The new trucks, featuring the manufacturer’s Digital Vision System, which replaces the wing mirrors, are supplied on three-year contract hire deals.

They join a fleet of 120 trucks and 220 trailers at Walkers Transport's Manchester depot, from where they will distribute goods through The Pallet Network and carry out general haulage work nationwide.

Walkers Group praised Alliance Group for providing it with used trucks to temporarily replace the haulage firm’s DAF CF fleet, at no additional cost, following the end of its lease contract with another company, whilst it waited for the new vehicles to arrive.

Paul Clarke, Walkers Transport, fleet director said: "They went the extra mile for us and provided nine trucks free of charge so that we weren’t rushed or panicking and could maintain our business operations.

“And when the new trucks arrived, Asset Alliance Group provided training for our drivers about the Digital Vision System on the new DAFs because it’s totally different to what they have been used to before.

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"Asset Alliance Group’s fleet engineer went over the finer details and took time to ensure everything was right for us. We’re grateful for the extra service.”

The DAF XF 480 trucks, which boast large cabs with a range of driver comforts, are specified with smart safety features including City Turn Assist and Electronic Park Brake. As part of the order, a ninth XF 480 will join the haulier’s fleet in December.

Clarke said: "The key change for us was going mirrorless. It’s a great system, our drivers love it, and we expect it to increase fuel efficiencies in the long run. These stunning new trucks also present a really strong image for the company and will help to grow our reputation around the UK.”

It’s the first time Walkers Transport has partnered with Asset Alliance Group – and Clarke said he is impressed with the level of service.

“The pricing and vehicle stock availability were important factors. We ordered in May and the trucks were ready in our yard in their livery on 1 September. That’s an exceptionally good turnaround time. I’m confident we will do further business with Asset Alliance Group as renewals come up at other depots."

Jim Agnew, Asset Alliance Group national key account manager, added: "This was a great team effort. We had a flexible approach from the outset to support Walkers Transport’s transitional position and by evaluating the needs of their business we were able to provide a great solution that exceeded the customer’s expectations.”

With bases in Lichfield, Manchester and Leeds, Walkers Transport offers a comprehensive range of transport services for distribution in the UK, Ireland and Europe, as well as warehousing, storage and inventory management solutions. In September, the company won the Customer Care accolade at the 2023 Motor Transport Awards.

The post Walkers Transport upgrades fleet with eight DAF XF 480 tractors appeared first on Motor Transport.

Davies has been a non-executive director for 14 years and brings a lifetime of experience in the logistics industry having started his first business Russell Davies in 1974. He has set up and sold three more successful companies since, the last being truck dealer Hanbury Riverside which he sold to Asset Alliance Group in 2018.

Stobart joined the family firm at the age of 15 in 1976 and has spent most of his working life with Eddie Stobart through its changes in ownership that eventually saw it back in private hands when it was bought in 2021 by Culina Group, which is still 100% owned by the Müller family.

Set up by van Mourik in 1994 in Market Drayton as Müller Dairies’ UK distribution arm, Culina Group has grown steadily through a series of strategic takeovers and now includes Culina Logistics, Fowler Welch, CML, MMiD, Stobart, Stobart Europe, Great Bear, Warrens, The Pallet Network, International Road Ferry, iForce, IPS, The Logistics People.

While each subsidiary continues to operate as an autonomous unit, van Mourik is shaping the business into national ambient and chilled networks and the group’s 4,000 trucks and over 9,000 trailers are all operated under the umbrella of Culina Asset Management, with overall responsibility sitting with William Stobart. A third division, Industrial Support Services, pulls together the group’s e-commerce fulfilment, contract packing and labour resource provision while CML, a supplier consolidation operation, provides services specifically for discount retailers and MMiD runs the milk operation for Müller Dairies with a separate fleet of 1,000 trucks.

Van Mourik, pictured, is also focusing more of Culina Group’s 20m sq ft of warehousing into the Great Bear ambient business and more of the transport operation into Stobart. But his argument for avoiding other groups’ error of absorbing acquisitions completely into the parent is clear. “Customers will still deal with Great Bear, Stobart or any of the other businesses in the group which have retained their identities” he says.

“Probably one of the biggest mistakes I could make is turning it all into Culina.”

There have been a couple of exceptions to this rule in that AIM and Robbie Burns have gone into Fowler Welch, though the management of both businesses have stayed on.

