Pallet-Track looks to London with new southern hub
RAPIDLY expanding logistics company Pallet-Track has moved into a major new distribution hub near London.
The move will enable the Wolverhampton-based firm to fast-track freight directly into the greater London area to reduce pressure on its Midlands distribution centre.
Pallet-Track, a member of the Association of Pallet Networks (APN), which now has 80 member companies, has developed the 100,000 sq ft hub at a former Weetabix facility in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, which is strategically located near to the A1/M1 corridor.
Opened in Pallet-Track’s 10th anniversary year, the new hub – operated by shareholder member P W Gates, has created 10 new jobs and will ship consignments directly into the Capital and surrounding boroughs rather than via the 267,000 sq ft distribution hub in Wolverhampton.
Pallet-Track has calculated that members using the hub to ship directly to London boroughs will shave a collective half a million miles from the journey rosters each year, generating a dramatic reduction in CO2 emissions. This saving will increase with the expected greater volumes going through Welwyn, and more members using the facility.
The new hub, which is already seeing averages of 550 pallets per night moving through it, is central to Pallet-Track’s expansion plans as it reduces the capacity at the distribution centre in Millfields Road, Wolverhampton. The site recently reported a record 10,000 pallets in a single evening, compared to the 852 that passed through the site on its first night of operation in 2004.
It is a meteoric anniversary year for Pallet-Track which last month picked up the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) award for ‘excellence in freight transport best practice’.
Managing director Nigel Parkes said: “We moved 600 pallets on the first night of distribution from Welwyn and have averaged 550 per night since then, which shows the incredible demand from an almost standing start.
“It allows for increased capacity back in the Midlands at a time that the whole network is growing at a dramatic rate. For example, we have recently signed a deal with Hellmann Global Logistics for European movement which has started in terms of UK in-bound business, and will commence its full continental movement in 2015. The southern hub forms a strategic building block to boost our growth and national footprint, as well as creating jobs.”
