discharge predominant in hazardous areas like construction sites, and the use of tippers in the hygiene-conscious food sector is more tightly bound with protective standards and regulations.

The new focus is on eliminating the complexities and variances of the driver’s job by providing automation, software interventions, or working with customers to minimise risk at collection and delivery sites.

The vehicles and the processes in bulk delivery have both improved immensely in the past few years. Abbey Logistics uses Feldbinder, Van Hull and LAG bodies on its bulk contracts which carry cement, as well as starches, sugar and other foodstuffs. Mike Ellis, business development director, says that tippers and tankers have a low centre of gravity, so are stable on the road, although loads can still shift on gradients.

“Typically they have very good weight distribution, helped by clever loading systems that spray product evenly across the axles, and they tend to be specifically sized for that product,” he says. “It’s rare not to have landing legs on the back, and air suspension and electronic braking systems that judge where to apply the braking power on the tank have all helped make these vehicles much safer to drive.”

He says the industry is far more in control of the risks bulk tipping can present, and that the culture has changed so that unsafe sites or operations are not tolerated. “HS2 is a great example of the standardisation across the industry. Every section is controlled by a different contractor and yet the standards and protocols are identical.”

He believes that CLOCS and FORS have driven much of this change, and that standards generally are far more prescriptive than in the past. As a result, tippers are now rarely used on construction sites.

In 2018 Tarmac invested in 40 moving floor trailers for its fleet, for their additional safety benefits and their ability to unload at sites unworkable for tippers.

Moving floors, which shift the load forward with the timed movements of underlying slats, are considerably more expensive than other solutions and can mean high

maintenance costs as slats need replacing. A 2018 report for TfL, Investigating The Construction Industry’s Use Of HGV Types, highlighted the cost barriers to moving floors, but also noted both Tarmac’s and Hargreaves’ preference for them, particularly on journeys where they controlled both ends of the collection/delivery process.

Where possible the industry is moving towards artics, for the higher payload and efficiencies of maximum weight vehicles. Contrary to the belief that rigids are more suitable for urban environments, the TfL report concluded that the use of articulated tippers and tankers would be safer for vulnerable road users. It found that: ■ If all primary aggregate movements in London were made on moving floor artics, it would reduce vehicle movements by 1,300 a day; ■ There is a 30% reduction in the cost per tonne for transport when using standard articulated tippers compared to standard rigid tippers, while using moving floor semi-trailers reduces the benefit to 20%; ■ Artics would represent a 37% cut in vehicle numbers and a 32% cut in carbon emissions (again the figures are slightly lower for moving floor trailers).

However, many customers still have concerns about artics based on memories of past incidents, and are not yet convinced that they make sense commercially or operationally. Many hauliers report sites banning any non-rigid vehicle.

Rigid prejudice

Ellis says some customers have similar prejudices about tippers or tankers, often based on a historical event. “We have customers who won’t use tippers, and others who won’t allow pressurised tanks on-site,” he says. “It’s almost always based on perception rather than reality.”

Customer education and collaboration will therefore be essential for continued improvements.

In some sectors, there are alternatives to the tipperblower or pressurised tanker. Hooklift Solutions is a biomass specialist and UK distributor for the Transmanut non-pressurised tanker. This is an open-top design with a 35 degree taper to its lower sides. Designed for wood pellets or woodchip, which are more tolerant of ambient exposure than other bulk products, it can be loaded via hopper or shovels and then sheeted. For unloading, a bottom auger feeds the load through to a rotary valve, ➜ 16 8.3.21

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Tippers and tankers

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Steward says footage has given a 360-degree understanding of driver behaviour, which transformed how the company has approached safety.

Near-miss data, in particular, is pursued beyond the driver. Wincanton has a project that examines and records the access roads and loading areas its drivers frequent, grading them against operational safety concerns. By negotiating with farmers to remove branches, clear sites, or improve conditions, it can make the sites safer for everyone. Near-miss incidents that occur on supplier or customer land are therefore fed back to see if the site itself can be modified to prevent recurrence.

Hatching a plot

WORKING WONDERS: Wincanton has worked hard to capture and use more data about tanker deliveries

with a baffle plate to stop the product being crushed.

Hooklift sales director David Diack says the tank works with a Class 3 weighing system, which gives accurate read-outs for remaining product. Unlike tippers, which must tip in order to put the load weight against the load cells, a static tank rests constantly on the load cells, so is useful for products charged against delivered weight.

Connecting the dots

Wincanton’s food distribution tanker drivers, who among other things collect 3 million litres of milk each day, face specific challenges, including being lone workers in isolated areas.

Wincanton is trialling better devices for drivers to stay connected, logging every entrance and exit to the farm.

As the dairy industry has consolidated, the fleet must collect the same volumes from fewer locations. Wincanton has engineered a data-rich solution by installing intelligent pumping equipment, which is connected directly to the farmer’s milk tanks. Tankers are swapped, empty for full, with the farm crew loading as needed.

The pump is washed daily along with the farmer’s milk tanks.

It’s very cost-effective for Wincanton, with the customer pumps cheaper than an equipped tanker, better payload and less risk exposure for drivers working alone. It also improves customer experience as pick-ups are aligned with the milking schedule and lessen the need for mass storage tanks on the farms.