Enabling the operating companies to share resources has enabled Culina Group to reduce its overall fleet and headcount through efficiency gains, but customer service remains king.

“Ultimately we will end up with a control tower that will recommend how a particular flow is handled,” says van Mourik. “But service levels come first and the rest will follow. We also try to keep cost within the business as much as possible.

“We will always use subcontractors but we can use a few less if we get ourselves organised better.”

Coping with peaks in demand is made easier by the large number of trampers that Stobart still operates, contrary to trends elsewhere in the haulage sector.

“We find it easy to get trampers as so many drivers want to tramp, especially at night and weekends,” says Stobart, pictured. “They are getting a good wage and are flooding back into the industry. Give them a good truck with a microwave and a shower and they will stay.”

The trampers are allocated brand new trucks and the majority of the time they are the only driver of the vehicle – still 50% Scania R-series – for their first year before they go on to be double-shifted elsewhere in the business.

To streamline the group further the management is rolling out a group-wide SAP enterprise resource planning system that will centralise 18 existing separate finance and HR functions.

The different businesses also still operate a variety of inherited transport management systems and the company is planning to standardise the chilled network on one platform and the ambient network on another.

“We have all sorts of transport systems at the moment and that is unsustainable long term,” van Mourik says. “Equally we have a variety of warehouse management systems, some of which are bespoke, and do we want to carry on rolling them out or go for the system that has been a great success within the businesses?”

“In the long term it would be great to have SAP - responsible for finance and HR, one or two warehouse and transport management systems and one vehicle management system.

“We will then carry on growing organically and by acquisition. Certain deals we have talked about haven’t come off yet largely as a result of the economy and I want to see where we are going in 2024.”

Through iForce, Culina Group is a major player in e-fulfilment and has benefited from the boom in online retail. One area van Mourik had looked at was home delivery and while he says the prices of companies in this space have “come down a lot” he wants to wait and see how the UK economy performs before committing.

“If I compare the FMCG volumes we shifted against where we should have been we are 10% down across the business,” he says. “We haven’t lost any customers, it is just because we are all buying less as everything is so expensive.

“I want to see the dust settle.”

Van Mourik does not see any natural limit on the size of Culina Group, which doubled in size in 2021 with the acquisition of Stobart parent GreenWhiteStar Acquisitions (GWSA).

“You can never say it is big enough because when you stop growing you go backwards,” he says. “We have aspirations to grow but it has to be profitable. Nobody is holding a gun to our head saying we must achieve XYZ in the next couple of years. If the opportunity is there we will grow but if the market isn’t ready for a new move we don’t need to do it.

“It is a relatively relaxed position to be in. We are not a PLC.”

Culina only buys strong companies with good management.

“We have no time to start rebuilding businesses, we just want plug and play,” says van Mourik. “When we bought GWSA all the so-called bad things had already been dealt with and all the plans about how we were going to take it forward strategically had already been agreed up front as part of the due diligence process.

“Two years on, nothing has changed to our plan.”

Davies, pictured, has plenty of experience of buying and selling businesses and agrees 100% with van Mourik.

“If you buy a basket case it will have poor management,” he says. “So it’s not a bargain unless you can just bolt the revenue onto your existing network which is rare.

“This downturn in the market is helping us in a way. It is giving us the opportunity to look at the business and consolidate across the group.”

But van Mourik is quick to point out that this does not mean a pause in the growth strategy. “It won’t stop us picking up one or two things,” he says. “If we see an opportunity we will certainly engage.”

Culina Group’s chilled network is however now very nearly complete and van Mourik says there isn’t much left in that market worth buying. Stobart pulled out of chilled transport 10 years ago because stiff competition had driven rates down below costs and van Mourik says it is still a tough market.

“The entry barrier is not cheap and even for the players left to go out and make a major investment in a new warehouse is not easy,” he says. “The levels of automation required are also increasing. It works where you have one long term customer and the pallets are all the same size and weight, like we have with Müller at Market Drayton, for example, but is more difficult to automate warehouses for multiple customers.”

More automation is however inevitable as the tight labour market exacerbated by Brexit is making it more expensive to employ warehouse staff.

“The driver problem has more or less gone away because of the pay adjustment we have all made,” says van Mourik. “But in the warehouse the labour shortage is still there and turnover is high, especially in a cold environment.

“We are seriously looking at automation in both ambient and chill.”

