Pallet-Track launches '#Hooray For Hauliers' campaign

Pallet-Track has launched a national '#Hooray For Hauliers' campaign to celebrate the drivers who have kept Britain moving throughout the pandemic.

Network members will sport the livery on their vehicles and Pallet-Track is also funding a high-profile advertising hoarding campaign at the intersection of the M6 and M5 motorways, which is expected to be viewed by almost three million motorists over two weeks in March.

Launched today (9 March), the campaign is encouraging other road users to photograph the liveried vehicles and share the images on social media using the #Hooray For Hauliers hashtag, where it is safe to do so.

Nigel Parkes, Pallet-Track founder and MD, said: “Rather like the clap for carers, this campaign goes out to all drivers and workers in all logistics businesses as a thank you for their tireless efforts and every day contribution, particularly over the last 12 months – they have kept the country going by putting food on the tables and vital PPE and health equipment into our NHS hospitals, some of which has been done on a pro bono basis.

“In this respect, the pandemic has raised awareness of the key worker status of lorry drivers up and down the UK who had previously not enjoyed a high profile, resulting in the dramatic skills shortage that still threatens our industry – this campaign goes some way to trying to address that issue.”

Welwyn Garden City-based PW Gates is one member displaying the #Hooray For Hauliers livery on its vehicles. Chris Lynch, development director, said the campaign was a thank-you to all hauliers.

“We’ve all heard about the hard work of the NHS and care workers but not much about the hauliers, those essential workers who have gone the extra mile to deliver everything from food to pharmaceuticals as well as look after their own staff with regular testing and keep the UK’s wheels turning across the country.”

John Sheard, MD of JMS of Doncaster, which is also sporting the livery, added: “It’s been tough during the pandemic, but the ordinary life of drivers is pretty tough and unappreciated with long hours, often poor rest facilities on their journeys and a lack of secure parking – issues that should be kept in the public eye after Covid-19 because we need to drive home the fact that drivers are indispensable.”

Paul Denyer, a director at Alan Firmin in Sittingbourne, Kent, said the company is displaying the new livery on its smaller vehicles “to highlight the fact that the message is just as important for the whole industry – from the long distance drivers to the final mile delivery couriers, demand for whom has mushroomed during the lockdown as more and more people are ordering home delivery online”.