All Interviews articles – Page 9
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ArticleArrow XL's Ian Howell talks parcels, profit and the VIP treatment
Arrow XL split from Yodel in 2013, and in the last two years chief executive Ian Howell has built a two-man delivery firm that prides itself on giving all of its customers the VIP treatment.You could be forgiven for thinking of two-man delivery as the awkward cousin of the more ...
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ArticleCM Downton's trailblazing apprenticeship
Last year industry players won their long-waged battle for a government-funded driver training apprenticeship. The Trailblazer pitch had been denied twice previously when the government said it didn’t think training a driver would stretch over the 12-month period needed to meet funding requirements.While the Trailblazer scheme was eventually approved, CM ...
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ArticleGulliver's growing its high end contract hire business
Bristol-based contract hire rental firm Gulliver’s Truck Hire is growing rapidly, and made the Top 20 in the 2015 CV Informer league table of top rental companies with almost 6,000 assets, up from number 27 in 2013.Sales director Neil Jeremiah, pictured, says the company has grown from its south west ...
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ArticleCentury earns plaudits for untangling knotty problem of returns
Century Logistics is earning a reputation in the logistics industry for its innovative approach to managing returns.Sleepy Saxham in Suffolk is not exactly the sort of hotbed of logistics innovation where a company winning plaudits for maximising the value from that most thorny of retail problems – returns - might ...
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Potter makes it a double celebration in 2015
Potter Logistics picked up the Haulier of the Year Award in the 2015 Motor Transport Awards - the same year it celebrated its 50th anniversary.Naming Potter Haulier of the Year, the judges said it was a family business with a customer-centric ethos that had secured some very loyal, long-standing clients.The ...
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ArticleGenial Geordie at the reins of Isuzu Truck (UK)
Pete Murphy took over as MD of Isuzu Truck (UK) in November 2013 after founder Nikki King sold the business and became honorary chairman. The genial Geordie took the reins at an interesting time for the UK truck market, with the turmoil of a change in Euro emissions standards about ...
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ArticleSalford Van Hire - 50 years young
In 50 years Salford Van Hire (SVH) has established itself as one of the most influential players in the CV market. The Manchester-based business was created by Italian-born Raffaello Bacci (pictured, centre) in the 1960s when Mr B, as he is known to his 200 employees, spotted an opportunity to ...
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ArticleAll change at the top for Fortec
Pallet network Fortec, owned by French logistics giant Geodis, has undergone a change in its management structure following the departure of MD Neil Hodgson and commercial director Marcus Fischer.In October last year, Dave Spong, general manager commercial and Adrian Bradley, general manager operations, took over from Niel Hodgson and Marcus ...
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ArticleBreeding success: How Panther clawed its way to the top of the two-man delivery food chain
Panther is launching two new services to customers this month after a year of contract wins and the acquisition of a rival took its annual turnover close to the top of the two-man delivery food chain. The group plans to introduce a Sunday delivery option, as well as a high-end ...
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ArticleYearsley comes in from the cold
Frozen food specialist Yearsley Logistics is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. The firm, which is now based in Heywood, Lancashire, started in 1955 on a farm in Rochdale. It is still owned by the Yearsley family and led by MD Harry Yearsley.The Yearsley Group turned over £174m in 2014, ...
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ArticleElddis MD Nigel Cook has high hopes for new transport consortium
“I’m sat looking at an old Commercial Motor cover from 2010”, says Elddis Transport MD Nigel Cook. “There’s a big picture of an Elddis truck on it with the words ‘collaboration is key to success’. Nothing has changed.”Collaboration, Cook firmly believes, is “imperative” to surviving in the haulage industry; a ...
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ArticleEvolution not revolution for new FTA boss
In contrast to the RHA – which looked outside the organisation to the transport industry for its new CEO – the FTA appointed its former finance and operations director David Wells to replace CEO Theo de Pencier when he announced his departure earlier this year.An engineer by profession, Wells does ...
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Article
XPO Logistics' takeover of Norbet Dentressangle 'a golden opportunity'
In April US 3PL XPO Logistics surprised the European logistics market with an unsolicited €3.24bn (£2.3bn) offer for French giant Norbert Dentressangle (ND). With the deal, in essence, completed last week ND chief executive Hervé Montjotin, now chief executive of XPO’s European business, told MT that the offer was a ...
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ArticleA wealth of experience: Tristan Balayn, MD, Gefco UK
Gefco is a company with a long and dynamic history as one of the global leaders in the automotive logistics industry. After its creation by Peugeot in 1949, “Les Groupages Express de Franches-Comté” had accumulated 25 members of staff in four locations by the end of 1950. Now, the group ...
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ArticleRoads are key priority says transport minister Andrew Jones MP
Andrew Jones MP, the new transport minister with responsibility for freight and logistics, says his key priority for the future is delivery of the strategic road infrastructure programme.The new parliamentary under secretary of state for transport, to give him his official title, was visiting the Tip-ex and Tank-ex exhibitions in ...
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ArticleBuilt to last: John Williams, MD, Maritime Transport
The interview with Maritime Transport Group MD John Williams takes place in the company’s impressive new head office overlooking the port of Felixstowe in Suffolk. The four-storey building is lavishly appointed with marble and granite everywhere – even in the drivers’ luxurious shower room – but Williams is quick to ...
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ArticleDawsonrentals optimistic that green shoots will flourish
Dawsonrentals is one of the UK’s largest CV rental firms, and one of the few to offer the full range of vehicles from vans to trucks and trailers and the full range of services from daily rental to contract hire and leasing. An early adopter of Euro-6 to allow its ...
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ArticleMan of destiny takes over at UKWA
Peter Ward took over as chief executive of the UK Warehousing Association (UKWA) in January 2015, replacing Roger Williams who, after 15 years in the job, has semi-retired though retains his role as secretary general of the International Federation of Warehousing Logistics Associations.Ward has been in logistics for 30 years, ...
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ArticleBest in the business: Paul Day, MD, Turners (Soham)
Paul Day, MD of Turners (Soham), is one of the most respected operators in the transport industry, earning plaudits for his professionalism, strategic thinking and rigorous cost control. A Cambridge maths graduate and former GB table tennis player, Day is the grandson of Turners co-founder Wallace Turner.One supplier close to ...
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Creating a legend: Europa MD Andrew Baxter
At the first sight of Europa, according to the Greek myth, Zeus was instantly overcome by her beauty and grace. She’s been a popular woman ever since, inspiring the name of a continent, a moon of Jupiter and now the face of one of the fastest changing operators in the ...