C&D South West are proud to be founding members of Palletforce, one of the UK’s industry leading Pallet Networks within the sector. Our Pallet Network Membership allows us to offer a wide variety of flexible service options to a range of clients to suit their operational needs. This week the pallet network sector report has been published with the 2022 figures for pallet network freight across the UK.
The Pallet Network Sector Report 2022 shows continued strong growth, despite the fluctuations of COVID and an equalising effect after the pent-up demand of 2021. The report, published by the Association of Pallet Networks (APN) includes the following key points:
• 2022 total pallet volumes at 29.2m, 8.2% up on 2019
• 61.9% of all pallets delivered on a next-day service
• B2C volumes at 4.6m, three percentage points up on 2019 (15.9% vs 13%)
• 50-50 split between premium and economy services for B2C
• B2C full pallets favour economy services; B2C quarter pallets favour next-day delivery
• Hub safety improved for fifth year running at 0.46 accidents per 100,000 pallets
APN collates data from all of the UK’s pallet networks, allowing its members to benchmark their performance and providing a unique insight into the health of the UK logistics and palletised freight distribution sectors. APN Chairman Paul Sanders says the 2022 figures show that network sector has finally left the pandemic era behind, and can see that despite the fluctuations of the past four years, network volumes have continued to grow in real terms.
“The pallet network sector has had so much thrown at it in the past four years – COVID, Brexit, labour shortages, a strained economy – and yet it has proved to be exceptionally resilient, commercially and operationally,” says APN chairman Paul Sanders. Service levels have remained strong at 96%, and trailer utilisation remains well above the Department for Transport’s average for the industry.
“The major take-away from 2022 is that B2C growth has stayed high and was not a transient feature of the pandemic,” says Sanders. “At 16% of all pallet volume, this is now being driven by the increasing popularity of e-commerce for large household and manufactured supplies.”
Health & Safety is another key aspect amongst the pallet network sector and the 2022 report also reflects this. Pallet networks have lowered their incident rate to 0.46 accidents per 100,000 pallets delivered in 2022. This is the fifth reduction in five years, and results from the ongoing sharing of health and safety best practice by APN members.
To find out more regarding pallet network operations or if you need a new pallet distributinon partner, do not hesitate to get in touch with a member of the team at C&D South West to discuss this further.