As well as higher labour and warehousing costs, prices of new trucks and trailers have rocketed, and Culina Group is having to pass some of these increases onto customers.

“They have had to take quite a bit as there is only so much we can absorb,” says van Mourik. “Lead times on new trucks have come down but prices are a lot higher.

“Electric trucks will be even more expensive and we can’t afford that. I think everyone is in denial at the moment.”

While a large majority of Culina Group’s activity is in the UK it is growing its continental European business. Stobart Europe’s general cargo division is run from Bulgaria and Belgium and provides pan-European transport plus warehousing in Belgium and Germany. International Road Ferry (IRF), acquired in January 2023, specialises in short sea mainly unaccompanied trailer movements between the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and the UK. IRF is now shipping around 70 trailers a day in and out of the UK.

“Culina Group never really got involved in collecting or organising trailers from the continent for our customers,” says van Mourik. “It was the next opportunity as we can only go so far here in the UK. I wouldn’t say we are at the end of the journey but we have to be careful with the Competition Commission so are looking more towards Europe - in a controlled manner.

“We are looking at other acquisitions that can support that.”

Brexit is still causing friction on the UK’s borders with the EU and the island of Ireland, and avid free trader van Mourik still finds it hard to accept.

“Tell me one good thing that has come out of Brexit,” he says. “It was all about emotion. The EU is our biggest trading partner and it is a real problem. But we are where we are and have to get on with it.”

While some European hauliers are avoiding the UK because of border delays, the imbalance in our physical trade remains and finding profitable loads from the UK to the continent is a growing problem.

“The imbalance will probably get worse,” predicts van Mourik. “Manufacturing is shrinking further and further as the UK becomes a service economy.”

Delivering sustainable solutions

Culina Group’s strapline is ‘Delivering Sustainable Solutions’ and while it is experimenting with alternative fuels including electric vehicles its immediate priority is to run the existing fleet as efficiently as possible by sharing capacity and reducing empty miles. As a result the group fleet achieves an impressive 86% load fill, well above the industry average of 72%.

Stobart is testing two electric refrigeration units partially powered by solar panels on the trailer roof, but is finding them operationally more restrictive than conventional diesel engine-powered versions.

“They only work on a hot, sunny day when the fridges are working harder and we have to plug them in as soon as they arrive at the DC to maintain the temperature,” he says. “They are not as versatile. It works on a straight A to B journey but I can’t put them in the network.”

Culina Group was among the pioneers of electric fridges back in 1994 but van Mourik says they did not perform.

“I had to give them up on them,” he says. “When they came into our yard I could plug them in but everywhere else it was a disaster.”

Van Mourik is however well aware of the increasingly pressing need to find alternatives to diesel trucks and fridges.

“The industry has to find a solution,” he says. “The truck manufacturers are committed to going electric and trailers will be the same.

“Sooner or later the industry will have to bite the apple. What is for sure is that distribution costs will be affected by the change needed.”

Squaring the circle of decarbonisation and affordable transport remains a challenge however.

“Customers are coming to us saying we have to deliver sustainable solutions and we are asking our suppliers to help us with this,” says Davies. “We are all looking at each other and no one wants to pay.

“We can’t be the innovators here. We are reacting to market pressures whether that is customers or government – and that is what we have always done.”

Trains still on track at Stobart

Stobart operates the UK’s largest domestic rail freight service carrying just-in-time products for the retail sector and has designed its own 44ft curtain sided rail container for multimodal operations. Stobart Ports handles cargoes imported through Felixstowe and Southampton and uses rail terminals around the UK to forward freight to its DCs for onward delivery.

“Stobart Ports has always been multimodal,” says William Stobart. “We have developed it and revenues have increased 38% year on year.

“Our curtainsided trailer is the only one running in the UK. It is carrying plasterboard and cola up and down to Scotland from Daventry.

“It works for shared users, but we have to have control at both ends. The biggest challenge for rail is the height.”

A doubledeck road trailer can be up to 4.9m high in the UK whereas the maximum height on the railway is 2.9m.

Stobart started running daily trains from Daventry to Grangemouth for Tesco back in 2006, adding a weekly service from Valencia in southern Spain to Dagenham three years later, and almost 20 years on rail has a growing future with the Stobart business.

“Everybody is now looking at trains,” says Davies. “Rail isn’t top of our list but we see it as our responsibility to develop more sustainable solutions.”

Busting the myth of a Culina Group listing.

