Palletline members take the stage in 30th anniversary and awards celebrations

Simmonds Transport, Law Distribution, Curvin Transport and Axtra were amongst the winners at Palletline’s latest awards ceremony.

The event, which took place on Saturday (21 May), also marked Palletline’s 30th anniversary. Over 500 guests attended the event, which was held at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in Birmingham.

A total of seven awards were presented. Simmonds Transport received the Health and Safety Award.

Sponsored by Higgs LLP, Simmonds was selected for its outstanding health and safety record and its FORS Gold approach to operations.

The Telford-based company stood out for its “great health and safety culture” throughout the business and for “constantly striving” to achieve the highest standards.

Haydock-based Law Distribution landed the Outstanding Commitment (Member) award in recognition of its commitment and dedication and for “consistently going above and beyond within both their depot and support of the Palletline network as a whole”.

The individual Outstanding Commitment award went to Chris Edmonds, operations manager of Poole-based Curvin Transport in recognition of his “strong communication skills” and ability to manage an additional postcode area whilst maintaining excellent service throughout.

West Sussex-based Axtra beat off fierce competition from Reasons Transport and Caistor Distribution to win the Service Award, sponsored by underwriters BUA, for providing outstanding service levels with the highest performance results within the network, based on KP statistics from January to December 2021.

Dublin-based JMC Van Trans was named Member of the Year “for showing support to the membership in general partnership as well as providing respectful and honest communication and demonstrating accountability for service and quality”.

Sponsored by business training specialists Yelovest, Caistor Distribution and Alan R Jones and Sons were also in the running as finalists for this category.

Palletline Person of the Year was awarded to operations administrator Annette O’Connor, who is based at the hub. O’Connor, who has been with the business for over 20 years, stood out for her versatility and for consistently going “above and beyond” to get the job done.

Finally in recognition of his exceptional contribution, particularly during the pandemic, the Special Award was presented to Palletline’s health and safety manager Ken Bell.

Bell won the award for “making it his business from day one to familiarise himself with the day-to-day roles and responsibilities of every employee” which has given him a deeper insight into hazards and risks in every area of the company operation.

Palletline said Bell’s diligence was a large contributory factor to Palletline’s Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) record, with well over 1,000 incident-free days on his watch – including 300 this year alone.

The company has also achieved ISO 9001, 14001, 45001 and 50001 accreditations with no non-conformances.

These exceptional results saw Bell named SHE’s Health & Safety Manager of the year in 2021 and played a key role in Palletline receiving Commended in this year’s RoSPA Awards, the network said.

Palletline also announced at the awards ceremony that it would be adopting the legacy charity United this year which will be building a community fund for initiatives including the creation of accessible playgrounds and children’s swimming lessons. To kick off the partnership, over £2,000 was raised for the charity on the night.

Graham Leitch Palletline’s group managing director, said: “Congratulations to each of our award winners. Our members and people are at the heart of the Palletline network.

“Their ongoing commitment to deliver consistently high standards together with their customer centric focus ensures Palletline continues to maintain its market leading position and reputation for delivering service excellence.

“It was a fantastic evening and particularly fitting that in our 30th year we were delighted to be able to once again recognise staff and members for outstanding service, following what has been one of the most difficult periods in Palletline’s history.”

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