Drivers and operators have had to get used to quite a few changes over the last couple of years, with each change seemingly making their lives more difficult by piling on the costs of transporting goods from one place to another.
Geoff Dossetter, external affairs director for the Freight Transport Association, says the change in drivers’ hours regulations due to be introduced this week - the first such change for 20 years - are going to be hard to get used to.
This comes on top of the introduction for all new freight vehicles last May of digital tachographs, ‘complex and difficult’ technology which prompted many transport companies to initiate a surge in vehicle sales last March and April.
And the year before that the government introduced its transport industry focused Working Time Directive.
To many it might seem like anyone trying to run a business supplying much-needed goods over the road network is under siege. Geoff Dossetter says politically the perennial topic of debate is the inadequacy of road space. Congestion obviously affects the reliability of deliveries. But the catch 22 is that as the economy grows that inevitably means a growth in all forms of road traffic. “And there will be more from abroad, which in turn creates more congestion,” he says.
The government’s favoured strategy of road pricing meets a lukewarm response from the FTA: “We think that weapon is really the last trick of the game. Before that we need to manage the roads better and widen them. Ultimately our view is we will probably have to introduce road pricing eventually,” Dossetter says.
But he acknowledges such an option is complicated by the petition signed by 1.8 million people just before Christmas against such an idea. Road pricing, he says, is never going to be popular. But at some stage it might be the best way to manage roads.
“Passengers, for instance, have a variety of charges to contend with. People buy a ticket for the train. It might be in the future you must buy a ticket to use the roads.
“We would look at favourable treatment of road pricing. But people have a suspicion of stealth taxes. Anything the government introduces tax-wise that it might be introducing for the reason of easing traffic congestion is going to be looked on suspiciously.”
One possible alternative is increasing the maximum weight of trucks from the present 44 tonnes - an argument which finds little support in the environmental lobby. However, in Dossetter’s view there is a powerful argument for longer, bigger trucks. Smaller trucks mean more trucks must be used. A larger capacity would mean fewer trucks.
He adds: “The environmental movement is against that. They’re always for that for buses and trains. But do that for trucks and they are against it. That’s an issue that will be raising its head over the next few years.”
And as if those problems were not enough, fuel costs are always an issue. UK companies having to pay 48p/litre fuel duty look with envy at the average 23p/litre duty in Europe. And with one in seven of the heaviest vehicles on UK roads coming from overseas the idea has been mooted that foreign trucks should pay more to use UK roads. This has been a particular concern of Kent County Council which sees the county as the gateway to the UK for European imports.
“Our line is that if you have it it’s been on the back of a truck,” says Dossetter. “The efficient use of the transport industry is a key ingredient in the country, especially for supermarkets. If we can make efficiency gains then it has a massive impact on prices. Transport deserves special treatment. Freight transport is a lot like a utility.”
These are the concerns that logistics firms are going to be facing up to, but for now they are focusing their attention on existing conundrums.
Olivo Cold Logistics, based near St Etienne in France, but with a UK office near Northampton, believes it has the answer to night time deliveries of fresh produce to retailers.
This follows moves to relax regulations prohibiting deliveries taking place between 11pm and 7am, a position which has drawn the support of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. A total ban on overnight deliveries is seen as increasingly inappropriate with the move of multiple retailers to out of town sites.
New planning guidelines are being drawn up requiring local authorities to consider curfews on a case-by-case basis and opt wherever possible for more flexible ‘codes of practice’. A Cabinet Office spokesman explained: “We are hoping to develop some joint industry/government guidance for retailers and local authorities later this year and possibly set up some pilots with some supermarkets.”
All this will help distribution companies with problems with delays and congestion during the day. Most delivery points (other than large supermarkets) do not have sufficient temperature-controlled storage to cope with goods being left for several hours prior to being placed in the display cabinets, and often staff are not available to deal with the need for quick unloading and storing of temperature-sensitive products. Olivo believes portable insulated containers with ease of handling and a high standard of insulation and refrigeration are the answer.
Olivo uses eutectic cooling or the Siber System of liquid CO2 injection. Malcolm Gilbert, UK sales and marketing manager for the firm, said: “We have customers already who are doing in some regions exactly what these new amendments to the regulations propose - delivering at night to avoid congestion and delays.”
An example of this is Selfridges, which has its products centrally stored and distributed by Exel. Exel has ambient, chilled and frozen storage facilities. The need for a true multi-temperature operation has been solved by the use of Olivo containers mounted on castors and with accurate temperature control over lengthy periods provided by the Siber System of cryogenic installation. These containers are delivered overnight to the stores and the previous day’s empty containers collected. This enables the store’s food hall staff to unload the containers at their convenience as and when required - also obviating the need for additional staff. The Olivo containers are fitted with movable shelves so that items of very different configurations can be transported.
Exel has invested recently in double-deck trailers to yet further increase their operational productivity and lower costs.
Costs, as everyone in the industry knows, must be kept to a minimum. That is why many are banding together to reduce their logistics bills through economies of scale.
One well-known example of such is the Midlands Regional Group’s Transport Initiative launched last year to introduce more efficiency and convenience into the 30 or so growers’ businesses.
Mostly based within a 30 mile radius of Worcester and delivering to garden centres nationwide, the group was spending millions on transport each year.
