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Network solutions
Page 22
Page 23
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0 ne late November night last year.13.400 pallets were moved through Palletways' Fradley hub,an old RAF airbase on the outskirts of Lichfield. Staffs. It wasn't a record for one night. says group development director Craig Fill-them hut it was close.
"It was a record week last week, though -our best ever," he reports. The weekly total wasjust shy of 64,000 pallets: up 4.4% on the previous week, Hibbert. adds reading from a sheaf of stats.This was largely down to volumes building before Christmas, but was also 7.10/ up on the same week a year before. "It's quite encouraging," he says."Alt hough in the early years we were growing at 40-45% year on year."
That said. 2005 hasn't necessarily been a bed of roses: "1 don't think it's a secret that there's been a bit of a drop in the market this year," says Hibbert. "We weren't expecting that. Ouite honestly, 12 months ago things were moving ahead as they always had done — it was only in the back end of the first quarter this year that we began noticing a slowdown."
This is a refreshingly frank admission from someone in a sector where clairvoyance, along with the ability to make hyperbolic claims of growth, seem to be common skills.
Hibbert believes Palle mays can maintain its prices through added value:"A pallet network is a pallet network in terms of the basic service it provides. We try to add value on top of that."
IT is the key here, with Pal letways claiming to present both its members and customers with something that others don't. Of course there are arguments on both sides of this sometimes you get the feeling that l'I systems are introduced simply because they make the firm in question look forward-thinking rather than offering any tangible benefit.
Making life easier
Hibbert stresses that all of Palletways' systems are designed to make life easier for everyone involved not just in terms of reduced workload and slicker processes. but in the management and monitoring of the whole network: "I don't want to sound arrogant, but there are clear reasons why we wanted to develop an in-cab system.
"Although I don't see it as ever replacing the hard copy,it allows customers to track the status of their deliveries in real-time "We also saw there was a benefit to Palletways in terms of efficiency, not least the removal of the need to manually input 8,500 PODs per day," he adds.
"Eventually every collection and delivery vehicle will be fitted with a device:750in all," he says."It's the saving at depot level that makes it viable.There's no point in doing it unless it benefits the network."
Hibbert has been with the company for 11 years. Back then, it was shifting 500 pallets per night with 32 members; during its first night, in May 1994, exactly 1 IO pallets moved through the system. Now it is sitting pretty with 107 full members in the 1,5K (by far the most of any network), 52 members in Italy and 18 in its Central European Network. More are due to come on stream when the company launches Palletways Iberia later this year.
In addition to the site at Fradley, Palletways currently has two regional hubs; one in London and one in Scotland. Although rival Palletline operates a similar three-hub set-up (the two firms' London hubs are practically on top of each other), where Palletways differs is in the use of a Scottish, rather than northern, hub, effectively creating a network for intraScottish traffic. "It was a market that we weren't capturing to our full potential," Hibbert explains.
"The depot in Glasgow, for example, used to send freight down to Fradley for an Aberdeen delivery,which is in no way cost-effective.Sowe can now offer a Scottish domestic service.
Palletways has also been at the forefront of pallet network expansion onto the Continent. Palletways Italia has existed since 2002, the Central European Network is up and running (the first trunks into it from the UK went ahead on 23 January) and Palletways Iberia will follow early next year.
The creation of the Italian network was simple enough: Palletways sold a licence to a group of Italian businessmen and it went from there. "If you could see the Bologna hub now," Hibbert remarks, -you'd see a clone of what we have in the UK. Everything is exactly the same.
"We made a decision some years back to develop a market-leading UK brand and we spent a great deal of time developing and refining our systems and procedures; all we did was duplicate that in Italy.And having demonstrated the model is transferable, there's no reason why we can't do it in other European domestic markets." France, however, is a little way off. "It's the toughest nut to crack," Hibbert admi lt's a big geographical area, whereas the others are more manageable." Conventional wisdom says there's a limited requirement for a pan-European capability, with most cross-Channel freight going as full or part loads. However Ilibbert says otherwise: "We commissioned a very detailed piece of market research recently and 92% of our members they had a requirement for [pandEuropear tribution,either import or export or both."
Although Hibbert acknowledges the fi pre-eminence in volume terms, he thinks as a measure of success this shouldn't be in isolation: "It's nice to be biggest on volt but that doesn't necessarily mean ye market leader. You might he working in a that isn't particul efficient. But we bel that as a brand, letways is a ma leader,he confidently.
"We're dealing 12-13.000 pallets night, but the area of that pre that receives 1I of the volume is the hub and if you don' that right then the process falls down. We] to make sure the job we do here is the best sible. The huh isn't the prettiest, but extremely functional."
"And it's definitely the largest hub facili Europe." Hibbert adds.The site is an old I airbase once used for the maintenanc Wellington bombers. Palletways cum occupies four hangers, with a total are 32,500m2, and another two are available.
"I don't think we'd ever look at a purr built site," he says. -When we reach cap we'll look at other options like regional hu taking volume out of the night operation, I has to be viable for the membership."
Using the Stargate
Another development by Palletways i Stargate Logistics system, described Hibberts as "a consignment wareh stock-holding facility". This allows custo. such as major retailers to store 100-200 p in the warehouse; then, when they ha requirement to move some of them,the on placed with Stargate and a specified numb pallets are put into the Palletways networ next-day delivery.
"The beauty of the system is that customer can place the order far later in th, than they could if they wanted a rel Palletways delivery,says Hibbert. "The: place it at 10 or 10.30pm for next-day deli\ Stock can he delivered into the Sta: warehouse on a full-load basis. This systo also in place at Palletways' Nijmegen hub, order placed at lOpm "can be deliver( Andover or Antwerp the next day".