Before our interview, MT had been contacted by a number of people who had seen a prospectus for a sale of shares in Culina Group valuing the business at £1.5bn. But van Mourik was keen to quash rumours of any impending listing.

“The Müller family received an unsolicited approach by an international broker who said, ‘if you ever want to sell Culina Group or Muller now is the time’,” he says. “Theo Muller is now 83 so he asked what value the broker would put on them. An enquiry was made in the marketplace and certain big shipping lines would have seen it, and that is how this rumour came about.

“Will anything be done with it – no. It is a bit like getting your house valued even if you are not selling. The only thing Theo has ever sold was a restaurant chain and it took years to convince him it wasn’t core and should be sold. He’s happy now because that was just before Covid!

“Culina Group is not for sale.”

The post With 150 years’ collective experience, Culina Group directors know a few secrets to success appeared first on Motor Transport.

The Exeter-based general haulage firm, which transports palletised goods across the south of England and to the Czech Republic, has added the bespoke semi-trailer to its fleet to improve the loading and unloading services it offers to customers.

Macano owner Miri Papaj said: "The Modulos galvanised chassis doesn’t bend when you have two-and-a-half tonnes on the back of it and the galvanised forklift adaptation is top quality.

“This Euroliner is like the Rembrandt of the trailer market. It’s a beautifully made thing. That’s why I keep going back to Schmitz Cargobull.”

The semi-trailer is designed to meet a range of customers’ needs, with a chassis which allows increased load-bearing capacity, a sliding roof and power curtains offering versatile loading options.

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Papaj said; "We now provide much more flexibility to customers at the point of loading and unloading pallets of goods, offering additional transport services with the forklift unit. It has really added value to our business operations.”

The Euroliner joins Macano South West’s growing fleet of vehicles that includes two other Schmitz Cargobull trailers, a MAN tractor unit and a Mercedes Actros L truck.

Commenting on Schmitz Cargobull, Papaj added: “The customer service is excellent. This is our third trailer from them, and the build quality is second to none. It is helping to promote our reputation as a haulier because it looks so good on the road.”

Schmitz Cargobull regional manager, Geoff Ward, said: “This specially adapted trailer demonstrates our capabilities to produce bespoke vehicles to meet the requirements of ambitious independent operators like Macano South West. We’re delighted that Miri’s business is reaping the benefits of this special Euroliner.”

The post Devon haulier hails new Schmitz Cargobull Euroliner as work of art appeared first on Motor Transport.

The Chorley-based business has seen its vehicle fleet, customer base, revenues, head count and assembly facility all grow during the year.

The company said that it had grown its fleet by 49.7% to over 500 vehicles in just 12 months, aided by an active UK highways sector.

Blakedale has also seen revenues rise by 50% in line with fleet and customer growth. Meanwhile the overall headcount has grown to 40 colleagues with technician numbers doubling to cope with the growth in Impact Protection Vehicle (IPV) assembly and repairs.

The company has taken on an additional industrial unit next to its current 20,000 square foot facility in Matrix Park, Chorley where it is establishing a new parts office, storage, and HGV servicing area to support its IPV assembly line and repair businesses. The unit has also freed up more space to grow its road marker post business.

Managing director Jon Taylor, who joined the company in July last year, has also overseen a fleet expansion and reconfiguration which has seen the company increase its offering to five different vehicle types based on customer needs.

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These include traffic management safety cars, electric car derived vans, crew vans, 3.5-tonne Light Truck Mounted Attenuator (LTMA) urban crash cushion vehicles and 3.5 and 7.2-tonne traffic management vehicles.

Taylor said: "We have seen our trading customer base rise 40% by rolling out our services to Northgate’s existing fleet customers and gaining new accounts.

"We have expanded our fleet accordingly and have a strong order bank of several hundred new vehicles. The fleet expansion has led to a number of customers trialing cars, vans and trucks for the very first time.

He added: "It has been a positive 12 months. We have invested in and delivered growth across all areas of the business while retaining Blakedale’s excellent reputation in the traffic management sector.

“We have also bolstered our team with the appointment of Tony Richards as our new head of fleet operations who has joined operations director Gareth Brown and sales director Dave Staiano in the leadership team. The business is well set to capitalise on the continued growth of the highways and traffic management sectors,” Taylor said.

The post Blakedale sees strong growth following Northgate acquisition appeared first on Motor Transport.

