Nightline set to increase UK parcel traffic with GFS alliance
UK parcel and carrier manager Global Freight Solutions (GFS) has formed a partnership with Ireland’s biggest independent carrier Nightline. In a move expected to boost Nightline’s proportion of parcel traffic out of the UK, Global Freight Solutions said the alliance would improve the choice of carriers available to its customers.
GFS handles several million parcels each year on behalf of clients in the financial services, technology, baby products, leisure and automotive industries.
The tie-up with Nightline follows the Dublin-based firm’s expansion to a UK regional office in Lancashire, which opened last May to join the seven offices it operates across Ireland.
GFS managing director Neil Cotty said the agreement was merely the first of a series of “major developments” which the company would be announcing during the course of this year.
“We have put in place bold objectives for 2011, each of which promises to take this company forward and illustrate the strength of our proposition to clients and partners.
“Having such a renowned carrier as Nightline aboard means those of our clients shipping to Ireland can take advantage of that firm’s undoubted strengths – its nationwide coverage, reliability and speed. That’s something which we feel represents a strong benefit to customers,” Cotty added.
GFS, which has its head office in Billingshurst, south of London, offers customers the choice of using a number of different couriers through its GFS Selector software system, launched in 2001.
The company said adding Nightline to its line-up increased the options for GFS clients moving goods to Ireland and also promised to boost Nightline’s proportion of parcel traffic out of the UK.
Since opening its UK office last year, Nightline has secured a string of major new contracts with British retailers and the likes of Findel Education, the UK’s biggest supplier of educational materials.
The extra business won means that Nightline now says it is responsible for moving one in every five parcels on Irish roads.
Geremy Ruffin, Nightline’s UK managing director, said the partnership with GFS move was another significant and strategic step in the Irish firm’s evolution.
“In order to grow our business and generate a bigger proportion of parcel traffic being shipped from the UK to Ireland, we know that we need to capitalise on the momentum of firms like GFS which are undoubted experts in their field.
“However, this is very much a partnership. We believe that we can offer GFS’s customers the sort of service levels which are one of our key characteristics,” Ruffin said.
