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Outfitting Your Vehicle For Work Or Play

When it comes to work or play our vehicles go with us wherever we go. If it’s a trip to the most remote areas for a camping trip or to a client or job site our utes, vans and other vehicles are there taking the journey with us. While travelling, van storage may be an issue. Many tradies will tell you that travelling from job to job with their vehicles can be a daunting task. Trying to fit all of their equipment, supplies and miscellaneous materials in their vehicles can be a chore. Then, when arriving to their destination trying to find exactly what they need takes precious time out of their day, causing their production to go down. This is why many are looking for van storage systems.
Easily Organised

When looking for van storage, tradies will typically look for solutions that give them easy access to their most used tools. Ideally, this should be a system with drawers large enough to hold the main tools, quick access release of the drawers, and deep storage so that tools can fit comfortably and reduce the likelihood of being damaged during transport.

Security

Drawers keep all your expensive tools and equipment locked away. And importantly out of sight. Most thieves are opportunistic, if they can’t see anything worth pinching, they’ll simply move on until they find a ute or van with gear on display.

Multipurpose

Drawer units for van storage should have multipurpose functionality. This refers to being able to store tools for work and items for play. Many love to take their vehicles off-road and to popular camping sites. As such, the ability to quickly store tents, food, recreation equipment and more make a van storage system ideal for everyone involved.

Customisable

No vehicle is the same and as such, no van storage system will be the same either. Having the ability to customise a system for optimum fit, function and feel will make everyone want to have a unit.

Strong construction

When riding through the countryside and off-road, the items in your drawers will likely bounce around. This can cause damage to tools and equipment that no one wants. Placing them securely in van storage drawers with solid construction behind them will protect every item from damage.

Storage

When designing your storage keep in mind that the typical drawer to hold general tools has the capacity of holding 150 kg each. Most vendors, however, have drawers with more capacity as well as slides.

Whether you are looking for something to take camping or to organise your working van, storage is a great option to consider. With the versatile functionality, design options and ease of use anyone looking to transport for work or pleasure can be assured a van storage system will fit your needs.

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Keeping Track of Industry Talent in Logistics Conference

With just a couple of months until the next Talent in Logistics Conference, now is a good time to think about buying your tickets. This event is aimed at bringing people working in the logistics industry together, and the conference is geared towards celebrating the incredible talent we are so lucky to have across the board.
On 27 June this year, Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes will come alive with exhibitions, competitions and the all-important awards ceremony, which is held at the Hilton DoubleTree. For anyone with a career in freight forwarding or haulage who is dealing with subcontract transport workers, this conference is an event that should have a firm place on their annual calendar.

What’s On?

Now in its third year, this conference offers the opportunity for all kinds of operational professionals in logistics to get together, share knowledge, catch up with news and listen to seminars given by significant industry leaders.

The highlight is the awards ceremony, which reflects one of the main aims of the event: to provide a platform for recognising and rewarding people in all aspects of our industry and along every link in the supply chain.

This year, new categories have been introduced with the intention of highlighting teams and organisations, rather than just individuals who stand out. Teams that continually go that extra mile to make a difference will be acknowledged. Winners of all categories will be announced at the black tie event at Hilton DoubleTree, where there will be a celebrity host, a drink’s reception and a dinner. The evening will finish late and there will be lots of entertainment and dancing.

Also hosted on the day are the live finals of the Forklift Operator of the Year and the LVG Driver of the Year competitions. Employees fight hard to get through initial heats and regional contests to reach the finals, which promise to be a fantastic display of skill and expertise.

The Importance for Fleet Managers

Recruitment in our business can be difficult so it is very important to stay up to date with the best practice methods of attracting talent. Subcontract transport work requires so many different skills and, as a manager, you need to be aware of how to recruit skilled individuals who you can develop and engage. The conference has three different theatres, Attract, Develop and Engage, each one filled with information and insights for any manager or trainer to take on board and deliver back to their teams.

In just one day you have the chance to glean so much. Take time out of the office and invest it in everything this event has to offer. You won’t regret it and you will leave feeling more competent in how to deal with recruitment and training… and ultimately keep your business moving successfully into the future.

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Norman Dulwich is a Correspondent for Haulage Exchange, the leading online trade network for the road transport industry. Connecting professionals across the UK and Europe through their website, Haulage Exchange provides a valuable service to subcontract transport work, matching loads with available vehicles. It is now the fastest growing Freight Exchange in the UK.

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Customer Survey Reveals Interesting Figures about Technology Solutions

There have been two significant findings from Paragon Software Systems’ annual UK customer survey. The first: integrated technology systems are being used ever more frequently in the courier industry to overcome various business pressures. The second: the transport sector is still struggling to recruit new drivers, and the skill shortage is now the biggest challenge that the industry is facing.
A Growing Concern

Delivery businesses have been struggling to recruit for the last three years. Statistics from the survey show that since 2017, there has been a significant 62% increase in respondents stating that the lack of drivers is impacting their business. This year, over half of the respondents (55%) agreed to the statement, whereas in 2018 the figure was slightly lower at 46%.

Some other issues were highlighted in the survey, and drivers were asked whether these factors were of concern. Some 13% agreed that transport costs were an issue and 12% saw the Brexit debate as a contributing factor. Urban transport restrictions were less of a concern, at 7%.

Technologies to the Rescue

Although there are still industry concerns, it has been found that many courier drivers are looking to telematics and other technological planning systems to overcome these problems. Nearly all respondents (97%) claimed to use some kind of telematics solution, whether it was to plan and schedule timings or simply map out delivery routes.

The most common technology systems in use at the moment are vehicle tracking (95% of fleets use this) and proof of delivery (over half use this). Other solutions include various workforce management applications, vehicle cameras using 4G and live temperature monitoring. Courier companies and owner drivers using these kinds of resources are able to benefit from real-time performance data, allowing them to figure out the best ways to run their businesses and make their operations more efficient.

Why Change?

Many businesses have chosen to invest in new telematics systems as a result of industry pressures. The survey showed that some of the biggest transport planning pressures came from customers – these included the demand for more accurate delivery time windows as well as more frequent communications and proof of delivery. Other pressures such as the need to maximise the utilisation of available drivers has also had an effect.

The courier industry continues to evolve as customer demands become more challenging and technologies become more reliable. The Managing Director of Paragon Software Systems, William Salter, stated that the survey’s results “suggest the road transport sector faces another tough year, with a number of continuing challenges that are compounded by the current economic and political uncertainty.”

There is hope that integrated technology solutions will eventually result in better customer communications, resource utilisation and real-time fleet visibility, but with various uncertainties still looming, only time will tell.

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Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Courier Exchange, the world’s largest neutral trading hub for same day courier work in the express freight exchange industry. Numerous transport exchange businesses are networked together on their website, trading jobs and capacity through what is now the fastest growing Freight Exchange company in the UK.

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