Sitra Group was launched in 1962. It employs approximately 1,150 people across 11 countries including the UK and operates a fleet of 700 owned trucks and over 2,000 trailers and containers, including liquid and powder food tankers.

The group, which last year reported a turnover of €165m, is largely owned by the Saelens family, with investment company Creafund holding the balance of shares since 2021.

The purchase of Abbey Logistics Group, which boasts an annual turnover of £75m, sees Sitra Group add nearly 600 staff and a fleet of 325 trucks and 550 trailers to its operations. Sitra Group has pledged that Abbey will continue to operate under its own name and livery. An Abbey Logistics spokesperson told MT that the company has no plans to make any staff redundant or to close any depots.

Abbey has been majority owned by private equity firm NorthEdge Capital since 2016, following a management buyout (MBO), led by Steve Granite, former chief executive and current chairman, who is to take on an advisory role at the company, following the acquisition.

Granite said: "Since our MBO we have successfully transformed Abbey from a £45m turnover family business to a £75m market leader and refocused the business on its core strengths as a specialist tanker operator in the UK.

"We are proud of how the business has grown, not just in revenue but in market share and maturity, to become the UK’s leading food tanker operator.

"With the unwavering support of NorthEdge and a great working relationship between the board and the investors, the business is now in great shape, and I am delighted to see it end up in the ownership of another family-owned business in Sitra Group who will undoubtedly develop the business and it’s people even further."

He added: "I would also like to say a huge thank you and well done to the employees of Abbey who have worked tirelessly to make Abbey the market leader it is today and I’m confident that being part of the Sitra Group will have a positive impact on our people and loyal customers.”

David Patten, Abbey Logistics Group MD, also welcomed the deal. He said: “I have worked with Sitra as a supplier during my time as a customer in Europe and I hold the company and its people in high regard.

"It is an exciting time in Abbey’s history to once again be part of a family-owned business and I am over the moon to be joining the Sitra team. This is great news for our employees and customers.”

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Jon Pickering, Northedge partner and chief investment officer, said: “We are proud to see Abbey joining forces with Sitra, another market-leading business with a strong commercial and cultural fit.

"Throughout our partnership, management have worked tirelessly to build a high-quality leadership team, retain and grow a blue-chip customer base, continuously improve operational efficiencies and develop a market-leading approach to talent attraction and retention to support scale.

"Abbey is now well positioned for future growth as part of Sitra, continuing to deliver world-class service to its customers, and we wish the whole team the best of luck in their next chapter.”

David Saelens, Sitra Group chief executive, said: “Sitra Group is delighted to announce the acquisition of Abbey Logistics Group. It is a milestone in Sitra’s history to acquire a renowned, well-established company like Abbey.

"Together with our partner Creafund we have been working almost a year on this deal and to now welcome the whole Abbey family to the Sitra group feels like the cherry on the cake.

"It was a great pleasure to work closely with Steve, Dave and Matthew who are truly professionals as well as the other members of the Abbey management. We have not only aquired a great company but we also welcome some of the best individuals in our industry.

"We are very much looking forward to welcoming and introducing every Abbey member in our organisation. Abbey will continue to operate under its own name and colours and Sitra is not intending to change whatsoever to the well-working organisation that Abbey is today.

"Since Creafund’s entry in Sitra Group, the size of the company has more than doubled and we are getting close to €300m turnover with over 2,000 employees, on course to our ambition which is to reach the €500 million milestone by 2026. Please allow me to thank everybody who was involved in making this deal happen “

Kenneth Depuydt, partner of Creafund added “We are extremely pleased to accelerate the strategic growth plan of Sitra by adding Abbey to our ambitious Group. We truly value the professionalism, the entrepreneurship, the reputation and all stakeholders, including all employees of Abbey tremendously.

"We hence warmly welcome Abbey as part of our Group and look forward to further consolidating the food logistics market together."

Abbey was advised by KPMG and DWF and Sitra was advised by EY.

The post Belgian giant Sitra Group acquires Abbey Logistics appeared first on Motor Transport.

The new partnership, which will involve a full, phased transfer from the existing provider from next month, will cover service, maintenance and repair for the group’s light and heavy goods vehicles, as well as cars, plant and ancillary equipment.

Announcing the deal, Travis Perkins said Zenith was selected in a competitive tender based on its overall value, including the ability to provide more overnight servicing, up to 30%, which the group said will minimise downtime and improve availability.

