SMA Pallets has taken on three Hemel Hempstead postcodes areas, increasing its daily distribution volume within the Palletways network by around a quarter, the company revealed this week.
Hemel Hempstead’s HP1, HP2 and HP3 postcode areas joined SMA’s existing Palletways territory of Watford (WD) and HP4 to HP9.
The depot now covers a continuous corridor from Watford through Kings Langley and Hemel Hempstead to Berkhamsted and Tring, served from its site at SMA House, Kings Langley, which sits almost at the centre of it.
The FORS Silver operator has been a Palletways member depot for around fifteen years and has sought the Hemel Hempstead postcodes for some time, the company said.
The addition brings one of Hertfordshire’s busiest industrial and distribution areas, including the Maylands estate, into the same operation that already serves the surrounding towns.
SMA said that for customers in those postcodes, it means a local depot a few minutes from their door, shorter stem mileage, later collection cut-offs and a team that knows the area’s sites and access arrangements.
The change is being formalised within SMA’s five-year agreement with Palletways, giving customers and the network the certainty of a permanent arrangement rather than a temporary cover.
To meet the deamds of the new areas the company , in just one week, boosted its fleet, adding new rolling stock, from 7.5-tonne rigids to 44-tonne articulated units, which are equipped with tail-lifts and curtain-sides throughout, so that every vehicle can deliver to any site, from a trading estate with a loading bay to a residential address with no forklift.
The additional vehicles give the depot the headroom to run its delivery rounds at the same density as before and to take over its own trunking to the Palletways hub without leaning on network cover. SMA procured a special tuck under tail lifts to serviceclients including Amazon, Majestic Wines, Booker and Brakes.
Alongside the vehicles, SMA has recruited a professional C1 driver, a customer service executive and an operations team member.
Dr Sam Attia, SMA Group chairman and chief executive, said: “We have wanted Hemel Hempstead for a long time, and the way to earn it was to keep delivering for the postcodes we already had.
“Growth of a quarter in one step is significant for a depot of our size, so we put the trucks and the people in place first.
“Our clients, and the clients of every sister depot that trusts us with their freight, should notice nothing except that we are now on their doorstep in more places.
“The strapline on the side of our trailers says together we deliver a better business. This is what it looks like in practice.”