“We’re now trying to see how far we can take this, as it allows us, with full data capture, to remove the specialist collection aspect of the work, and make it more akin to general haulage,” says Lloyd Steward, regional general manager at Wincanton.

Food supply chain regulations require that all load details, including quantities, timelines, temperature, supplier and driver IDs, are all captured and stored.

Two years ago, Wincanton assigned a team to analyse this data, meaning volumes are now better predicted and vehicle utilisation improved.

“Our trend is towards much greater capacity tanks, so smaller rigids are only used where access conditions don’t allow a larger vehicle,” he says. “We run a smaller fleet, fewer small vehicles, and fewer shifts.”

Vehicle utilisation also improved with Wincanton’s early adoption of electric Maisonneuve tanks. The pumps are much quieter, allowing vehicles to be double-shifted even in sensitive locations, and also lighter, allowing a 27,000-litre payload for a 44-tonne artic, an improvement of about 700 litres.

The fleet also runs Maygar and Sayers tankers, and all its pumps are supplied by Gardner Denver.

Wincanton has also coupled its MiX Telematics data and footage to its knowledge of the routes and sites. The telematics parameters account for the extra acceleration or braking drivers need when transporting ‘live’ – ie liquid – loads on gradients.

16 MotorTransport

Cemex was keen to develop a safer loading protocol and, inspired by a US system, approached Feldbinder to create a similar automated hatch. However, says Feldbinder UK sales manager Shaun Hurst, the US system wasn’t suitable for EU type approval. So it developed its own.

Two of the prototype tankers are now deployed on Cemex’s fleet and another cement supplier will be taking two more in the near future.

The tanker is parked under the loading mechanism and the driver operates all controls from the ground. The seals deflate automatically and a pneumatic ram slides the hatch open. Once the driver swings the gantry into place, the hopper descends into the open hatch and loads the vehicle with the required amount of product. The hatch then automatically closes and reseals.

Technically the driver could do all of this from ground level, but the Cemex loading bays are designed not to lower the funnel until the gantry is in place, so these prototypes work within that framework. As the product is proved, Hurst says that further development will be done to make it more versatile, such as re-aligning the hatch hinges so that it can swing away from the gantry, regardless of which side the loading platform is on.

“It removes the working-from-height component – the operator doesn’t need to leave the loading platform at any time. It also means that the driver doesn’t have to do any manual handling of bolts or slide the hatch open, as this does occasionally cause injuries. Operators also have issues with drivers under- or over-tightening the bolts.”

Feldbinder offers automated hatch systems on animal feed and wood pellet tankers, but these move on rails and are easily fouled by powder product. They also have non-pressurised seals.

Feldbinder has pioneered another safety project called Silo4, which simplifies and standardises the process of discharging into delivery point silos. “Filling a silo is a specialist manual job, which requires an experienced driver,” says Hurst. “If the silo is filled at the wrong pressure, it can be damaged.”

Silo4 is a software solution that allows a lead driver to set all the parameters for the discharge, after which the tanker will automatically discharge to that selected template for any other driver. It controls the valves, pressure and the data capture, making deliveries more standardised and lower risk, and giving a more consistent customer service. Originally developed in Germany for the animal feed sector, the first models in the UK using the system were due to be delivered in February.

“We’ve been building tanks for 45 years and our design principles and construction techniques are well developed,” says Hurst. “We see innovation in this sector being about standardising and simplifying complex tasks at point of use, and data capture.”

Feldbinder has also worked with the flour sector to improve drying systems. Flour is very hot when loaded, and sweats in the trailer, which can lead to condensation and mould growth. Improved drying systems, which carry that moisture out of the tank during transit, prevent mould growth and give an extended period between cleans. ■ 8.3.21

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Air pollution

motortransport.co.uk

Clearing the air

Following the death of a young girl in the UK from air pollution, Dr Sarah Wixey looks at the implications of the coroner’s verdict for central and local government policy on air quality

U

Dr Sarah Wixey is associate director, net zero emissions, at engineering consultancy Tetra Tech

ntil last year, no one in the UK – possibly the world – had ever officially died from air pollution. That all changed with a coroner’s inquest before Christmas into the death of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, which identified air pollution as a significant contributory factor.

It’s a landmark case with shockwave implications for national and local governments, which must do more to improve air quality.

Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah was an active nine-year-old girl who wanted to be a pilot. She lived in the London Borough of Lewisham, very close to the South Circular Road. To get to school, Ella would walk along this and other neighbouring roads with high levels of air pollution that constantly exceeded the annual legal limit.

In the early morning of 15 February 2013, Ella suffered a severe asthma attack, causing a cardiac arrest that led to her death. She had been admitted to hospital 27 times in the three years leading to her death. In September 2014, her inquest recorded the medical cause as acute respiratory failure from severe asthma. At the time, there was no reference to air pollution.

During the inquest, scientific evidence from Professor Jonathan Grigg – an expert in children’s respiratory health from Queen Mary University of London – showed that scientists already had a good understanding of the links between asthma and air pollution. His evidence helped make the case that government agencies should have taken more action to reduce air pollution.

