by Juliet Parish • Six car manufacturers and importers are
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considering replacing their haulage arrangements with a shared distribution contract, worth at least £4.5m a year, to be awarded to a single operator.
Daihatsu/Chrysler Jeep, Honda, Mazda, Nissan GB, Toyota GB and Volvo are believed to be in the group which is looking at a shared overnight service to cut haulage costs by a fifth.
The group has asked seven car part distribution hauliers to tender for the overnight deliveries to lock-ups at more than 2,000 UK dealers. Exel Logistics Automotive, Fedex Logistics Services, Hammond Transport Group, Lynx Express Delivery Network, Swift Transport Services, Tibbett & Britten Group and TNT have to return written tenders by 1 August.
The pre08:00hrs deliv
ery service would be used mainly for distributing urgently needed VOR parts.
The manufacturers plan to make the decision whether to switch to a shared system in September. But they will have to honour their existing contracts with hauliers.
Operators involved in the discusssions believe the group is keen on the idea: "Until now suppliers have been against having their goods distributed on competitors' vehicles. But in a recession, some of the scruples they harboured before will have to be cast off."