Transport Is An Overhead, So It Needs To Happen Seamlessly

At SSO Logistics we fully understand that what we do is an overhead for every one of our customers. Transportation and logistics services are something that a huge number of businesses need and have to pay for, so it is understandable that our customers want to pay as little as possible and still get their goods to wherever they want them on time and with no fuss. What we do should operate in the background like a well-oiled machine, and we work tirelessly to ensure that our customers get just that. You don’t want to know how we do it, just as long as it gets done.

What’s more, you don’t want to hear a list of excuses as to why it didn’t get done. Have you ever heard the excuse “The agency driver didn’t turn up for work”? Yes, that happens to us sometimes too. Which is why we have five of our office staff trained to HGV standard so that when things go wrong, we can handle them. That’s why you won’t hear that excuse from us: in fact, you’ll never know it happened. That’s what we mean by working like a well-oiled machine in the background.

We have a very large and ever-growing fleet to ensure that we have the right size of van for every job. This is because we want to provide the best possible service while at the same time reducing our carbon footprint to the minimum. If you need just a few pallets delivered, you don’t need something which can carry 26 pallets. That’s wasted space, wasted fuel, and would cost you more than it should.

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Looking For Safe and Efficient Shipment Method? Time to Get a Pallet Delivery Quote

There’s no doubt that logistics presents the biggest challenge for any business organisation. In the UK, the high cost of manufacturing, coupled with geopolitical issues, has made running a business difficult. As a business owner, you also have to consider the safety of your items when in freight.

All these factors necessitate an innovative solution. This is where palletisation comes into play. Using a palletised distributor is the best way to get your shipments across the UK and the world.

Basics of Palletisation
A pallet is a flat transport structure which holds goods while being lifted by a forklift. It has become a popular solution for the transportation of large items.  Straps or shrink wrap are necessary to secure the items on a pallet.  Once in position on a pallet, your goods can safely travel across the world.

The size of the pallet and weight make it easier to calculate shipping costs. Most pallet delivery services have calculators on their websites to help clients estimate the shipping costs.

Whatever the size of your cargo, your logistics firm will provide a pallet delivery quote depending on your shipping needs.

Why Use Pallet Delivery Services?
Using pallets to transport your items is a smart move for several reasons. Take a look:

1. Portability: It is easier to handle large items through palletisation. Before pallets came to the picture, handling these large items was cumbersome and costly.
2. Cost savings: Palletisation saves your business a lot of money. It is more cost-effective than using a van or truck when transporting a very large item.
3. Secure transportation: Every item on a pallet is safe and secure. The straps used are sturdy and for delicate items, shrink wrap adds extra protection.
4. Sustainable transportation: Pallets are recyclable, and shippers use them over and over again. This is one of the outstanding eco-friendly technologies in the logistics industry.
5. Streamline your business: Partnering with a pallet delivery network helps streamline your operations. You can tailor your distribution services to suit your needs. This allows you to focus on other aspects of your business.

It is time to request a pallet delivery quote from a reliable pallet distribution service. This allows you to improve your transportation solutions.

Unlock Your Company’s Potential Using a Business Warehouse Solutions Provider

For a business involved in manufacturing and distribution of goods, it is imperative to have the best storage solution. Traditionally, large manufacturers had to build or lease warehousing space to run their operations. Today, the concept of outsourcing has changed all this. Third-party logistics (3PL) companies now provide seamless warehousing solutions allowing you to focus on the core business.

How Warehouse Solutions Work
In the past, businesses had to manage all aspects of operations from the factory, storage to the distribution. A third party logistics provider helps out by providing all your warehousing needs. You don’t have to worry about the storage of your goods before distribution anymore.

These specialists handle the collection and safe storage of your goods until customers need them. The money that would normally go to the warehousing logistics is now available for other uses. 

You also don’t have to go through the hassle of warehouse floor management and the risks involved. All the lease and insurance processes will not hamper smooth operations in your business.

The best business warehouse solutions provider received your containers, de-vans, palletises, stores, and distribute them. They have invested in highly trained personnel and the latest warehousing technology to streamline these processes.

Finding the Best Warehousing Provider
Now that you want to entrust the warehousing part of your business to a third party Logistics Company, you have to choose the best.

Some of the things to consider include:

1. Security: Look for a company that leverages the latest security hardware and software to secure your goods.
2. Technology: To improve efficiency in the handling of your goods, a good warehousing provider will use the latest warehousing software. This increases productivity and cuts the cost of warehousing. There’s more transparency when using this technology, and you can monitor this part of the supply chain remotely.
3. Experience and reputation: Look for a company with a solid reputation in logistics. They should have years of experience handling products like yours. It is also good to ask for referrals and read reviews about the 3PL service you want to use.
4. Communication: Establish a partnership and ensure you have clear lines of communication and data sharing.
5. Scalable and tailored solutions: Look for scalable and custom warehousing solutions to suit your growing inventory needs.

