All Interviews articles – Page 6
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ArticleGas buses 'the most reliable on the fleet' for Reading Buses
While gas trucks are still a rare sight on UK roads, buses operating in towns and cities have been running on natural gas for years.Reading Buses is a good example, so MT went to talk to John Bickerton, head of engineering and innovation at Reading Buses, to see what lessons ...
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ArticleBrexit uncertainty puts a hold on Ryder rental fleet
However hard or soft Brexit turns out to be in March 2019, the uncertainty the government’s handling of the process has created is already damaging the UK truck market.Commercial vehicle rental and contract hire firm Ryder manages almost 20,000 assets in the UK and in the first nine months of ...
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ArticleAfter 53 years in transport, Glyn Davies looks back on his life and times
Glyn Davies won the 2016 MT Service to Industry AwardAfter 53 years in the road transport business, building up and selling three successful businesses, Glyn Davies has retired. Or has he? Steve Hobson hears his remarkable story.By any standards Glyn Davies has had a successful career in road transport. After ...
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Article
Fowler Welch upgrades Spalding as organic growth in chilled food continues
Temperature controlled distribution specialist Fowler Welch (FW) has just completed a £2m upgrade of its largest site, in Spalding, Lincolnshire, after a year which saw turnover rise 13% to £163m in the 12 months to March 2017.CEO Nick Hay says much of the money was spent upgrading the cold store ...
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ArticleHow green are gas trucks?
The arrival of high horsepower natural gas tractor units from some of the major truck manufacturers, the steady expansion of the UK’s gas refuelling network and a substantial discount on the fuel duty levied on gas now mean more operators are beginning to take a serious look at gas power.The ...
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ArticleAbbey Logistics ready to push on to £100m turnover
After leading a management buyout in 2016, and acquiring Armet Logistics and selling the general haulage business in 2017, Abbey Logistics chief executive Steve Granite says the company is now set for the next phase in its development plan.Twice a winner of the Motor Transport Haulier of the Year, Abbey ...
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Article
Royal Mail Fleet looks to grow third party R&M while managing changes in red fleet
Royal Mail is the UK’s pre-eminent delivery company and as the sole designated universal service provider, it delivers a ‘one price goes anywhere’ service on a range of letters and parcels to over 30 million addresses across the country, six days a week.It is now nearly five years since Royal ...
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ArticleThe City Link manager who started again, without the hub
Former City Link manager Sarah Squire has built a business carrying irregular parcels, and says that by cutting out the hub and keeping the business transparent, she will keep it from meeting her former employers' fate. On Christmas Day 2014, Sarah Squire turned on her TV and learnt she had ...
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Article
Wincanton finds its way, with profit and turnover growth in 2017/18
Wincanton hasn’t had it all its own way of late. A resurgent Eddie Stobart wrestled a Cemex contract valued at £15m off it, and MT revealed earlier this month that Britvic had re-awarded its entire transport requirement to Eddie Stobart after the first year of a five-year deal with Wincanton.Gatemore ...
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ArticleHIAB focuses on customers to deliver more than just hardware
Rogier van der Linde, MD UK & Ireland at Hiab, at the official opening of the Bishops Stortford service centreHIAB, the UK market leader in truck-mounted lift trucks (TMLT), skip and hook loaders and truck-mounted cranes, is opening a network of eight dedicated service centres around the UK to provide ...
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ArticleGreenergy invests to grow its share of UK road fuels market
Greenergy is probably the biggest transport fuels supplier you have never heard of. While it has around 35% of the UK market, supplying 17.1bn litres of petrol and diesel last year, it operates no filling stations and its fleet of 150 tankers are usually liveried in either customer brands or ...
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ArticleThomas Hemmerich discusses market share, aftermarket and brand ambitions at the CV Show
A long-term loyal supporter of the CV Show, MAN Truck & Bus was the only OEM to book space at the 2018 event, with its big deep red TGX dominating hall 5 on 24-26 April.UK MD Thomas Hemmerich has been in place for just over a year and he is ...
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ArticleVolvo Group outlines Brexit uncertainties over customs, tariffs and standards
With exactly 12 months to go until the UK is due to leave the EU, there are still huge uncertainties surrounding the UK’s post-Brexit trading relationship with the EU. The FTA is advising members that anything better than a ‘no-deal’ Brexit - that will see the UK trading with the ...
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ArticleOperators need to be better at walking away from bad contracts, says supply chain expert
Operators need to become better at walking away from uneconomical contracts, according to a supply chain expert, who pointed to KFC’s issues with its new DHL Supply Chain contract as a cautionary tale.Richard Wilding, professor of supply chain and logistics at Cranfield UK and chairman of the CILT, told MT ...
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ArticleWalkers Transport boss looks to grow by giving customers want they want
Richard Simpson, CEO of Leeds-based Walkers Transport, is typical of the new breed of logistics business owners who have not been brought up in transport and so have a fresh view of the industry and its future. He explains his vision to Steve HobsonWalkers Transport was formed in 1977 and ...
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ArticleBlue sky thinking at DVSA on earned recognition
Earned recognition is a flagship DVSA scheme designed to drastically reduce the time wasted checking up on compliant operators in order to free up limited enforcement resources to improve road safety by focusing on the seriously and serially non-compliant.The aim is for the very best operators to self-certify their compliance ...
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ArticleDawsonrentals boss looks to a bright post-Brexit future
Dawsonrentals Truck & Trailer MD John Fletcher talks bubbles, Brexit, RVs, Chinese trucks and skills shortages with Andy Salter.John Fletcher is easy to interview: offer the odd question or comment to keep the conversation bubbling along, but otherwise sit back and fill your notebook. What’s more it’s sensible stuff because, ...
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Article
Royal Mail says Arrival electric vehicles will be worth the wait
In August last year, Royal Mail began trialling a new type of electric vehicle, built by technology firm Arrival, in London.The 6-tonne van, the first of nine the postal operator will be putting through their paces in the capital, operates out of Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant depot.At the Microlise Transport ...
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ArticleEddie Stobart Logistics boss Alex Laffey AIMs to expand green and white horizons
Alex Laffey was 25 years with Tesco before becoming CEO of Eddie Stobart Logistics (ESL) in May 2015 in preparation for floating the business of the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange in April 2017.Just before the listing William Stobart stood down as a director and the ...
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ArticleNothing new about port-centric logistics at PD Ports says Jim French
The idea of port-centric logistics – where imports are handled close to the port of entry and sent direct to their destination rather than via a central DC – has been given a boost by developments such as London Gateway and Liverpool2.But PD Ports has had the largest retailer-backed portcentric ...