In his findings, the coroner Philip Barlow said Ella had been exposed to levels of two air pollutants, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM), exceeding the limits set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“There was a recognised failure to reduce the level of NO2 to within the limits set by EU and domestic law, which possibly contributed to her death,” Barlow said.

“Ella’s mother was not given information about the health risks of air pollution and its potential to exacerbate asthma.

If she had been given this information, she would have taken steps which might have prevented Ella’s death.”

The coroner is currently considering a Prevention of Future Deaths report, which is likely to lead to increased public scrutiny of organisations and their role in tackling air pollution.

Linking air quality to health

The legal context

Ella’s mother, Rosamund, set up the Ella Roberta Family Foundation to research the links between asthma and air pollution. In 2018, Professor Sir Stephen Holgate, a leading researcher of the impacts of air pollution on human health from the University of Southampton, produced a report linking Ella’s death to illegal air pollution.

The following year, the family obtained permission from the Attorney General to apply to the High Court to quash the original inquest. They were granted a second inquest, which took place on 16 December 2020. It covered four key issues: whether air pollution contributed to Ella’s death; how air pollution levels were monitored at the time; the steps taken to reduce air pollution; and the information provided to the public about the level of air pollution, its dangers, and ways to reduce exposure.

18 MotorTransport

Local air quality management duties for local authorities are to review air quality and assess whether air quality objectives are being met. If they are not, the area is designated as an Air Quality Management Area and an Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) needs to be produced. The secretary of state or, in the case of London, the mayor, has the power to give directions to local authorities. Until the delayed Environment Bill receives Royal Assent in the autumn, the 1995 Environment Act is the current legislation covering this area. A component of the bill includes a new environmental watchdog – the Office for Environmental Protection – which will be responsible for holding government and other public authorities to account on their compliance with environmental law.

The UK’s current legal limit for PM2.5 is at least two times higher than guidelines set by the WHO. The bill 8.3.21

Air pollution

motortransport.co.uk

needs to include legally binding commitments to meet WHO air pollution standards by 2030, and it must be clear on what powers and duties are available. The bill also needs to expressly impose on local authorities a duty to implement their AQAPs. Failure to do so could cause more legal action taken against the government in civil jurisdictions.

Over a third of local authorities have failed to meet legal obligations that should have been met in 2010, with areas of air pollution levels exceeding WHO limits. The landmark ruling from Ella’s inquest should lead to more stringent action from the government and local authorities to tackle air pollution. It should lead to more awareness of how the health risks need to be made known to the public.

Sir Stephen Holgate said: “We need the government to start taking the air pollution measures more seriously.

We need local authorities to provide greater granularity about what the local exposures of their population are.

We need the GPs and hospitals to start drawing attention to air pollution as a serious risk to human health, like they do with obesity and diabetes.”

A cross-party group of city mayors, representing over 17 million people across the UK, recently signed a joint letter urging prime minister Boris Johnson to commit to tougher PM2.5 targets. They called for the prime minister to act immediately to protect the lives and wellbeing of people across the country. The letter calls for a £1.5bn boost to government spending on measures to improve air quality and for WHO targets to be included in the delayed Environment Bill. Research by UK100 (a group of more than 100 local authorities) claims the money could fund the removal of nearly 500,000 of the most polluting cars and vans from the road and incentivise people into cleaner vehicles, public transport, cycling and walking.

Clean Air London has recently called for the Clean Air Act 1993 to be updated to take into account modern fuels and technologies before November’s COP26 global climate change summit in Glasgow and for it to be re-named ‘Ella’s law’.

England’s Clean Air Zones

In 2015, the Supreme Court ordered the government to deliver measures aimed at tackling the levels of NO2, including the introduction of Clean Air Zones (CAZs).

Initially, all CAZs were supposed to include an element of non-compliant vehicle charging (CCAZ), but cities including Derby, Leeds, Nottingham and Southampton favoured a non-charging approach. They presented the government with plans to implement a package of measures, including vehicle scrappage, retrofitting certain vehicles, zero-emission buses and taxis, traffic flow management, rerouting traffic, and walking and cycling initiatives. These plans were approved, subject to monitoring reviews, and the cities have since been implementing their measures.

Leeds has seen improvements in its air quality after fleets switched to cleaner vehicles faster than expected.

The city found nearly half of the licensed taxi and private hire cars were now hybrid or electric due to businesses upgrading their fleets. More than 90% of buses and 80% of heavy goods vehicles now use cleaner Euro-6 engines and the city states these vehicles would not be charged if a zone was introduced.

So far, London is the only CAZ to have implemented a charging zone, which includes charging private car drivers, and this is due to be extended to the North and South Circulars in October.

Bristol Council is still developing its CCAZ, which includes charging older polluting commercial vehicles and private cars. The council has dropped its original proposal to implement a complete ban on all 8.3.21

Photo: Shutterstock

Government must do more

diesel vehicles from the city centre area.

Bath Council is planning to go live on 15 March with its delayed CCAZ, which no longer includes charges for private cars following its consultation response. Cars and motorbikes will remain free to enter the zone regardless of their tailpipe emissions.

