Palletline shines a light on dedicated members

Palletline, the UK’s leading palletised freight distribution network, celebrated the outstanding achievements of its members during its Annual Awards Dinner at The Belfry Hotel & Resort in Sutton Coldfield. The event saw seven prestigious awards presented to deserving Palletline members, recognising their success throughout 2022.

The Palletline Annual Awards highlight the network’s dedication to excellence and celebrate members which have gone above and beyond in their respective categories. The winners not only demonstrated unparalleled dedication but have also significantly contributed to elevating standards within the logistics sector.

Palletline’s headline category, Member of the Year – voted for by members – went to Stephen Sanderson Transport.

Sanderson was praised for encompassing all the principles of partnership as detailed in the Palletline Charter, providing honest and respectful communication and demonstrating accountability for service and quality. Above all, providing support to the membership and offering a genuine partnership.

Bradford-based Expect Distribution was this year’s winner of the Health and Safety Award.

Operating from four sites across West Yorkshire, incorporating over 600,000 ft2, Expect employs more than 350 staff and operates a 140-strong fleet.

A shareholding founder member of Palletline and one of the largest inputting and outputting members, its directors and management team pride themselves on outstanding operations, with the safety of all employees, customers and the general public paramount.

Miniclipper Logistics won the network’s first CSR Champion Award in recognition of the company’s efforts to reduce its impact on the environment, support its local community and give back to local charities.

Miniclipper’s award entry detailed its approach to reducing CO2 emissions and fuel consumption, reducing energy usage and waste, improving driver recruitment and retention, ensuring diversity and maintaining ethical standards across its partnerships.

The company also supports a wealth of charities, local sports clubs and community organisations, taking an active role in its local community.

This year’s Outstanding Commitment Award went to Shepherd Distribution. Over the decades Shepherd has been a large inputter into the network and its customer services team has built excellent relationships with other members.

Last year Shepherd became an employee ownership trust company, giving an already dedicated team even more of an interest in the business.

London Pallet Logistics was the winner of the Commercial Brilliance Award for its robust commercial strategy which has enabled the company to not only to proactively identify and convert new prospects but to nurture existing customers.

Axtra Expert Logistics won the highly coveted Service Excellence Award from Palletline, for the second year running, after it achieved the highest annual delivery performance results from January through to December 2022.

Palletline’s own Head of Business Information, Harpreet Sohal, and his team of data analysts won the Team of the Year Award.

Over the past 12 months their efforts in forecasting industry trends and devising potential solutions has enabled Palletline to stay ahead of the curve.

With their expertise the company was able to successfully plan for the post-pandemic reduction in volumes, which they forecast six months in advance. The team also worked on an extensive review of Palletline’s hub strategy, mapping out 80 to 90 different scenarios of how the business might look over the next 10 years.

They are also able to predict volumes and trends and the data they provide is the drive behind the key decisions made by the company’s board of directors. Palletline is believed to be the only business in the pallet sector able to utilise such data in this way.

Graham Leitch, Palletline Group Managing Director, said: “Every year the quality of our award winners gets better and better, so of course the competition is tough. 

“Every single one of our shareholder members is a highly reputable specialist in their own right, and all encompass the Palletline ethos to deliver the very best service to customers nationwide.

“Congratulations to all our winners on the night. It is through our members’ hard work and dedication that Palletline continues to lead the industry with unrivalled levels of quality and service.”