“Investment in technology is always worthwhile, but this year it


has really proven to be true. We had launched our new SmartHUB at the beginning of the year and found it invaluable when lockdown was imposed in March as it allowed us to meet distancing measures without too much trouble.” UPN provides its members with a comprehensive range of pal-


letised freight delivery services across the UK and Europe. Its 93 member haulage companies use its centralised system to provide an effi cient, cost-eff ective and sustainable groupage service for moving anything from one to ten pallets for next-day and regular delivery. T e only privately-owned pallet network in the UK, its slogan is First Class Travel for Palletised Freight and it achieves that aim with over 98% on time, safe, secure deliveries and the widest range of service options available. To facilitate this, UPN recently moved to a new hub at its base in


Litchfi eld, increasing the size of its premises and investing around £3m in adapting the new 230,000 square foot site. Although growth is only natural for a successful company, Dave


Brown is also conscious that as one of the smaller pallet networks, it’s important to maintain a membership level that in turn ensures service levels remain as high as they are. All freight moved is from members, keeping the focus where UPN believes it should be. “We want to grow, and we are growing, we have a number of new


members in the pipeline, but we don’t want to end up with a situation where we can’t deliver the level of service we want to,” he explained.


ALL THINGS BUSINESS 17


“Flexibility is everything and the focus is not simply on volume, it’s on ensuring we keep up our stand- ards and that our service levels are not aff ected. T e knock-on eff ect for our members of being part of the network is that their own customers, who benefi t from being able to move a small consign- ment quickly and easily, turn to the member for large haulage needs or storage, so they gain more business as a result.


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