Birmingham Council’s CCAZ is delayed and planning to go live from June and Oxford’s zero emission zone is due to be launched in the summer. Leicester is expected to introduce its CCAZ in the summer and private cars are likely to be exempt.

Newcastle and Sheffield CCAZs are expected this year, but they will not include charges for private cars.

Manchester has delayed its CCAZ to spring 2022 and the exact plans are still under consideration. Sefton is required to introduce a CCAZ and private cars are likely to be exempt.

Other cities are opposed to introducing a CCAZ. Basildon and Rochford Councils have been told by the government that they must consider a CCAZ, but they are fighting the order. Coventry Council’s plan for tackling pollution without introducing a CCAZ was rejected and the city has since been told to introduce one.

Some cities have yet to reach a decision on whether their zone will be chargeable or which types of vehicles it will restrict. This list includes Canterbury, Cambridge, Exeter, Liverpool, St Albans and Warrington. ■

So far, London is the only Clean Air Zone to have implemented a charging zone, which includes charging private car drivers

WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN NEXT?

• The delayed Environment Bill needs to be prioritised and get Royal Assent.

Bill to include tougher targets on PM2.5 by 2030, and tougher action for non-compliance • Government to provide more financial support for businesses and commercial vehicle operators to scrap or retrofit older (pre-Euro-6) vehicles • More support for vehicle manufacturers and their supply chain to produce zero-emission vehicles • Introduction of a national road-pricing scheme • Local authorities to urgently implement CAZ measures (eg traffic flow management, active travel, emission-based residential parking permits, freight consolidation hubs, EV infrastructure roll-out) MotorTransport 19

Brexit

motortransport.co.uk

Taking out the empties National disaster or commercial opportunity? Louise Cole picks through the post-Brexit fallout

F

rank Zappa once commented that the world might not end in fire or ice, but in paperwork. For much of the international logistics sector, January felt exactly like slow death by paperwork, with customs clearances piling up in their software systems, and the freight piling up in their warehouses. As freight flows normalise and the bureaucracy becomes more familiar, can we sort the ‘teething problems’ from the urgent and serious threats to supply chain integrity?

Freight volumes plummeted in January. As much as the government tried to play it down, citing “almost normal” figures, early freight volumes were significantly down, and details snagged a huge proportion of freight going to Europe, even if HGVs coming the other way are still being waved through.

Andrew Baxter, MD of Europa Worldwide Group, says that, despite huge amounts of investment and preparation, January was “incredibly difficult. The sheer range of different issues meant everything was being blocked for some reason. We didn’t stop running our services at any point, but we did have a backlog because we simply couldn’t process the customs clearances quickly enough”.

Europa was hit by disruption despite having invested £5m in being customs-ready and moving 85% of its customers to its new Europa Flow product last year. The service ensures that goods are sent under delivered duty paid (DDP) terms, so that all clearances are done under Customs Regime 42, which means that those goods are zero-rated for VAT at their destination. In essence, all duties and clearances are done ahead of time – an anticipatory declaration is made that is validated while the truck is still in transit between the UK and mainland Europe.

For Europa, freight flows are now normalising, but where pre-Brexit it would have shipped product on the same day as collection, now it is shipping next day.

RHA MD of policy Rod McKenzie says 40% of trucks are running empty back to the Continent, double the usual rate. Part of this is due to UK firms feeling hesitant about exports, and a lot of it is because European hauliers don’t want the hassle of the extensive checks and customs clearances on the other side of the Channel.

Delivered at place (DAP) consignments are also problematic. With DAP, the importer is responsible for duties and that means time lost tracking down the end-customer and teasing the necessary clearances from them. Baxter

20 MotorTransport

says this is where freight delays cause the haulier issues and why Europa is pushing DDP deliveries so hard.

For the moment, freight flows into the UK are unimpeded, but the Continent is imposing the full range of clearances and enforcement activity. Around 85% of European haulage to and from the UK is undertaken by European hauliers, and they have no incentive to expose themselves to the difficulties of carrying freight back from a third country.

However on 1 April full checks on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) goods of animal or plant origin kick in on UK soil and that’s where the real fun will begin. These require 24-hour pre-notification at the relevant port, vet checks and physical examination at ports. Over a quarter (26%) of our food comes from the EU according to the government’s ‘Food Statistics Pocketbook’ (November 2020).

Border inspections

Baxter says Europa will not touch SPS goods: “There’s a very significant issue with SPS goods and we don’t want to carry them because border inspections are lengthy, it’s complicated and we don’t want it disrupting our schedules.”

He says no doubt specialist firms will do SPS, build the delays into the supply chain, and charge appropriately.

Baxter isn’t alone in eschewing SPS product. Arundelbased RT Page recently tried to find passage to the EU for 17 pallets of pet food and found no one willing to take them, including the major players.

However, the current rules aren’t just complex and costly – they don’t fit with just-in-time fresh food deliveries. Pragmatically, government will have a choice: unilaterally suspend or lighten enforcement to keep food flowing into the UK (so arguably holding EU suppliers to lesser standards than our exporters meet), or try to negotiate easements. One such easement could be shortening the pre-notification time for SPS – an ETA for the relevant port – from 24 hours to four hours, says Logistics UK’s European policy manager Sarah Laouadi. However, she says that once full UK customs checks come into force in July, “the effects will be felt for the rest of the year”.

