Pall-Ex has decided against applying fuel surcharges to members' contra-payments following a fuel survey of its 98 members. The pallet network's founder and CEO Hilary Devey tells MT: "We were deliberating fuel surcharges on contra-payments [after requests from Scottish and South-Western members] that led to the fuel survey. The end result is no to surcharges on contra-payments."
Instead, members will need to pass surcharges on to customers, says Devey, adding that if members have trouble dealing with customers, Pall-Ex will help. "We will do whatever we have to, to help keep our members solvent." She also notes that members whose turnover is heavily drawn from the Pall-Ex network are suffering less than "big hauliers" working heavily outside the network.
The survey revealed that 27% of members stated their fuel costs represented 36% to 40% of their running costs a further 4% said fuel exceeded 40% of their costs. Half of the members have not considered alternative fuels. More than 80% said they had not considered electric vehicles as they don't have enough range. Meanwhile, more than two-thirds said they had put in extra hours to build up trade.
Devey believes membership of a network is critical to any haulier's business proposition. Indeed, a top-10 logistics operator is poised to join Pall-Ex: its identity to be revealed soon. In other developments, the firm's Northern hub is "working like a dream", Devey says, and is exceeding targets by 15%. Pall-Ex is also in negotiations to acquire an 80 acre site on which to build a new main hub. At 750,000ft², it will be triple the size of the current, five-year-old hub. Devey hopes construction can start in two years' time and estimates the build time to be 18 months.
There are also plans to improve Pall-Ex's bespoke IT system further, following the appointment of a new IT director, Sean Sherwin-Smith, who has had stints at UPS and Ceva. "An advanced track-and-trace facility is the key to opening doors to other parts of the logistics market," Devey adds.
