Expansion underway for Transervice as it takes on MWT customers

West Bromwich-based Transervice Express Transport will upgrade to a larger depot by the end of the year, after taking on the customer base and some of the drivers of fellow The Pallet Network (TPN) member MWT.

Transervice MD Paul Johnson said his firm had taken on some of the postcode area of the Dudley-based business around Birmingham starting on 1 September.

Transervice has maintained its TPN work in the WS postcode.

“I did a deal with them for the customer base only, as I didn’t want to get involved with assets,” Johnson told MT.

“The two directors [Mark and Carol Watkins] wanted out of the game and have wound the business up.”

Transervice now plans to move to a larger space – at around 40,000ft2 – on the Church Lane Industrial Site in West Bromwich where it is based by November.

The firm has more than doubled its fleet to accommodate the extra workload, adding 10 vehicles to its original fleet of nine. Five of the new vehicles have been hired temporarily while the firm adjusts to the change.

Johnson said: “We probably threw a little more resource at it than was necessary, and we probably won’t need all of them. But the important thing was that we had the resources to look after the customers, and to make the changeover as seamless as possible.”

However, Johnson said the driver shortage was acting as an anchor on the pace of general business expansion.  “We’re finding it so difficult to retain and attract new

drivers. Agencies are struggling to supply them.

“It’s very worrying actually, because we keep saying it's a blip until Christmas, but I'm honestly not sure.”

By Emma Shone