Ian Wright, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), told the parliamentary committee scrutinising the UK-EU trade agreement that if the issues of extensive paperwork and the nightmare of groupage ➜ 22 8.3.21

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Brexit

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– in which one mislabelled consignment can hold up the whole load – wasn’t resolved at a fundamental level, then it would lead to “a wholesale, disruptive restructuring of EU-UK supply chains,” regardless of fixes, workarounds and easements.

Logistics UK acknowledges that supply chain re-engineering will take place, but is strangely sanguine about the fact. “We could see it as an issue, but it will still be logistics professionals who are re-engineering that supply chain,” says Laouadi. She suggests we look at the “broader logistics eco-system”.

However, it’s hard to see a situation in which redesigned supply chains to ease products crossing the Channel results in greater volumes for the UK logistics industry.

Evidence so far suggests the reverse.

In a survey of Logistics UK members, 68% reported lower freight volumes in January, and while 35% had since seen some improvement in export volumes and 7.5% said volumes had returned to normal, 42% believed their volumes would never return to their previous levels.

Laouadi attributes much of this to re-engineered supply chains, although she says the data is so far not sufficiently granular to reach conclusions.

Walkers Transport has done a deal in which thirdcountry product, which would previously have come to the UK for EU fulfilment, will now go directly to Amsterdam-based 3PL RIF Europe’s facilities near Schipol.

Although marketing director Charlie Walker emphasises that “having a facility in Europe means we can ship replenishment stock of products destined for the European market in bulk from our UK site to Holland, thereby achieving economies and cost savings”, inevitably this kind of shift will mean a reduction in UK freight volumes.

Sold out

One huge hurdle that is yet to be leapt is cabotage – and the devastating effect this could have on the multi-location events, sports and touring sector, all of which have significant expertise in the UK. Currently, many US performers choose to start their world tours in the UK because it has great rehearsal spaces and a well-established support industry, spanning lots of disciplines. The RHA says this sector is worth £70bn to the UK economy, and its logistics are carried out by 50 specialist companies, who hold 80% of the European market.

Previously, cross-trade between EU states work was unlimited. The new cabotage rules work reasonably well for most general haulage, allowing a maximum of two cross-trade movements within Europe, and only one within a single EU country.

However for touring operations, it’s a non-starter and

threatens UK predominance in the global events sector.

So far this is “an existential threat”, says Laouadi, as the industry is inactive due to Covid-19. “This is the biggest weakness of the agreement [in relation to logistics] and deserves attention at the highest level,” she says.

But both Logistics UK and the RHA will be arguing for a derogation for sports and performing arts logistics.

The RHA says such a derogation already exists for transporting new vehicles during peak demand.

Stuart Barker, operations manager at RT Page, remains optimistic. “The events industry will come back in a big way [post-lockdown] and the economy will drive the solution. It’s simply a case of working out what that solution will be. We expect twists and turns. There is always a solution, it just depends where the price point is.”

Perfect paperwork

The RHA locked horns with the government in January, when it asserted that freight levels were down by “up to 68%”. A Logistics UK spokesperson on the other hand said it “used government figures”. She took the line that the UK sector must weather the inevitable frustration of learning new systems, the turn-back rate at borders was extremely low, and if hauliers worked sufficiently with their clients to ensure perfect paperwork, freight movements would be successful.

Clearly this government prizes acquiescence over confrontation. Previously, both trade associations were engaged in meetings with the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Michael Gove MP. However, when new invitations were issued to the government’s Brexit Business Taskforce, the RHA was excluded and Logistics UK given a seat.

When the committee was originally formed in November 2020, Logistics UK chief executive David Wells slammed it as a “smokescreen” and “diversionary tactic”. On receiving his February invitation he reversed gleefully: “We are delighted that the importance of the sector has been recognised at the highest levels of government and look forward to continuing our constructive dialogue.”

The RHA’s McKenzie says that while government claims freight volumes to be back at 98%, the RHA believes it’s more like 90%. The 40% of trucks returning to the EU empty is still concerning.

Volumes will undoubtedly be hit further in specific sectors unless easements are found. UK shellfish exports were kiboshed by hygiene rules. The price of SPS products leaving the UK will probably rise given the extra logistics and admin costs. These and many other factors could suppress volumes in specific sectors, and finding case-by-case solutions will likely be the work of years. n

Andrew Baxter, MD of Europa Worldwide Group, says the company has struggled to process customs clearances quickly enough

BREXIT AND COVID-19 COMBINE TO PRODUCE JANUARY SLUMP IN CROSS-CHANNEL RAIL FREIGHT lower than for October 2019 when previous stockpiling took place.

In 2019, stockpiling increased HGV movements by just 1% and flattened in the following months by between 7% and 13%.

January 2020 was therefore a depressed baseline for January 2021. The 37% drop in freight volumes in January 2021 was matched only by the height of lockdown in April 2020.

No. of HGVs (000)

Port and ferry companies are mostly reluctant to share volume data. However, Le Shuttle Freight publishes HGV movements each month. The graph below shows October 2019 through to January 2021. Note that the January 2021 slump has been attributed – at least in part – to pre-Brexit stockpiling.