With these tips, it is now easier to find the best business warehouse solutions provider for your business.

How Can Third Party Logistics Services Help Your UK Business?

What Are Third Party Logistics (3PL)?
For many years, businesses across the world handled the entire supply chain under one roof. This meant capital injection for entire operations. From manufacturing, marketing, to distribution, small businesses had to do it all.

With new theories and business models, the idea of outsourcing started growing. This is where third-party logistics comes in handy.  A third party logistics company offers its expertise and resources for advanced logistics and management.

The best third-party logistics providers in the UK offer a comprehensive range of services to sort logistics in the supply chain. These services range from:

• Product transportation
• Warehousing
• Inventory management
• picking and packing
• order fulfilment
• Packaging
• Freight forwarding.
• Freight audit and consulting
• Shipment tracking and tracing

This means you can focus on the core business as the third party logistics company handles all the logistics in your supply chain.

The Pros of Working with Third Party Logistics Services
To appreciate why you should outsource to a reliable 3PL company, consider these benefits:

• Reduction in costs: It is the primary goal of any business to cut costs. By using 3PL services, you will greatly reduce transportation costs. You don’t need capital for a fleet and personnel to run it. You also don’t maintain such a fleet.
•  Gain industry insight: The best third party logistics services adapt quickly to the changes in the industry. They ensure your business is up-to-date with the latest technology in logistics. For instance, the use of advanced reporting and inventory management software enhances efficiency and boosts transparency in logistics.
• Improve productivity:  Your employees can now focus on the core business and leave logistics to the experts. This leads to increased input and better business performance.
• Scalability and flexibility: As your business expands, so will the logistical needs. Working with a resourceful 3PL company makes it easy to scale space, labour, and transportation to meet your new inventory needs.  Logistic services offered depend on your needs.
• Resource network: Your 3PL partner has a vast resource network to guarantee seamless and efficient services in the supply chain.

Using third party logistics services increases your logistics capabilities, saves your business time and money, enhances efficiency and accuracy, and ensures business growth. It is a smart business strategy in a competitive operating environment.

What You Need To Know About Licenced Waste Carriers

Fly-tipping in the UK is a huge problem, as anybody who has seen large amounts of waste dumped down country lanes will know. This is why the government has, quite rightly in the view of most people, made it a criminal offence. That doesn’t prevent a lot of cowboys from continuing to do it and destroying swathes of our beautiful countryside. However, they are not, in most instances, interested in our countryside, but simply how much profit that they can make. After all, if they remove your waste and you pay them in cash it is 100% profit. What’s more, they are hardly likely to declare it to the tax man!

This is why, if you are a homeowner, businessman, or anyone else who needs to dispose of waste, should ensure that any business that you call to remove waste is a licenced waste carrier. We all need waste removed occasionally in our lives, but if and when you do, you should ask them for their waste carrier’s licence number. This applies to any sort of contractors such as builders, landscape gardeners, tree fellers, house clearance companies, furniture retailers, carpet fitters, scrap metal merchants, skip hire companies, and so on.

The requirement to be a licensed waste carrier applies regardless of where the waste is taken (whether back to the carrier’s own premises, another person’s premises, or directly to a licensed disposal facility) or whether the waste carrier is a one-man band, partnership, or limited company.

It also applies to any tradesman, such as a bathroom fitter for instance, who is transporting rubbish they themselves have created, such as an old bath. Failing to register as a waste carrier – which costs £154 for a three-year licence – can result in a fine, a criminal record, and seizure of the vehicle which was used to transport the waste. That doesn’t seem to deter some of the individuals who still do it, and it results in a £100 million a year bill to the taxpayer for the clean-up. 

So before you select a company to remove any waste from your premises, just check that they are a licenced waste carrier. You can do this by calling the Environment Agency on 08708 506506 or checking online.

The Many Curious Online Searches For things “Near Me”

Today, more than ever, people go online and search for things “near me”. So for instance, they may search for something such as “warehouse logistics near me”. Quite why this is so is a bit of a mystery.

Certainly, if you need a dentist you might search for “dentist near me” based on the assumption that Google knows where you are. (Just so you know, Google does know where you are, and not only that knows how many children you have and what you are cooking for dinner).

But leaving that aside for the moment, yes, if you need a dentist you want one that is near you because you have to go to the dentist. So, obviously, you don’t want to have to travel to the other side of the country. That makes perfect sense.

