In the UK, the pallet service providers will be represented by their own dedicated industry body--the Association of Pallet Networks (APN, www.eyefortransport.com).
Formed at the end of last year, the APN has attracted membership from eight pallet networks in the UK: Palletforce, Palletways, Pall-Ex, Fortec, Palletline, United Pallet Network, Palletrack and The Pallet Network.
Together, these members represent more than 620 haulers, 24,000 vehicles and 11 million square feet of warehouse space.
The APN aims to raise awareness of the pallet network sector and to represent the interests of its members in the transport sector with media and government.
It provides a platform for discussion, analysis and the promotion of the pallet network sector to customers, prospective customers, network members and the public sector.
The APN has appointed logistics consultants to set up a detailed study of the sector, using on-line benchmarking to collect and collate information across the sector.
One of the first commercial tasks of the new body was to represent its members on the Countdown Forum for the 2012 Olympic Games, where it presented a detailed analysis of the advantages of using the pallet network approach to support the logistics of the Olympic Games.
Pallet networks are essentially co-operative organizations made up of groups of individual haulers who collect and deliver palletized freight in their own geographical area, consolidating loads destined for other parts of the country and Europe and trunking to a central hub for onward distribution. This significantly increases average vehicle fill, which, for pallet networks, is around 73%, compared with a national average of 51%.
Source: Newsdesk of www.eyefortransport.com.