However, the HGV figures of December 2020 are still much 160 150 140 130 120 110 100 90 80 70 0

1% -7%

Lockdown

-10%

-13%

-7%

11%

2%

Lockdown

8%

Brexit

-7% Stockpiling

Oct ‘19

Nov

Stockpiling figures still much lower than Oct ‘19

Post-lockdown resurgence

Fall-off post stockpiling

Dec

Jan ‘20

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

-37% Jan ‘21

Context/comments from Le Shuttle

22 MotorTransport

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E N T R I E S N OW O P E N W W W. M TAWA R D S .CO . U K | # M TAWA R D S 2 0 2 1

MT Awards 2020 winner profile Best Use of Technology Award

Capacity creation DPD UK has provided a shining example of how to use modern technology to streamline logistics operations and make the most of existing resources, rather than simply building more depots to cope with rising demand

“The depot and hub network grow in tandem,” explains Jones. “Pressure was growing mainly because demand for our services grew more quickly than expected, as we took a bigger and bigger share of the booming e-commerce market.

“Our volumes doubled between 2010 and 2017, so the challenge was around making sure that our back-office processes and the tech we use to support our drivers were keeping pace with that growth.”

When the £150m, 277,000sq ft Hub 5 at Hinckley is complete in 2022, its 3km of conveyors will handle 72,000 parcels per hour and together with the 117,000sq ft Hub 4 (which opened in Hinckley in 2015) it will mean DPD has the UK’s two biggest parcels superhubs.

Avoiding bottlenecks

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y 2018, DPD’s 65-strong depot network was stretched to its limits following rapid growth over the previous seven years.

“With volumes up around 10% per year, we were facing a capacity challenge,” says DPD group marketing director Tim Jones. “We promise our customers a premium service for 52 weeks of the year, so it’s an important issue if service falls below their expectations. When we are successfully meeting service levels through a super-efficient operation, everyone wins – the customer who pays our wages is happy, the consumer gets their parcel on time, the driver is productive, our carbon emissions are minimised and DPD is keeping its brand promise.”

While DPD had been rapidly expanding sorting capacity at its hubs in Oldbury, demand for its services had grown even faster, outstripping even DPD’s ambitious growth plans.

24 MotorTransport

While the depot network had grown from 56 in 2018 to 65 in 2019, DPD wanted a more efficient process for allocating parcels to routes which only allowed drivers to leave depots once all inbound trailers had been tipped to ensure all parcels had been loaded on designated routes. This sometimes caused bottlenecks as vans attempted to leave depots at the same time during rushhour traffic, affecting service performance and reducing the earning potential of 7,000 drivers paid on a ‘per-stop’ basis.

DPD had to act quickly, but recognised that building more depots to keep up with customer demand was not the answer, not least for carbon footprint reasons.

“Part of our updated mission statement makes a promise to be the ‘UK’s leader in sustainable delivery’, so our first priority is to ensure that we maximise the productivity of existing assets before investing in more capacity,” says Jones.

“For example, during peak, our hubs start operating several hours earlier than normal, around mid-afternoon, so that we can get a head-start on the sortation process and get parcels back out to the delivery depots.

“Likewise, operating waves at our depots means we can now stagger the times at which drivers arrive for work in the morning. This minimises bottlenecks and increases productivity – in short, the goal is to use floor space as intelligently as possible, before building new sites.

“But of course we are still increasing our depot network – in fact we’ve added an extra 15 since the start of the pandemic – and it can make sense from a CO2 point of 8.3.21

view to add another depot where there is enough volume, because it reduces stem mileage and emissions.”

So in 2018, DPDgroup CEO Dwain McDonald challenged the company to develop a scaleable technological solution that would sweat DPD’s existing assets, increase driver productivity, pay and retention, and return service quality to – at the very least – a 98.5% rating. No mean feat, especially as the solution also had to reduce costs and CO2 emissions.

With these goals in mind, Project Quantum was launched in early 2018, with a team of 40 experts drawn from divisions across the business – including 200 of DPD’s most experienced delivery drivers, there to ensure the solution would work out in the real world. Was that a brave move?

“The idea of including drivers was agreed at board level, where we have more than one director who started with us as a driver!” says Jones. “We don’t see it as brave – it was the smartest thing to do. And the benefits are clear: when you ask the people at the coalface what would make their life easier and then you give it to them, they feel valued and give you more in return.

“It’s a bit like our Design Space approach, a forum on our app where consumers share ideas that help us improve the doorstep experience – often it’s the people at the coalface who come up with the best innovations.

So we are big believers in ‘co-creating’ with the people at the sharp end.”

Pooling skills

Working together, the team pooled their skills and knowledge to develop new route-optimisation software to speed up the parcel-loading process, and a more efficient and accurate routing system, all running on brandnew Honeywell handheld devices, which replaced the drivers’ older, less reliable mobile devices.

“The Honeywell CT60 was the best fit for what we wanted to achieve,” explains Jones. “It’s been a great device – rugged but also user-friendly and with super-fast processing. Some of our drivers take their device home and can start downloading their route in the morning before arriving at the depot, so they know in advance how many stops they’ll be making and get an idea of their route. A large percentage of the £9.3m investment in the project was on this hardware.”