Geoff Caesar, of the Bransford Webb Plant Company, Worcester, which supplies ornamental plants for garden centres, is vice chairman of the Midland Regional Growers Group. He says the transport hub that was set up, contracted to Rick White Ltd, enabled the MRG to set up an efficient delivery service nationwide. It works an area of the country a day a week and takes off the grower the burden of having to plan logistics. One of its main benefits is the ease of use: “If you want a load to go with White’s you just make sure it’s with them a day before it’s due to deliver,” he says.
The growers deal directly with White’s - there is no central MRG department administering the service.
Geoff Caesar explains that the cost of running your own transport and that of using White’s were about the same. But using White’s released the burden from growers of having to run their own transport system.
A different system is run by co-operative Farplants, based in West Sussex. It has six members and has a central transport policy operated through a dedicated department. Operations director Malcolm Iles says the system benefits the growers financially.
“If they were doing it as individuals they would be sending a lot of fresh air around the country. By banding together they consolidate their logistics needs into a ‘one-stop-shop’,” he says.
As with White’s in the Midlands deliveries are organised by splitting the country into areas and focusing on each area on a daily basis.
Mallcolm Iles says: “The logic is the same as for the sales team. Instead of a different sales team for each of the six members, one sales team works on behalf of all.”
For the large logistics firms, there is a focus on getting the latest technology on board. Roger Oliphant is national fleet manager for one of the largest companies of its kind in the UK, Fowler Welch Coolchain, which is headquartered in Spalding, Lincs.
Satellite tracking on all refrigerated trailers has been a feature of its fleet for the last four years. It is an operational tool which helps locate and time deliveries going in and going out of drops. And it aids the efficient utilisation of the fleet and has helped the company reduce through time-savings and logistical efficiencies the number of trailers on the road.
He says: “It has helped us maximise the efficiency of the fleet. We now have around 700 fridge trailers on the road. We have an ambient fleet as well and we are about to install satellite on those, but not just yet. In the past we have had up to 800 fridge trailers.”
By utilising the equipment more efficiently the benefits are obvious, not only for the company but for the producers and the retailers.
“It works on two fronts: what we do for growers and what we do for the retailers. Retailers are even more time conscious than the growers. It’s almost down to minute windows with them.”
Fowler Welch is able to keep tabs on the temperature records of produce transported by the fleet. That information is monitored remotely through a satellite system. “Although we can’t as yet control temperature remotely we can simply contact the driver and he will control it. Remote control of temperature is something we may be able to introduce at a later date,” says Robert Oliphant. Like many in the industry he is concerned about environmental legislation and tougher restrictions being placed on companies such as his as it adds costs.
R W Simpson Transport is an example of a freight company keen to expand and maximise efficiencies through the use of modern technology. The company, a distributor of temperature controlled fresh produce from growers, packers and others to supermarkets and wholesalers, is based in Sheffield but has four depots around the country. It has a fleet of 55 tractor units and 80 trailers, both refrigerated box trailers or curtain-sided insuliners.
All box trailers have built-in refrigeration units and most of the curtain sided trailers also have refrigeration units. All vehicles are equipped with satellite tracking equipment and are contactable by either mobile phone or SMS text facilities on a 24/7 basis throughout the year.
The company’s David Simpson says the fleet boasts modern refrigeration and temperature control with software which can monitor the cargo 24 hours a day. All the vehicles are satellite tracked and monitored during the day with information that can be ‘replayed’ to know exactly what has happened at any particular point in the journey.
However, as the ‘customer is king’ with many wanting just-in-time deliveries of exact quantities, efficiency can sometimes be compromised through no fault of the carrier.
David Simpson says: “The way things are at the moment doesn’t encourage efficient delivery. Time pressures can cause uneconomical delivery, for instance, where two separate vehicles are used where one could have been used just as well. But there’s no getting around the fact we have to do what the customer wants.”
One way of solving it, he says, is more volume: “The more customers, the more deliveries we can generate, the easier it becomes. By economies of scale our operating basis is easier. We are continually pushing to be a bigger distributor, opening more depots around the country and making it as economic as we can.”
Yeovil based Cool-Move.com continues to extend its refrigerated vehicle hire services to meet the needs of the businesses operating in the food sector. The company specialises in refrigeration, offers customers a selection of single, dual and multi-temperature vehicles ranging from the smallest car derived vans up to 7.5t box bodied specifications - with carrying capacities ranging from 455kg to 2700kg.
All vehicles are available for short or long term rental, contract hire or lease, depending upon the operators’ particular requirements. Customers also have the option of purchasing quality second hand vehicles from Cool-Move - most of which are between one and three years old.
For ease of loading and offloading, the majority of Cool-Move’s refrigerated vehicles are fitted with both side and rear doors. Dual-temperature specifications have flexible moving bulkheads with fan kits to allow for different compartment sizes. Cool-Move also offers the latest portable and vehicle mounted temperature-recorders to ensure accurate temperature-monitoring at all times.
Cool-Move’s latest offer is the ICEY-TEK cool boxes - purpose designed for the carriage of smaller quantities of chilled and frozen product within an ambient or single-temperature environment. The boxes range from the compact 25 litre to the 1,100 litre box and are refrigerated by cubed ice or pre-cooled plates. l