Question: How did you get into the temperature controlled distribution sector and what is your role within Fenwick Haulage?
Answer: My MD David Ward was looking into another transport avenue as he could see the car transporter business was going to become harder and less profitable, so he contacted myself to see if I would join him as I was working for a small temperature controlled distribution company and he could see the potential for growth because everybody still has to eat food. I joined Fenwick Haulage in June 2002 as Transport Manager and progressed to being Operations Director. I oversea the whole business operation from day to day running, dealing with potential new clients, purchasing of all consumables, building up Customer relations and Health and Safety is a very big part for me as we strongly believe in keeping all our staff and the public safe.
Question: Can you firstly tell us what temperature controlled vehicles that Fenwick Haulage operates?
Answer: We operate 4 small vans that can take up to 1100kgs, we have 9 x 7.5t fridges, some with tail lifts, we have 8 x 18t fridges all with tail lifts and most are duel temperature, we have 14 x 26t fridges again all with tail lifts and multi temperature, also now 9 x tractor units and 2 x urban trailers rear steer with tail lifts and 4 x 26 pallet fridge trailers.
Question: What has been the most important technical development in your temperature controlled bodies and refrigeration systems in recent years and how has it impacted on your operations within Fenwick Haulage
Answer: We have been using the latest technology in insulation, we have specified with our body builder Solomon’s, High Pressure Bonded insulation Panels using high density Styrofoam throughout on our new fridge bodies. This is to help keep the temperature cooler for longer requiring less energy from the engine, alongside having streamline bodies to help with better fuel economy. We use the latest CFC free refrigerant in all our fridges, the only impact is the additional cost to for the fridge bodies but it pays for itself by using less fuel over time.
Question: Are you using telematics across your fleet currently? If so, what advantages do you see this gives your clients?
Answer: Yes we use Microlise on 11 of the vehicles at the request of one of our customers and the rest are on Seven Telematics, the reason we chose Seven is that we can view live temperature monitoring of the refrigerated vehicle and run a report for the customer if required, this can save time rather than waiting for the vehicle to return to base before being able to have the digital print out from the trucks temperature printer. This is also an advantage to our customers as it produces reports of accurate arrival and departure times to stores enabling them to become more efficient, another advantage is that the tracking will give you detailed journey stats meaning the tracker will tell you the overall journey time and stopped time.
Question: Customer needs are constantly changing, so what are you finding is now the biggest request from your customers?
Answer: We are now finding that customers are asking for our BRC accreditation certificate as more suppliers are needing it to win business, we have also found that volumes have changed as we used to be extremely busy with our smaller fleet now the tables have turned and volumes have grown thus requiring bigger vehicles. We are also noticing more Pharmaceutical deliveries throughout the UK, this has led us to having a dedicated GDP certified team of drivers to meet the standards.
Question: What environmental measures does Fenwick Haulage incorporate to ensure best practice?
Answer: The environmental impact is very important to us all at Fenwick Haulage therefore we are always looking for new ways to reduce our emissions and impact on the environment. We have been replacing most of our older fleet to a newer, cleaner latest low emissions Euro 6 vehicles. We are trailing a new diesel additive that will give us more MPG and burn less fuel, higher quality engine oil meaning less friction, we have a zero to landfill policy for all our waste on our site. We ensure all our refrigerated vehicles are subjected to a F-Gas leak test and certified. We have telematics installed on all our vehicles as mentioned above. This helps to assist the drivers to get the best fuel economy, alongside our full time qualified driver trainer and less wear and tear on the vehicles we have a full Environmental Policy Statement on our website. We also have specific programs to aid our highly trained staff in the planning of the loads to help with our carbon footprint. We always strive on getting the best MPG on all of our vehicles by monitoring all vehicle MPG once a week. With putting up a monthly driver competition for the best driver of the fleet, according to our tracking KPI report that gets produced, we believe that by doing this drivers will try even harder to drive our vehicles as best they can, therefore the trucks will do more MPG and less fuel is then burned.
Question: With the ongoing saga of Brexit, have you noticed any changes with your business?
Answer: Thankfully there hasn’t been much of an issue with Brexit us as we only go into Europe in our smaller vehicles, one thing we did notice that a lot of business’s were stockpiling goods in preparation for the Brexit which has meant slightly less movements for us and had a lot of enquiries for temperature controlled storage. We are now doing more Pharmaceutical deliveries in the UK because of Brexit the drugs industries in the UK seem to be less dependant on supplies from Europe
Question: Lastly, would you like to share any news about your company that you feel would benefit the TCS&D readers?
Answer: We can now offer a nationwide trailer delivery service as we have been doing for one of our long standing customers, we have 3 low ride tractor units with adjustable 5th wheels to enable us to pull even the super cube double deck trailers also we are soon to be able to offer ambient food transportation, we have a 13.5m curtain sided trailer just being prepared for us. We are constantly expanding the fleet, especially on the articulated and 26T side. We will soon be getting our International Operators Licence with our newly qualified Transport Manager who has his international licence, and is possibly the youngest in the country at only 19.