Drivers on the team played a key role at this stage in refining the postcode system, which they said needed to provide more precise delivery points, especially in shopping centres, hospitals and universities.

The result was a much more refined algorithm, which not only gets the driver to the exact delivery point via the most efficient route possible, but also stores that delivery’s precise latitude-longitude data so it can be used for the next delivery.

“We looked at various suppliers to helps us generate postcode suffixes,” says Jones. “We decided to partner with AFD, whose lat-long methodology was the best fit for our operation and for the way our IT systems interface with our customers.”

Quantum’s benefits are clear. DPD’s 12,000 drivers are now out on the road around 45 minutes earlier than previously, with the company seeing a 56% rise in the number of parcels loaded per day.

Drivers are also routed more efficiently to customers’ addresses, resulting in a 10.4% rise in driver productivity since launch.

8.3.21

SHARING KNOWLEDGE HELPS EVERYONE As well as using more accurate location and direction software to get drivers right to the doorstep, Project Quantum also enabled DPD’s drivers to update the system with more detailed data based on their experience of a route.

“Our people know that delivering more than a million parcels per day is a team effort – that’s why flexibility is part of our DNA,” says Jones. “Obviously with any operational change there can be resistance at first, but as long as you explain the benefits properly and train people to use the new kit, you get strong buy-in, especially when your people have helped design it in the first place!”

Rather than experienced drivers seeing this shared knowledge as a risk that they could be replaced with less knowledgeable people, they understand that better service levels benefit the whole business.

“Pooled knowledge means that a franchise driver who is away on holiday or is shielding due to Covid knows that their customers will still be looked after by the person standing in for them,” Jones argues. “We don’t often recruit drivers to replace other drivers – unless they’ve been promoted or left the company. In fact the pandemic has created new vacancies and we now have 12,000 delivery drivers , with the new ones able to get up to speed much more quickly than before – precisely because the new tech gives them that crucial local knowledge.”

WELL-DESERVED WIN: DPD UK CEO Dwain McDonald (left) with MT editor Steve Hobson

In addition, CO2 emissions per parcel have fallen by 3.4%, while right-first-time deliveries have risen by four million per year.

The judges were certainly impressed, praising DPD for an outstanding performance that had successfully engaged staff to deliver an innovative solution, boosting driver productivity and customer service levels, while also cutting costs and protecting profit margins. n

MotorTransport 25

MT Awards 2020 winner profile Technical Excellence Award

Team machine Bibby Distribution was named the winner of the 2020 Technical Excellence Award for a prolonged and group-wide series of innovations that called for substantial staff buy-in, but led to a very high level of compliance

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ibby Distribution, which joined the Menzies Distribution group of companies in December 2020, has been providing logistics and supply chain services for over 35 years, with its fleet reaching unprecedented levels of efficiency, reliability and safety in 2019.

Scooping the 2020 MT Technical Excellence Award last October, the company, now formally renamed Menzies Distribution Solutions (MDS), attributes this success to a powerful combination of innovation, technology and staff engagement across the entire operation.

The new MDS, together with Menzies Distribution, operates from 100 UK locations, employs almost 5,000 staff, and services sectors including consumer, paper and packaging, industrial, and food and drink.

It delivers more than 1.3 billion drinks cans each year – 20 cans for every person in the UK – as well as 350 million sq m of cardboard every year, which is enough to cover 50,000 football pitches.

Despite its fleet travelling 90 million km in 2019, it still managed to reduce its CO2 emissions by 5%. In fact it has reduced its net carbon emissions by 10% in just five years.

Other achievements in 2019 included an average 99.9% uptime, consistent Green OCRS scores in multiple traffic regions, and a reduction in RIDDORs and losttime accidents (LTAs) by almost one-third (30%).

RECOGNISING COMMITMENT On winning the award last year, Adam Purshall (left) tells MT: “It was absolutely fantastic to receive industry recognition for all the hard work and commitment the team put in.

“Technical excellence is something we pride ourselves on, and we have invested a lot of time and focus maximising our compliance, efficiency and innovation.

“To win this award against such worthy finalists is an incredible honour, and welcome recognition for our hard-working and dedicated team, who strive for excellence on a daily basis.

“We are very grateful to Motor Transport and the judges.”

26 MotorTransport

Annual test pass rates are well above the national average, whilst the business has also seen what it describes as a “meteoric rise” in driver performance standards.

The MDS fleet comprises 450 vehicles and 1,250 trailers, predominantly high-cube curtainsiders, with around 200 specialist food-grade tankers.

Cradle-to-grave

Led by fleet and procurement director Adam Purshall, the business adopts a cradle-to-grave approach for its vehicles that covers sourcing and procurement through to life management and maintenance, finishing with asset disposal.

The fleet team is focused, agile and experienced, with many colleagues being skilled at every level of the business with a cross-functional operational background.

All asset maintenance is managed by third-party main dealerships on fully inclusive repair and maintenance contracts.

Strong partnerships have been forged with preferred maintenance businesses over a number of years to secure the safety and reliability of fleet assets.

