Question: What made you set up GMS Transport Group and what is your role within the business?
After speaking to several business within the temperature-controlled sector, I found that there was a re-occurring theme of increasing costs and poor service levels.
With same-day movements typically of high importance, we found lack of communication to be most prospects biggest bugbear. I was fed up of hearing stories about how clients would didn’t receive the service they deserved or were promised.
I realised very quickly that; if I could solve this issue by providing a reliable and fully transparent service, there was scope and a clear gap in the market to create a very successful business.
GMS Transport Group was born, founded on the ethos of providing and entirely quality-driven service by placing the customer at the heart of everything we do.
Today, our guarantee to deliver total certainty has led us to becoming the preferred logistics provider for a number of high-profile companies across both the public and private sectors.
As Managing Director, my role is to ensure that we continue to deliver on our founding principles and continuously adapt to the unique and challenging needs of our clients to deliver essential, time and temperature critical items.
Question: Could you tell the readers of TCS&D, what services GMS Transport Group offers please and what makes you different?
Working predominantly across the food and pharmaceutical sectors, GMS Transport Group create bespoke transport solutions, tailored to meet exact client needs.
We specialise in dedicated same-day movements and deliver chilled, frozen and ambient products on both an emergency or planned basis.
Our fleet of vehicles cover all business needs, from small consignments such as product samples or vials, all the way through to full trailer loads.
Customers are given one point of contact to look after their consignment, and vehicles are fully traceable from collection, through to delivery with real time ETA’s provided at every stage.
Whether your requirements for a same day courier are ad-hoc, or you need a reliable logistics partner, GMS Transport Group have a service that fits.
What makes GMS Transport Group different from other courier companies is the strong and lasting relationships that we build with our clients.
We pride ourselves on being more than a transport company who deliver goods from A to B, offering a range of value-added services to improve our customers business offering and give them a competitive advantage within their industry. A service which was well received by clients during the pandemic when businesses were forced to innovate to ensure survival.
Question: Can you tell us what temperature-controlled vehicles that GMS Transport Group offers?
GMS Transport Group offer a diverse range of vehicles, from a small van, all the way through to a 45’ trailer. The majority of these vehicles are dual compartment, allowing customers to ship goods at two different temperatures on the same vehicle.
This infrastructure gives us the flexibility to service consignment sizes at both ends of the spectrum and allows clients to take advantage of real cost efficiencies.
Being able to offer customers the right-sized and expertly managed solution for their transportation needs places us in a unique market position as a “one-stop-shop.”
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 GMS Transport Group?
With goods having to arrive on time, in pristine condition and with an auditable temperature record, quality has always been of the upmost importance to our business.
Having operated several different brands over the years, we have been most impressed with Thermo King, who are now are supplier of choice.
As we continue to grow our presence within the pharmaceutical and analytical sectors, we are seeing increased demand for smaller consignments, which led to us trialling a Thermo King ColdCube from Marshall Fleet Solutions.
We haven’t looked back since! The units have been a great addition to our fleet, enhancing our flexibility whilst meeting our customers’ requirements from both a performance and compliance point of view.
Question: Are you using telematics across your fleet currently? If so, what advantages do you see this gives your clients?
Our entire fleet is fitted with telematics, as well as Vision-Track CCTV camera’s.
With transparency being a core value woven deep into GMS Transport Group’s DNA, we believe that; if a customer has to call us and ask where their load is, we have failed them.
This technology means that our customers do not need to chase us for journey updates as they have full visibility of their time and temperature critical consignments as an extension of their fleet.
Customers are sent live updates throughout the journey to ensure complete peace of mind, which they can pass on to their customers or patients.
Question: Customer needs are constantly changing, so what are you finding is now the biggest request from your customers?
With COVID-19 changing consumer buying habits, one of the biggest requests we are receiving from food companies is the desire to deliver Direct-to-Consumer (D2C).
With the Prime Minister announcing that restaurants were going to close almost overnight, many foodservice companies were forced to innovate and pivoted into the D2C market to sell overbearing levels of perishing stock.
It was admirable to see how fast these businesses responded and I am really proud that GMS were able to use our D2C knowledge and experience to create viable solutions for these clients and retain staff during unprecedented times.
From a pharmaceutical standpoint, we have similarly seen an increase in Direct to Patient (D2P) services over the last 18 months, with many vulnerable patients having to stay home and shield.
In general, we are finding compliant temperature-controlled solutions is a growing priority for pharmaceutical companies. We have significantly increased our client book and anticipate that this trend will continue to gather traction as businesses strive to stay ahead of compliance.
Question: What environmental measures does GMS Transport Group incorporate to ensure best practice?
As a transport company, we recognise the importance of preserving the environment in which we operate and are always looking for new ways to reduce our carbon footprint.
We are fully committed to delivering environmentally sustainable logistics with an acute focus on operational excellence and increased efficiencies across all areas of the business.
Larger investments have been made towards replacing older vehicles in the fleet with cleaner Euro 6 vehicles to lower emissions, as well as best-in-class technology.
In addition to focusing on the manageable improvements where we see specific results (driver behaviours, fuel efficiency, minimising empty miles etc.), we pride ourselves making marginal gains in areas that are often overlooked.
Key to the success of our environmental performance, of course, is every member of GMS Transport Group’s team. We continue to coach and develop our employees and empower them to champion environmental best practise to our stakeholders throughout the supply chain.
Question: Now that the UK has left the European Union and Brexit has finally happened, have you noticed any changes with your business?
Definitely!
In light of the challenges faced by European groupage operators, we saw enquiries for European movements rise 700% since 31st January.
These requests were often businesses seeking a dedicated solution into Europe to minimise the risk of any potential transit delays.
With all the focus on the pandemic, we have found that many of these businesses weren’t prepared, or didn’t fully understand additional administration and processes resulting from Brexit.
Fortunately for them, our team’s expert knowledge has allowed us to hand-hold these customers through this entire process, and provide them with a “complete solution” including full customs clearance.
Question: Lastly, would you like to share any news about your company that you feel would benefit the TCS&D readers?
Over the last 6 months, the team and I have been working around the clock on a number of different initiatives to further improve GMS Transport Group’s business offering.
Our new website launches in the coming weeks, which reflects the two separate arms of our business- Food and Pharmaceuticals.
To meet our objective of of making our service easiest to use, fasted, and most transparent, clients will be able to log into their own customer portal, giving them the ability to receive instant quotes, book vehicles, track live transits and retrieve stored job information.
From a business development standpoint. we are consistently thinking of new ways to reward our loyal customers and are excited to announce a number of developments in this area.
GMS are primed for growth and have ambitious plans to ensure that the business continues it’s impressive growth throughout the UK, allowing more organisations to benefit from the very best in same day delivery.
Whether you’d like to ship a sample or multiple pallets, let us take the headache out of logistics for your team, with a service you can rely on info@gmstransportgroup.com