But the other way around, searching for something like “warehouse logistics near me” or “plumber near me” or “builder near me” makes no sense at all. All the while the provider of a service is prepared to come to you, it really doesn’t matter where they are located. What you want is the BEST plumber, builder, warehouse logistics operator, or whatever, and if they happen to be 50 miles away, why should you care?

Finding “warehouse logistics near me” is completely pointless. It really doesn’t matter where they are, as long as they can and will provide the service that you need. So in the case of warehouse logistics, for example, you need a company with enough space to handle all the goods that you need to store and ship. If you are in Newcastle and they happen to be in Minchinhampton (wherever that is!) it really isn’t important, provided they can do the job that you want at the best price.

(Just checked. It’s in Gloucestershire, on a road named Woefuldane Bottom. Seriously!)

But, getting back to the point, there are many services that you need that really don’t matter where the supplier is based as long as it can provide the services that you require.

Warehousing and Logistics: You Don’t Need Excuses

At SSO Logistics we fully understand that what we do is simply a necessary evil for your business. Necessary, in the sense that you simply cannot do without having your goods transported from one place to another, and evil in the sense that – yes – we are an overhead.

It is for that reason that we have always recognised that what we do should be in the background. It should just “happen”. The very last things that you need from warehousing and distribution companies are excuses. You really do not want to know that the reason your goods did not arrive at the destination at the time you were told they would is because an agency driver didn’t turn up.

You were told that “xyz transport company” would always do what you need and get your pallets where they need to be on time. What you don’t want to hear is a long list of excuses as to why that didn’t happen. We understand that if things don’t arrive on time it can cost you money – a lot of money.

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SSO Logistics -Every Possible Pallet Transport Service You Need

At SSO Logistics we are a member of the United Pallet Network (UPN) which enables us to provide you with overnight pallet transport services to anywhere in the UK. This is the ideal solution for customers who need to get a small consignment to it’s destination in a short space of time. At our St Helens depot in Merseyside, we are very convenient for the port of Liverpool and we are constantly planning the most economic route for your freight, whether that is on our own vehicles or the UPN network.

Let’s face it: we know what you want. All that concerns you is getting your pallet or pallets to your customers or your business at the right time and in perfect condition. How that is achieved is not something that should worry you, and you are quite right. You have other things to think about when running your business, so pallet transport is OUR problem, not yours.

We work around you, our customer, not the other way around. That means that if you need a pallet collected from anywhere in the UK with materials that you need for production tomorrow, we will collect it, or have it collected, by 4.30 pm and it will be delivered to you the next day in most parts of the UK as long as we receive your order by 11.30 am. There are certain exceptions, such as the Scottish isles, but in most cases, it is no problem.

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Some Interesting Facts about the Pallet Industry

Pallet transport is on the increase in the UK. It is, of course, one of the most effective methods of moving goods, and figures for 2016, which are the latest available, showed that the construction industry took around 32% of all new wood pallets manufactured that year. The estimated number of new pallets manufactured was 42.5 million, while 41.4 million were repaired. The average cost of a new pallet was £6.31. These figures are from the Timber Packaging & Pallet Confederation (TIMCON).

TIMCON also said that apart from the construction industry, other big users were Distributors with 18%, FMCG’s with 14%, Chemicals (12%), and the Engineering and Automotive Industries (11%). It was estimated that there are approximately 250 million pallets in use for pallet transport in the UK, which is far short of the US where the figure is 2.6 billion. TIMCON members are reported to have used 688,000 cubic metres of wood for pallets and packaging, of which 72% was home grown timber and 28% imported.

TIMCON members either employed directly, or indirectly in outsourced activities, 3,020 people at 128 locations throughout the UK, 43.7% of which related to new pallet production and 53.3% related to inspecting or repairing pallets. The other 3% went on packaging.

Quite obviously, pallet transport is alive and well in the UK and is the most cost-effective method of moving many goods around the country and also exporting goods. Wood pallets are mostly environmentally friendly, using sustainably sourced wood, and are known for their durability and the fact that they are very easily recycled.

However, not all pallets are made of wood. Some pallets are made from corrugated paper honeycomb, corrugated and moulded pulp being a cheap option, and easy to manufacture. There has also been an increase in the use of plastic pallets, which are most commonly made from PVC, HDPE, or polypropylene. The use of plastic pallets is expected to increase. However, there has been no growth in the use of metal pallets, which are commonly made from carbon steel, stainless steel, or aluminium, as there is a very niche market for these. 

Things to Consider When Hiring a Rigid Lorry

Here is something many people wouldn’t know – even those in the freight haulage business: the word “lorry” comes from the Old English “lurry” and “to lurry” meant “to pull”. The word “van” was first recorded as being used in 1829 for a covered wagon used for transporting goods, and was a contraction of “caravan” which was first used in the 1670’s.