Purshall tells MT the decision to outsource maintenance has been “really successful for us”, particularly working with third parties that have invested significantly in specialist workshop equipment to maintain complex new vehicle technology.

“We work very closely in terms of our expectations and how we can move forward on fleet compliance together,” he says. “Our approach is absolutely about being compliant and robust in how we maintain assets, and not just about cost control.”

The business now operates its fleet on a standard three-year replacement cycle to ensure it has a constant stream of new vehicles using the latest technology and providing optimum fuel efficiency.

“This works on many levels for us,” says Purshall. “For driver engagement, driver retention and recruitment, it is certainly effective; but also for minimising downtime, with some fantastic stats on this front because we keep investing in a new fleet.

“This has been a really successful strategy for us,” he adds.

Vehicles are typically leased, although some of the more specialist assets, particularly in the tanker division, are bought outright.

In 2015, the former Bibby Distribution set out its ‘Road to Zero’ strategy – an ambitious plan to deliver zero harm, zero waste and zero environmental impact across its 8.3.21

Sponsored by

operations. To deliver on this ambition, Purshall’s team works in collaboration with the Safety, Health, Environment and Quality team and the Operations team to ensure a safety-first approach across the operation.

In its awards entry, the company was able to demonstrate how it had beaten its initial 10% reduction target in accidents and incidents threefold – reducing RIDDORs and LTAs by a third in 2019, and by a total of 75% since 2015.

This has been achieved by a series of company-wide initiatives, with both technology and staff engagement playing a major role.

The roll-out of Microlise telematics in 2016 has produced consistent improvements in driver behaviour and scores, with the average grade of the firm’s drivers boosted from 1.3% grade A in 2016 to 57.7% by the end of 2019.

This has been combined with a £1m investment in forward and inward facing in-cab cameras and Purshall says the cultural impact of evidence-based analysis has been “phenomenal”.

The next step in this continuous drive to boost compliance is the installation of left-hand-turn sensors as standard across the whole fleet to comply with Direct Vision Standard requirements.

MDS is now also introducing technology in the form of a mobile tablet device in cabs to aid drivers with electronic walk-around checks, guide them through their workload for the day, and for e-document storage.

“DVSA Earned Recognition is definitely on our roadmap for the next 12 months,” says Purshall. “And this technology is part of that step forward now, particularly electronic pre-use checks and full electronic document management.”

Engagement campaign

Staff buy-in, particularly from drivers, has been the real key to the success in safety and compliance, he says.

“Although it’s my job to create the strategy, the leadership and the framework to manage these key areas, it needs everybody engaged in order to be able to deliver them,” explains Purshall.

“And I think that the engagement piece was probably the real standout catalyst that affected all the different areas.”

For example, when installing the in-cab cameras, the fleet management team spent a lot of time working with drivers and explaining how and why the company would use the technology to protect them.

“You don’t want it to be seen as a ‘spy in the cab’ – the technology is there to protect us as a business, and our drivers. And that took a lot of effort and a lot of time, but it absolutely did embed itself into the culture of the business that it was a positive thing and not a negative thing.”

Engaging with drivers is a key focus and successful campaigns have included fleet engagement sessions and a driver steering group encouraging employees to provide feedback. The success of these engagement sessions has since led to the formation of a driver committee allowing elected representatives to meet on a bi-monthly basis to help shape future fleet policy and test technology.

Keeping fleets on the road and legal is a fundamental task for any operator and the company has a robust topdown approach, with performance analysed at every executive board meeting.

8.3.21

It holds eight O-licences in different traffic regions, with its OCRS scores closely monitored every month.

All are scored Green, which the business is rightly proud of.

Tachograph infringements are monitored through Convey software, with tailored coaching provided for drivers and a system-driven escalation process to deal with repeated non-compliance. As a result, overall infringements rates more than halved from 3% in 2015 to an all-time low of 1.42% in 2019.

Ahead of the company’s plans to join the DVSA scheme later this year, it has activated a tachograph Earned Recognition module. DVSA targets are consistently beaten by a strong margin.

MOTs are also monitored monthly using DVSA data.

The pass rate is above average and it has continuously improved its performance for the past five years. Any failures are fully investigated by the fleet team, and maintenance suppliers are required to commit to improvement actions to prevent reoccurrence.

Trailer MOT pass rates are managed in the same way and MDS has consistently achieved a 99% first-time pass rate for the past four years.

Proactive maintenance regimes, continual investment in technology and a three-year replacement policy all contribute to industry-leading uptime – a 99.9% average throughout 2019 – while VOR days are minimal, averaging 58 per month in 2019.

The time taken to carry out safety inspections and MOTS – from instruction to carrying out a maintenance event and online hosting of completed documentation – is closely managed and a KPI for the fleet team.

WINNING WAYS: DVSA Earned Recognition is the next goal for the MDS fleet

Judges’ opinion

When judging the entries for the 2020 Technical Excellence Award, MT’s judges were particularly impressed by the company’s strong determination and commitment to reliability, efficiency and safety-first mindset.

“The submission demonstrates very high levels of legal compliance, roadworthiness and excellent annual test first-time pass rates,” said one. n MotorTransport 27

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