Nightfreight's new clothes revealed by DX

DX Group has revealed the new DX livery that will replace the familiar dark blue Nightfreight name that is being phased out following its acquisition in February 2012.

DX said last year it would align Nightfreight with the DX (Delivered Exactly) Group brand when its service levels improved to acceptable levels, and most depots were now hitting the 98.5% target according to DX Group chief executive Petar Cvetkovic.

“A lot of colleague commitment has got the service levels to the DX standard and where we believe the customer wants it to be, so we can call it a DX company now,” Cvetkovic said. “We have red or green – if a location is green it still has work to do but it is not in crisis. We aim for 100% every day and where we fail for whatever reason we look to rectify it ASAP.”

The new DX livery will be rolled out across the existing 650-strong Nightfreight collection and delivery fleet and almost 200-strong trunking fleet over the next 18 months, and will be applied to new vehicles DX is ordering as part of its £8.5m a year capital investment in DX Freight.

“There is no big bang but there will be an early surge, with 120 new 7.5 tonners coming in the next few weeks,” said Cvetkovic. “We have ordered up to 200 new box trailers plus up to 50 doubledeck trailers, so over the next six months there will be a massive increase. Thereafter it will be when a vehicle comes to the end of its life.”

DX Freight will continue Nightfreight’s longstanding policy of buying MAN trucks.

For smaller home delivery parcels, DX is also operating a growing fleet of vans. “The 7.5 tonner has its place but it will be in reduced numbers and vans will be part of the fleet,” said Cvetkovic. “For DX Freight the van fleet will be a balance of sub-contractors and our own people.”

When DX acquired Nightfreight, Cvetkovic made it clear there were no plans to merge the networks, citing problems other parcels carriers had experienced with this approach. But the company is taking opportunities where they arise to co-locate operations and the DX Freight owned network has shrunk from 50 to 34 depots since the acquisition.

“We use the term ‘working together’,” he said. “DX Freight has worked hard to work to improve service levels and generate customer loyalty. We have also got the hearts and minds and the culture of the DX Freight people right, so we can now bring them together. So we are wherever possible bringing sites together in a co-location – site sharing in effect.”

Cvetkovic said however that it in the vast majority of cases it was not a case of closing former Nightfreight sites and moving the business to a nearby DX depot.

“There are very few existing facilities that can cope with two coming together in one,” he said. “We are looking at sites all over the country to get the best of breed. It is customer driven – where we have lots of activity and a site is too small we will look for the nearest other in-company location. It could be a traditional DX location or a new DX Freight location – we are not looking to crash together the networks. We are being careful to ensure a seamless transition for customers and colleagues alike.”

Equally, the existing central and regional hub structures will remain separate for DX Freight, DX Network Services and DX Secure. “They will continue to operate that way,” said Cvetkovic.

DX Freight has a “fairly even split” between cageable and the more irregular non-cageable freight according to Cvetkovic. “We bought Nightfreight because it is a niche business and has the ability to grow its non-cageable volumes,” he said. “There is huge demand for our two-man delivery arm and that is growing at double-digit rates. We are having to control that growth because we don’t want it to grow too fast.

“On the one-man business we appeal to a wide range of customers from industrial to retail. Our service levels are so good now we are attracting business we haven’t before but we still have plenty to do. I’d also like to think the economy is picking up but it is too early to say.”

DX’s financial year ended on 30 June so Cvetkovic could not go into detail on the financial performance of DX Freight at this stage, but he pronounced himself “satisfied with the immense work they have done this year”.