C & D South West is proud to be a founding member of the Palletforce network, one of the UK’s leaders in the express distribution of palletised freight. Recently, the Association of Pallet Networks (APN) released their official statistics report for pallet distribution across the entirety of 2024, revealing a strong but mediated growth for all UK pallet networks throughout the year.
A total of 29.3 million pallets were transported across the industry last year, demonstrating an overall increase of 3.2% from 2023.
The Association of Pallet Networks represents the common interests of the eight major UK pallet networks, and comprises 750 independent regional transport specialists and over 23,500 vehicles. As a whole, these networks offer 100% UK postcode coverage, meaning customer consignments can be effectively transported across the entire country.
Paul Sanders, Chairman of the APN, said ‘Steady manageable growth is exactly what pallet networks need, and these statistics show that the UK’s freight owners have fully recovered both in economic terms and in predictability of their order books from the fluctuations of COVID-19. The intense inflationary pressures which have threatened to depress the wider market more recently have increased costs for networks and customers, but have not significantly suppressed demand.’
Last year, service levels across all pallet networks remained consistently high, with 96% intact, in full, and on time deliveries. This reflects the excellent work put in by depots across the palletised goods sector to maintain high service levels and customer satisfaction rates. Additionally, consignment numbers grew by almost 3% in 2024, consolidated by a 4.3% growth in the fourth quarter of the year.
Other key figures for 2024 include:
- Full pallets accounted for 49% of volume, with half pallets at 29% and quarter pallets at 22%.
- Next day volumes accounted for 62%, with 38% economy volumes, which is a slight but notable shift away from economy services and towards premium ones.
- Home delivery grew by one percentage point in terms of overall volume, with 15.5% of all pallets moved being delivered to residential addresses in 2024.
C & D South West’s Managing Director, Lorna Hammond, commented ‘We are proud to be a part of the ever-changing pallet distribution industry, and are looking forward to a future of continual growth within the sector’.
If C & D can be of assistance with your pallet distribution requirements, then don’t hesitate to get in touch with our friendly customer service team, who will be able to support you with every step of the process.
