Pall-Ex looks to members as it eyes European volume boon
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By Chris Druce PALL-EX IS set to reveal a sixth national partner for Europe as part of its ambitious drive to have 15 countries signed up by 2015, but has conceded more needs to be done to sell the service to its UK members.
With Pall-Ex France and Pall-Ex Poland being run by De Rijke and KMC-Services respectively, both due to go live during the second quarter, Pall-Ex remains on course to achieve its stated aim of creating a pan-European network to complement its UK operation.
Pall-Ex MID Adrian Russell told CM he was pleased with the progress of the European project, and said an increasing number of UK members were now making use of it. "But again, further on than we are [in terms of member take-up]; there's no doubt about it," he said.
With Pall-Ex set to reveal national partner number six later this year, with Turkey or Scandinavia currently favourites to be added to the roster, the network's I'd like to see us project director Anand Assi has predicted European volumes will continue to grow in line with the developing infrastructure, attracting more UK hauliers due to its "massive growth potential".
"We have [to date] seen a takeup from the UK membership with exports to Europe, typically markets like Germany and France," he said. "It's going well, although, as Adrian says, it could be better.
"Our ambition is to market it and push more and more in the UK network as time goes on."
Assi predicted that while some UK hauliers are reticent at present, they will ultimately see the European expansion as a cost-effective and relatively straightforward distribution channel — of which they would feel the benefit in the years ahead.