Pallet network Palletforce has beefed up its continental European coverage by joining new European pallet network alliance Allnet.

The four members of the alliance, which was formalised around six weeks ago, include One Express of Italy, Palet System of France and Online Systemlogistik of Germany.

Together, the four pallet networks boast 18 central hubs and 314 delivery centres, and cover 32 countries. They run around 17,000 vehicles, employ 28,000 staff, and deliver some 36,000 pallets a day, says Palletforce.

Express offering

The Allnet work will focus on loads of one to four pallets with delivery schedules of two to five days depending on destination, said Palletforce CEO Michael Conroy. “People are holding less inventory,” he explained. “It’s not a groupage operation. What we’re able to do is give a day-definite, pan-European express offering, and that’s what we’re going to stick to.”

Palletforce’s existing continental service offering, which covers 12 countries and is more of a groupage offering, will continue unaffected however. “We won’t discontinue that… but the focus has to be on our express product,” said Conroy.

Both sides of Palletforce’s continental operations will be enhanced in the future, he added – in the case of Allnet, he said, both Scandinavia and Eastern Europe offered scope for extension to current coverage.

Concrete expansion plans could be unveiled as early as June, he added.

In the meantime, joining Allnet has give Palletforce members “a huge footprint” in continental Europe that will allow them to compete effectively against much larger players, said Conroy.

“If you want to ship a pallet to Manchester or Madrid, it’s the same system, the same service, the same infrastructure and the same Palletforce experience. It’s a massive opportunity,” he said.

  • Two new members have recently joined Palletforce’s UK network: BM Stafford of Hetton-le-Hole, Durham, which will operate in Durham and Sunderland; and James Nuttall Transport in Rochdale, which will handle work for the network in Manchester.

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