Eddie Stobart shows the way!


Despite the economic downtime and the road haulage industry in turmoil, Eddie Stobart have increased their year-end revenue nearly 400%. Their big secret – avoiding empty running.

Pre-tax profits have jumped to £23.9m from £3.5m.

Here’s what the chief exec Andrew Tinkler had to say:

“Our innovative cost model is really the key to our continued success. In simple terms, the customer only pays for what he needs. If he wants 50 trucks one day then 100 the next we can do this because of our size and national reach. We also pool all our customers together and view them as one large customer.

“This means our own-branded Eddie Stobart trucks can drive into a customer to drop off and then go to another customer nearby to load up. The key difference is that our trucks are planned to avoid empty running.

“Minimising empty running and maintaining high fleet utilisation enables us to share savings with customers. This model is very different to most hauliers’, who operate more traditional open book arrangements.

“Stobart is able to provide a flexible service because of its advanced IT planning systems and its ‘Tramper’ drivers, who sleep in their cabs; allowing them to travel the UK freely as they follow the collection and delivery details that are uploaded electronically direct to their in-cab displays.”

Now, of course we all know that Eddie Stobart is a giant, however, the same business principles can be applied no matter what your size.

What Eddie Stobart have demonstrated (on a large scale) is what can be achieved by keeping your fleet running as close to full as possible at all times.

We hope this provides some inspiration and demonstrates what is possible. We hope Shiply is one part of the jigsaw which will enable you reach full business potential.

Road opens up!

Firstly, apologies for missing our usual video post on Friday. We’ve gotten emails from avid followers who are far from happy at missing our weekly pick.

However, better late than ever. This one we couldn’t quite believe, it was in the major papers, but what makes it even more shocking for us is that it is about a 10 second walk from our Manchester office! Glad I am no longer driving over this road!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apbMBluo36Y]

What makes us laugh most is the guy who thinks it’s a good idea to wander up and take a look in just after it collapses.

Good to know our council tax is being used well though, eh?! Shocking.

Shiply shortlisted for Observer Ethical Awards 2009

Shiply has been shortlisted for the 2009 Observer Ethical Awards.

The Observer Ethical Awards are instrumental in bringing green issues to the forefront of consumer minds and making businesses reassess their attitudes towards sustainability. The awards recognise those who pioneer a sustainable future and identify products, ideas and companies that make ethical living possible.

We are up for the Jupiter Big Idea award along with Nature Paint and RSA. Judging was conducted by a celebrity panel including: Jo Wood, Ben Okri, Rick Edwards and Deborah Meaden.

We look forward to the awards ceremony in early June.

We want your feedback!

As you may have seen (if and when you are logged in), we now have a link to leave feedback. It’s located on the left of the screen.

We work hard to ensure that we are performing as best as we can and so need your feedback to let us know if you think we are on the right tracks or to suggest improvements.

We love constructive criticism, so please do use the feedback tab to let us know what you think!

Shiply Mobile – Live

http://m.shiply.com

We are very pleased to announce that after countless hours of development, Shiply Mobile is now officially live. It is completely FREE OF CHARGE to all of our members.

Shiply mobile can be viewed from any mobile device, such as the iPhone, blackberry, PDA’s, smartphone, or even that banged up old Nokia sitting in your drawer at home. So, now you can access Shiply in a friendly, quick format wherever you are.

Shiply mobile has been designed for both transport providers and users. Here are the main features:

Transport Providers

  • Keep track of your current bids
  • Keep on top of your messages requiring a reply
  • See if you have new bids accepted whilst out on the road!
  • Carry out searches (all location, route and local)
  • Place new bids

Users

  • View your active shipments and keep on top of new bids
  • Answer any messages transport providers may have for you – whilst you’re out and about
  • Accept bids (don’t miss out on that great price just because you can’t get to a computer)

We are really proud of Shiply Mobile and hope that it will make using Shiply on the go, that much easier and quicker.

The platform is under beta status, whilst we have carried out loads of testing, we do expect there to be the odd little bug here and there. So, if you do find any, please let us know! Also, please do tell us what other functionality you would like to see.

We hope you enjoy using Shiply Mobile as much as we have enjoyed making it. Expect more exciting developments soon!

The mobile site can be accessed via: http://m.shiply.com.

