Tag: Europe

With all the focus from the HSE that pallet networks are experiencing of late (Motor Transport 20th March). Pallet Track was pleased to announce to its shareholder members this week the introduction of a quality control department to monitor all aspects of the transhipment operation.

In the non-pedestrian environment of the sort areas where visiting line haul drivers are unable to supervise both the unloading and re-loading of their freight PT has invested a six-figure sum in the introduction of a completely independent team which reports solely to the daytime operations management.

The team will be responsible for supervising and reporting on the quality of the member (arrival vehicle), Pallet Track Fork-Lift truck drivers and management operatives during the sort process and ultimately the presentation of the loaded outbound trunk vehicle prior to departure back to the depot.

Another ‘first’ in our industry sector was the foresight for Pallet-Track to fully prepare for the busiest week in the year by adopting an additional two sort operations.

Given the previous two years historic volume increases PT decided to add two Economy (48-hour) sorts on Wednesday and Thursday (19th & 20th March). The previous year had seen growth in volume spiral by over 32 pct on these two days, with the demand for next day (as opposed to economy) increasing from 65 to 85 pct.

A complete 68-depot sort operation was undertaken with an additional workforce of over 20 members of staff some of whom were office staff seconded to the sort process. Approaching 2,500 pallets were successfully transhipped during the two-day process which enabled the more time restrictive night operation to function efficiently. In total the combined sort operations handled over 9,500 pallets.

The result was that no delay was incurred by any network member which in turn helped all PT members customers receive their goods on time prior to the holiday period.

Nigel Parkes PT Managing Director comments:

“The whole project was a complete success, we had the element of experience and a willingness to make this ‘first’ succeed from the membership to our staff who both worked tirelessly during the night and day operations. It was an extra benefit for staff normally positioned elsewhere in the business to fully appreciate the hard work and attention to detail the operations team provides night in night out”