The basket of MT shares has only drifted northwards by 7p in the past seven days. But growth at the rate of a penny a day is a fair old shift for a traditionally quiet time of year in the road transport industry, indicating that there is a lot of sentiment backing the success of Britain's transport firms.

Already this week we have seen a big contract win for Wincanton subsidiary Pullman Fleet Services - this story ran on our sister site Commercialmotor.com yesterday.

Pullman Fleet Services has won a three-year repair and maintenance contract with Argos, covering around 1,500 vehicles and trailers, writes Ashleigh Wight.

Some 12 new positions will be created at Pullman, which will service the high street retailer’s fleet using its 150 vans from seven locations nationwide.

Pullman MD Graham Hunter said: “For Argos to award this contract to Pullman is, I believe, testament not only to our unrivalled reputation in the commercial vehicle repair and maintenance sector, but also to our commitment to investing in training and technology that keeps us ahead of the field and our customers’ vehicles on the road.”

Phil Hull, Argos’ distribution director, said: “Our values are all about delivering unrivalled value and convenience to our customers, and maximising vehicle on-road time safely will be a key contributor to this.”

On the back of the news Wincanton's share price rose by 4p in 24 hours, and in the calendar year it has risen already by 16.75p. This morning, as I write this, the price continues to climb. A great start to the year for Eric Born and all at Wincanton!

[chartboot version= '3.0' code= '2B37' border= '1' width= '800' height= '400' attribution= '1' jsondesc= '{"containerId":"visualization2B37","dataTable":{"cols":xxx00xxx{"id":"","label":"","pattern":"","type":"string","p":{}},{"id":"","label":"Share Price 2 January 2014","pattern":"","type":"number","p":{}},{"id":"","label":"Share Price 8 January 2014","pattern":"","type":"number"}xxx01xxx,"rows":xxx00xxx{"c":xxx00xxx{"v":"Dart Group","f":null},{"v":245.5,"f":null},{"v":249.75,"f":null}xxx01xxx},{"c":xxx00xxx{"v":"Hargreaves Services","f":null},{"v":830,"f":null},{"v":815.5,"f":null}xxx01xxx},{"c":xxx00xxx{"v":"NWF Group","f":null},{"v":140,"f":null},{"v":138.5,"f":null}xxx01xxx},{"c":xxx00xxx{"v":"Royal Mail","f":null},{"v":575,"f":null},{"v":562.5,"f":null}xxx01xxx},{"c":xxx00xxx{"v":"Stobart Group","f":null},{"v":140,"f":null},{"v":140.25,"f":null}xxx01xxx},{"c":xxx00xxx{"v":"UK Mail Group","f":null},{"v":619,"f":null},{"v":634,"f":null}xxx01xxx},{"c":xxx00xxx{"v":"Wincanton","f":null},{"v":127.25,"f":null},{"v":143,"f":null}xxx01xxx}xxx01xxx,"p":null},"options":{"legend":"right","title":"Company Performance","isStacked":false,"vAxes":xxx00xxx{"title":null,"minValue":null,"maxValue":null,"viewWindow":{"max":null,"min":null},"useFormatFromData":true},{"viewWindow":{"max":null,"min":null},"minValue":null,"maxValue":null,"useFormatFromData":true}xxx01xxx,"animation":{"duration":500},"booleanRole":"certainty","hAxis":{"minValue":null,"maxValue":null,"viewWindow":null,"viewWindowMode":null,"useFormatFromData":true},"series":{"0":{"color":"#000000"}}},"state":{},"view":{},"isDefaultVisualization":false,"chartType":"ColumnChart"}' ]