Of course, today there are different sorts of vans and also lorries from the rigid through articulated, and up to road trains. Which one you choose for any specific job will depend on the load that you need to transport and also your personal skills at driving. Driving a rigid is very similar to driving a car because there is no flexibility between the cab and the rest of the vehicle. It is just a lot larger than a car, so takes some getting used to.

If you only need occasional use of a lorry you can obtain rigid day hire from a number of different companies. Rigid day hire can cover a wide range of different vehicles depending on what you need to do. You might want a 3.5T GVW tipper, a 7.5T GVW drop-sided truck, a 3.5T GVW tail-lift Luton, a 7.5T GVE curtain-sider, a 12T GVW box van, or a larger one up to 26T GVW. There are other sizes and weights in between, too.

The most important thing to consider is the size and weight of the goods that you need to transport, because wasted space wastes money. The most cost-effective way to travel is with a lorry or truck that is as near full as you can get it. If not, you are simply paying for empty space.

Even so, rigid day hire is not as expensive as you might think. For example, a typical rate for a 3.5T GVW Luton with a tail lift is only £65 a day or £300 a week. Even a 26T GVW tail-lift curtain-sider is only £120 a day or £595 a week. When you take into account the cost of these things from new,that can be a very cheap way to get your goods from where they are to where you need them to be.

What Is The Future For Pallet Use In The UK?

In the last three or four years, many more companies have been buying recycled pallets rather than new ones. The obvious answer is the cost, but what are the benefits otherwise? If you search for "pallet distribution near me" You will find logistics companies that can supply either new or used pallets, and there is quite a big difference in the price.

For example, one company is quoting a 1200mm x 800mm four-way three-legged EPAL Euro wooden pallet new at £15.90 with free delivery when you spend £250 or more. This has been heat treated to the strict ISPM15 standard which includes an iron branding stamp on two sides of the pallet which ensures hassle free exporting. The same company offers used pallets of the same size and capacity at £9.90 per unit for A grade and £8.90 per unit for B grade. As you can see, there is quite a big difference in the price which is why the trend has been for recycled pallets recently as opposed to new.

 

Searching for "pallet distribution near me" also produces returns for plastic pallets which can be considerably more expensive as they are produced to food grade standard. For instance, one manufacturer offers a 1200 mm x 1000 mm plastic pallet which is four-way entry and stackable and is ideal for high care and food contact environments. This pallet is priced at £94.80 including VAT. It is described as a favourite among the food manufacturing, food processing, pharmaceutical, and engineering industries, and is made from food grade polyethylene.

In fact, the food and drinks industry are driving growth in the plastic pallets industry as there is rising demand and the need for functional food along with the increase in the disposable income of consumers.

It is also expected that there will be a growth in the use of paper pallets in the next four to six years. These are made from honeycomb, corrugated, and moulded pulp and are very cheap to produce.

One type of pallet that is not so likely to appear if you search for "pallet distribution near me" is the metal pallet. This is because of the niche area of businesses that continue to use this type of pallet.

What Is The Future For Logistical Services?

The coming few years are likely to be critical for the logistical services international industry as technology moves onwards at an ever-increasing pace. The industry is gearing up to take on the challenges and the opportunities provided by the latest technological developments. These are going to really alter 3PL and some of these technologies are already in use. Mobile apps and 3D printing are already here, but logistical services international faces other technologies such as driverless vehicles and drone deliveries.

These are still in the testing stage and may never completely take over, but there is no doubt that they are only around the corner. Uber is already testing driverless taxis, Elon Musk is pressing ahead with driverless electric vehicles, and there is talk of driverless flying taxis also. A company called Volocopter has been testing them in Germany since 2016. There is a way to go yet, and several people have already been killed using driverless vehicles because the technology has not yet reached the point where it is fail-safe.

This seems to be a stage where we already have level 3 autonomy, which is when a machine requires human supervision and occasional assistance, and level 4 autonomy where the machine takes over completely. Scary? Some would think so. What happens when the machine breaks down? Nonetheless, it is very likely that a considerable amount of the deliveries of the future will take place using drones and driverless vehicles, although they may never take over completely.

The internet of things is coming upon us and will give devices and products the ability to talk among themselves. In the future, devices and products will have an RFID chip implanted in them so that they will know their right place in the warehouse, identify themselves, gather information about their surroundings, and transmit this to the handlers.

Another thing that can affect logistical services international is 3D printing. When you have the ability to produce an exact working copy of something, manufacturers may choose to ship raw materials instead of finished articles so what is being shipped will change considerably.
Certainly, the future of logistics is going to be very different from today.