The group added that Zenith's servicing network closely matched Travis Perkins' nationwide operational footprint, which it said will help improve efficiency, save fuel and reduce carbon emissions in line with its commitment to reduce the carbon emissions of its fleet by 80% by 2030.

Travis Perkins was also impressed with Zenith’s call handling expertise, which it said has "strong resources and large scale teams, and the technical expertise of their front line support staff."

Travis Perkins HSE and fleet director, Richard Byrne, said: “Following a thorough review, we are excited to work with Zenith, and have found in them a partner that we believe will provide our branches with excellent service and which shares our belief in great customer service, efficiency and sustainability.”

Zenith commercial division chief executive, Martin Jenkins, added: “We’re delighted to have been selected by Travis Perkins as the fleet management partner for its 3000-strong fleet.

“With more than 30 years’ experience in fleet management solutions, we have long-standing relationships with the UK’s largest fleets – all of which rely on our industry-leading knowledge and service levels to achieve business objectives.

“This continues with Travis Perkins plc, and I’m confident our technology-led solutions will minimise vehicle downtime, boost vehicle availability, and ultimately help to ensure the company maximises its investment in its large commercial fleet.”

The post Zenith wins five year fleet management deal with Travis Perkins appeared first on Motor Transport.

The new 15,190 sq ft facility is located in Stafford, on the Beacon Business Park. It is the latest addition to the group’s parcels network and part of the DX Express division, which provides highly secure, tracked deliveries to both business and consumer addresses.

the group said that the depot will provide further capacity and improve operational efficiencies, by reducing stem mileage and carbon emissions, as well as enhancing customer service levels, which it said is a key focus for the group.

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It added that this latest opening is part of the group's ongoing major capital programme in the business as management "continues to drive the group’s growth and development."

Paul Ibbetson, DX Group chief executive, added: "The opening of the Stafford depot means that we have now reopened 13 of the 15 depots that we took on from Tuffnells’ Administrators in late June.

"It increases the capacity and capability of our Express Parcels operation, which is growing strongly, and delivers further efficiencies, environmental and customer service benefits.

“Expanding and improving the depot network underpins the continued successful delivery of our growth plans, and we look forward to reporting on further openings over the forthcoming months”.

The post DX opens thirteenth of 15 former Tuffnells depots appeared first on Motor Transport.

However the company revealed this week that it is seeing better times this year, with record volumes which it says are higher than at any point during COVID-19, adding that it is heading for the "busiest peak period in our history."

Reporting its results for the year to 25 February 2023, the parcel delivery giant said that whilst revenue remained virtually unchanged at £1.464m (2022: £1.465m) pre-tax profit tumbled by 56% to £51m (2022: £117m).

The company attributed the profit fall to economic and political factors in the period resulting in “significant inflation, higher interest rates and a weakening of consumer confidence.”

The year also saw greater volatility in customer demand which the company said was driven by continued economic uncertainty and the impacts of the cost of living crisis.

Its strategic review of the results said the company was also hit by the "anticipated post pandemic channel realignment, as physical stores were not subject to lockdown closures this year. As a result, parts of the online retail market have softened compared to previous years.”

Other pressures reported by the company included rising energy, fuel and wage costs, a continuing shortage of resources driven by Brexit and the pandemic, the cost of moving a number of Evri depots and the opening its new Barnsley superhub.

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The end of the Covid-19 lockdowns, during which parcel volumes had soared, also took its toll on the company. The review said: “Parcel volumes were broadly flat year on year against tough comparatives when physical shops were closed and volumes were up around 70% on pre-pandemic levels. This represents outperformance against a market which declined in 2022/23.

It added: “These factors, volatile consumer demand, resource shortages and rising costs have presented challenges across the parcel delivery industry, which have been further exacerbated by the disruption caused by the continued industrial action impacting Royal Mail during 2022/23.”

On the upside the report noted that, despite these challenges, Evri had driven new growth by winning new business and expanding into new markets, which “offset the unwinding of Covid lockdown volumes and the impact of macro-economic conditions on volumes in certain market segments.”

Looking ahead the company said it had continued to perform “robustly” despite challenging market conditions with volumes steady, despite a declining market.

The review concluded that the company remains confident it will see further growth driven by new volume pipelines and aided by “wide ranging” cost savings.

However it also warned that it is “not immune to the macro-economic conditions impacting customer demand and input cost in the short term.”