TK Maxx’s new supermodel – it’s a lorry!

Walking down the street with my girlfriend just the other day, she swung her arm around and almost shouted “what the hell is that!!”. Expecting to need to duck for my life, I turned only to be met with the huge presence of one of TK Maxx’s new lorries.


The picture doesn’t really do it justice, it is an absoulute monster!

According to TK Maxx:

We’ve been among the first to get these supermodels on the road. They are another aerodynamic innovation predicted to reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 10%.

Not only that, but we think they’re a great way of maximising load space – that is so long as they can use all of it!!

Shiply shortlisted for 4 prestigous awards

It’s great to receive recognition for the work we have put in, and so we are pleased to announce that we have been shortlisted for four prestigious environmental awards.

Environment Product/Service Award
&
NLS Innovation Award

SME Innovation Award


We look forward to meeting other like-minded companies at the ceremonies over the coming months.

Shiply New Transport Articles

We are constantly looking for ways to help our users when moving their goods. So, we have compiled a number of articles which should help you when moving and transporting those larger, bulkier goods.

Our collection of moving articles include how to transport; an oven, a washing machine, a dishwasher, a BBQ, a sink, a fridge freezer, a bed, a bookcase, a chest of drawers, a bed side cabinet, a chaise longue, a lamp and other large an bulky items.

We hope these handy little articles will help next time you are moving such goods.

There’s many more to come! So keep your eyes peeled.

DPD Delivery Charges Investigated by Daily Mirror

Sandra Wood of West London was disgusted at the re-delivery options offered by her chosen parcel delivery firm DPD. So, she called in the Daily Mirror to investigate, watchdog style!

DPD is owned by Geopost and the Mirror article first decided to get down and dirty with their financials, claiming that they had a profit of £34m last year – insinuating their re-delivery charge option is the reason for their prosperity.

The standard option is free.

It could be delivered Monday to Friday between 7.30am and 7.30pm.

DPD says, unhelpfully, that it cannot offer a more specific time than this gaping 12-hour window. Unless you pay.

Which brings us to the “upgrade option”. Sandra could have it delivered before 10am on a weekday, or on a Saturday morning, at a cost of £11.75.

“So if you work on weekdays you have no choice but to pay a huge charge to get hold of your own property,” said Sandra.

An anonymous post on the Mirror web site in response says:

The yellow card also gives the option of leaving the delivery in a safe place, all the customer has to do is sign the yellow card in the appropriate place, give details of where they wish the consignment to be left and leave the yellow card for the DPD driver to use as a Proof of Delivery. This costs nothing.

This is a tricky one, I agree that £11.75 is a high price to pay for a more specific delivery window. However, you must remember that many parcel networks don’t offer any such option whatsoever. I feel it is a tad easy to pin this one on DPD, the issue with delivery windows are industry wide.

This last-mile issue and getting the timing right to minimize inconvenience to the receiver has long been a controversial one. However, given the advances in technology, route planning, GPS tracking and such forth, waiting in all day for a delivery now really should be a thing of the past. We think it is high time the big boys really step up to the play in this area.

2009 Budget – £1 billion low carbon recovery

It was announced yesterday with the budget that £1.4 billion is to be spent on the low carbon sector.

To give all industries the confidence to invest in low-carbon technologies, Alistair Darling also announced the world’s first carbon budget and committed Britain to cut carbon emissions by 34 per cent by 2020. We were disappointed not to see any clear intention of these funds specifically to reduce carbon emissions in the haulage industry.

Instead there was outrage at the decision of Government yet again raise fuel tax. Alistair Darling announced that fuel duty would rise by 2p per litre in September and then by 1p above inflation every April for the next four years.

“With rates being squeezed and deflationary worries growing, now is not the time to saddle forwarders’ haulage operations with extra fuel duty costs,” said Peter Quantrill, director general of the British International Freight Association (Bifa).

The Freight Transport Association (FTA) said the cost of Septembers’ fuel duty hike, in addition to the increase of 2p per litre back in December, will cost the industry an extra £553m and cause businesses to go bust.

“Insolvency in the logistics sector has doubled in the last year and the number of HGV drivers looking for work has almost quadrupled. What more evidence does the government need that parts of the sector are on their knees,” said FTA policy director James Hookham.