Companies turn to number one pallet network to carry them through tough times
October 14th 2008

Maintaining supply chain efficiency and remaining cost effective are major challenges for businesses at all times, but particularly now as the tough economic climate shows no sign of abating.

More and more businesses that transport smaller consignments of goods, between one and four pallets for example, are examining moves away from the traditional haulage processes to transport their freight. This shift in thinking is seeing multi-awardwinning Pall-Ex, the UK’s No 1 Pallet Network, maintaining its growth, with its network of 100 members handling up to 10,000 consignments a day.

Pall-Ex was formed in 1996 by Hilary Devey, CEO and chairman, when she realised there was a demand to deliver small consignments of palletised freight both cost-effectively and quickly, throughout the UK and Europe. Although the company’s core business is consignments of up to four pallets, there are tailored pricing structures available for larger consignments.

The cost-effectiveness is achieved by uniting the 100 regionally-based, independentlyowned haulage companies who collect palletised freight destined for other parts of the country, or Europe, from customers. The freight is transported to the central Pall-Ex transhipment hub in Leicestershire, a £12m, purpose-built facility, and is then sorted into the delivery area assigned to the member serving that postcode. The membership has access to 7,500 vehicles, enabling them to cover every UK postcode, every day.

In the Spring of 2008, in response to market demands, Pall-Ex opened an additional hub near Carlisle, in Cumbria, to further reduce miles travelled by freight destined for the north of England and Scotland, minimising costs, and passing on savings to customers. This has also helped reduce the carbon footprint created by transporting goods. Speed of delivery has also been considerably enhanced.

In the age of reduced margins, retailers are also seeing the benefits of utilising the flexibility and efficiency – and therefore cost savings – of pallet networks to ensure goods are delivered on time to high street stores.

A continued increase in on-line shopping has resulted in a growing demand for home deliveries. Pall-Ex is already successfully delivering bulkier and heavier items such as lawn turf, hard landscaping products and furniture for many leading household names. Efficiency can be monitored via the real-time track and trace facility that Pall-Ex offers with web-based electronic proof of delivery, playing an important role in customer satisfaction, and also considerably reducing the traditional paper trail.

Comprehensive management information is available for customers, from a dedicated team of account handlers. Palm held computers have been issued to Pall-Ex members, enabling them to obtain electronic signatures as proof of freight delivery. The signatures are automatically sent via the mobile phone network, appearing seconds later on the Pall-Ex website, viewable by hub staff, members, and most importantly, end customers. This innovation also reduces the traditional paper trail, and represented yet another ‘first’ in the sector.

The benefits to the environment of using Pall- Ex are huge. On average, vehicle fill is around 20 per cent higher than that of traditional hauliers. Running empty vehicles for return journeys accounted for 26.5 per cent of traditional haulier journeys according to a Department of Transport report, published in 2003.

From other Department of Transport statistics, it can be estimated that that the Pall-Ex network is instrumental in removing some 142 LGVs from the UK’s roads every single day of the year. Studies have shown that simply removing one 18-tonne vehicle from the road can save up to £748 running costs and cuts CO2 emissions by 2.47 tonnes a year (Department of Transport, 2005).

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