An Evri spokesperson said: "Our revenue and volume performance last year was robust and we outperformed the sector, a trend which continues as we win new contracts and grow our business into new areas.

"We are currently experiencing record volumes – higher than at any point during COVID-19 – growing at high double-digit rates and we are on track for the busiest peak period in our history.

" Our performance this year has enabled us to increase our investment in customer service and Christmas preparations including the recruitment of an additional 6,500 colleagues.

"The business has tripled in size over the last five years and is expected to double in size again over the next five years, boosted by last year’s opening of our super-hub in Barnsley and as we benefit from the rise of the marketplaces such as Vinted and Etsy.”

The post Evri sees “record volumes” this year after 2022 profit plunge appeared first on Motor Transport.

Speaking at an Action Counters Terrorism corporate event for the road transport industry held on October 27 at the Met Police’s New Scotland Yard headquarters, Dawber went on to explain the tactics used by organised crime gangs to target and steal high value goods from trucks – even while they are on the move.

One gang from West Yorkshire specialised in stealing from trailers and making fictious collections of fully loaded trailers while another from Essex would commit crimes typically on weekday nights across the South East.

A common technique used by gangs is jump-up theft, where thieves follow supermarket trucks and steal cigarettes and tobacco from the rear doors when the vehicle is stopped in traffic or at a delivery.

The most audacious crimes, which came to Dawber’s initially disbelieving attention in 2020, are known as Romanian roll overs. Here several cars or vans will box in a truck driving on a motorway or dual carriageway while a thief balanced on the bonnet of a following car will angle grind away the rear door locks, climb into the trailer and pass goods back to the car. There were six such incidents in 2022 which Dawber described as “like something out of James Bond”.

Organised crime gangs do not need to strike it lucky or rely on tip offs to target trucks carrying high value goods, he pointed out.

“These gangs are not opportunists,” he said. “They understand the supply chain because they are often from a freight background.

“They know which hauliers carry what goods and where drivers take their rest breaks.”

Typical patterns identified by thieves include Scotch whisky being trunked to Avonmouth for export where drivers will often take their breaks on the M6 southbound motorway services, high tech gadgets imported through the southern container ports will be trunked north on the M1 and A14 while tyres imported through Felixstowe will follow a similar route to DCs in the Midlands. Foreign trucks northbound on Mondays and Tuesdays will often be full of high value imported goods.

“There are also seasonal trends, with garden products and summer fashion garments being stolen in April and May and pallets of toys such as Lego stolen in September and October,” said Dawber. “Games consoles and alcohol are also being shipped at this time of year.”

Theft by slashing curtains had been thought to be largely opportunist, but this is “so wide of the mark” he went on. In what are termed side-by-side thefts, an 18-tonne curtainsider will pull alongside the target trailer in a lorry park and a gang inside the truck will quickly slash the curtains and transfer the goods before anyone realises what is happening. £2m of fashion goods were stolen in this way from Watford Gap services in August last year.

“Thieves don’t hold up banks with sawn-off shotguns any more,” said Dawber. “Cargo theft is low risk and high reward and the penalties for theft from motor vehicles are much lower than for robbery.”
The good news is that hijacking vehicles with threats or actual violence to drivers is relatively rare, with only 31 recorded incidents in 2022.

NaVCIS is entirely funded by the road freight transport industry and Dawber urged operators to become sponsors to ensure the unit – which almost closed due to lack of support in 2021 – keeps going. The unit sends out regular bulletins warning of potential threats to sponsors and has developed an app which is free to download to help operators and drivers reduce the risk of being targeted.

For more information email freight@navcis.police.uk

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Profits also grew; pre-tax profit was up 4.1% to £5m, compared to £4.8m in 2022.

Operating profit was also £5m, a 4% increase on the previous year.

The network said it had made significant progress during the trading period on the key elements of its strategy; gross profit percentage increased to 75.3% from 74.4%, net profit increased 0.3% to 35.4% and its liquidity ratio during the year was 2.07, compared to 1.81 in the previous year.

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In a review of its business UPN said the company’s position was satisfactory and it was optimistic for the future: “The company continues to grow in respect of the number of pallets moved on a nightly basis,” UPN said.

“The company will continue to develop its internal systems and IT infrastructure in the coming year which will maintain UPN’s position as a market leader within the pallet sector.”

This summer, the network said its presence in the east of England had strengthened after members in the region enjoyed significant expansion.

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