30


IRELAND Sales at Irish Global Logistics,


a specialist in automotive, electronics, pharmaceutical and sportswear distribution, were 40% up in February compared with the previous year. Director Robert Dickinson says 35 new corporate customers were signed up in January alone.


The secret is to offer a flexible service, believes Dickinson, a no- nonsense individual with a long background in haulage. Too many companies rely on a Friday night groupage service to Europe, he claims. IGL, the former Cargo Systems business rebranded in 2008, runs Spanish traffic to the UK and daily departures from there. “We issue 20 firm quotes a day and get one booking, which I’m told is low,” Dickinson says. But the customers it successfully converts are enthusiastic. Michelin, for which IGL had handled national distribution across Ireland since 2009, was recommending the company to rival tyre company Bridgestone within a few months. Now a third tyre manufacturer may be joining the party.


New ways of distributing are the key, Dickinson says. “Except for our


IGL is expanding at Swords, and also into Northern Ireland


own 12 agents in Ireland and our partners in the UK, we don’t carry for anyone else. That adds more value for the customer. But we do no empty running, ever.” IGL’s partners in the Irish regions deliver each evening into its Swords headquarters north of Dublin and return home with goods for local next-day delivery. The company makes its own collections from Dublin addresses using a small fleet of rigids. Export traffic for mainland UK or beyond amounts to around six laden trailers on Irish Ferries’ night service to Holyhead. Bigger volumes of 15 to 18 loads


trailer arrive in Ireland


each day from IGL’s Manchester hub, either sold direct by the


company or generated by its UK partners, S&J European Haulage in Melton Mowbray, KPI Transport Co in Colnbrook and Graylaw in Liverpool.


Low-yielding eastbound loads such as peat are available for those who want it, but Dickinson says that there is more lucrative business out there. Pallet network members in the west of Ireland, who complain about the price of fuel, should be competing for traffic from companies such as Baxter Healthcare and GlaxoSmithKline that fill


multiple trailers every


night. Warming


to his theme


of flexibility, Dickinson says: “Hauliers for clients such as Phillips


Electronics and United Drug [the pharmaceutical wholesaler for whom IGL manages road imports from Europe, customs clearance and transit storage] have a choice – give us a price door to door, another price if there’s a backload for you to the UK, or door to port unaccompanied and we’ll book the ferry crossing ourselves.” Fuel is a cost like any other, he


says.


“Stationery and computer costs have probably gone up by more. You just have to buy efficiently, and price it in. Our margin has increased to 38-39% gross compared with 36% six months or so ago. “You show the client your books, but once they have agreed your rate, they expect you to get on with it. Customers would get the heebie-jeebies if I started hassling them over every increase in diesel.” IGL has a throughput of around 150,000 groupage pallets a year. Dickinson admits: “Our way of doing it is hard work, but you’ve


got to keep your ears open for new opportunities.”


Not so long ago, he wondered why a Polish driver was sitting,


ISSUE 2 2011 Fast-growing IGL bucks the trend comments.


Fuel is just another cost and there’s profitable business out there, says IGL


apparently sleeping in his truck, for a week at a time near IGL’s offices. “I got his boss’s number and now he’s running backloads to Holland for us.”


IGL has 10,000 square metres of bonded warehousing and is about to take on a new unit alongside its Swords HQ north of Dublin, built speculatively by a pension fund in 2005 but vacant ever since. “It’s a buyer’s market now,” Dickinson


The company is also opening in Northern Ireland. “We have a number of distribution contracts for the whole of Ireland and we have been running to the North from here or sub-contracting the work, but now we need our own people up there,” he says. “We were apprehensive about doing it in a different country, but it will improve service. At the moment we have three trucks a day and three trunkers at night going to Belfast. We can run direct from the UK to Northern Ireland when we have our own handling there. “We have no intention of being property tycoons, but we do want to keep the freight to ourselves,” Dickinson stresses. The company prefers to act as a freight forwarder and haulier rather than a 4PL. “It’s our business, it’s precious and it needs our stamp on it. You get a better a margin if you keep it in- house.”


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Brittany Ferries’ seasonal service from Cork to Roscoff resumes at Easter with the Pont-Aven, which can accommodate up to 65 trucks. The Saturday departure is a popular schedule with Irish exporters, says Jon Clarke, group freight director. “We also have a long-standing of


core landbridge customers


who cross to the UK with their chosen Irish Sea service provider, then cross the Channel with us from Plymouth, Poole and Portsmouth,” he says. “Our type of customer needs the UK as well as Ireland. There is not enough direct [Ireland-continent] traffic.” The Barfleur, which had been laid up during the downturn, resumed on the Poole- Cherbourg route at the end of March. Brittany has also added capacity to the north coast of


Brittany Ferries’ summer link gives Irish hauliers direct access to north- west France


Spain, replacing P&O on the twice-weekly Portsmouth-Bilbao service to supplement its existing route to Santander. The 24-hour sea


crossings


give drivers their weekly rest period and open the route up to accompanied trailers.


Bilbao has the slight advantage over Santander that a driver can reach the produce growing


areas of Murcia (salad crops) and Valencia (citrus fruits) on one nine-hour driving day, Clarke points out. “That traffic historically went via Calais,” he adds. “No operator has


offered consistent freight


capacity [direct to Spain] but the fruit season is becoming year- round, and that’s why we’ve invested so much.”


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Air Cargo Sales | Air Freight Trucking | Cargo Handling Building 4, Manor Street Business Park, Dublin 7, Ireland.


T: + 353 (0) 1 827 6266 F: + 353 (0) 1 827 6277 E: ops@iamair.com


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