The 2010 Motor Transport Top 100 rankings of UK transport companies makes slightly less depressing reading than last year’s league table. Despite a smattering of red ink in the latest pre-tax profit column, average profit shows a healthy increase and profit margins returned to close to 3% after languishing at sub-2% last year.
Averages | |
|---|---|
| Turnover Latest | £153,249,371 |
| Turnover Previous Year | £157,347,704 |
| Profit Latest | £5,917,295 |
| Profit Previous Year | £1,847,099 |
| Employees Latest | 2,083 |
| Employees Previous Year | 1,452 |
| Number of Trucks | 1,006 |
| Number of Trailers | 463 |
| Number of Depots | 53 |
| Sales per Employee | £100,614 |
| Profit per Employee | £3,909 |
| Return on Sales | 2.73% |
While 3% isn’t exactly a licence to print money – Barclays Bank reported a 30% pre-tax margin in its latest interim accounts – it is more the sort of margin the transport industry has got used to surviving on.
Where it is harder to draw any meaningful conclusions are the numbers of employees and vehicles. With the boundaries between vehicle ownership, contract hire and rental continuing to blur, and employment via agencies rather than on the books more prevalent, stats on sales and profit per employee or vehicles become meaningless. DHL reported a 40,000 increase in employees last year compared with 2009, just because of internal restructuring.
One notable absentee from this year’s tables is Yodel, formerly HDNL, which hadn’t published its combined accounts following the acquisition of DHL’s domestic parcels business in time for inclusion in this year’s tables. Its combined turnover is expected to be in the region of £1bn, which would put it in the top three.
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