Managing Director Paul Smith and Operations Director Harvey Douglas recently hosted a lunch to celebrate the successful completion of the NCFE Certificate in Transport by eight employees.
Jigsaw Solutions, founded in 2002, has quickly become one of the UK market leaders in the provision of large scale, domestic managed transport solutions.
Jigsaw Solutions, launched in 2002, has quickly become established as a leading player in the UK contract logistics marketplace, providing high quality managed transport solutions to customers requiring national coverage, scale and commercial flexibility.
The UK logistics market has changed out of all recognition in the last 25 years. A quarter of a century ago, the vast majority of the bigger manufacturers and retailers had their own trucks and warehouses, and operated them on a predominantly regional rather than national basis. What third party logistics services operations existed were typically offered by traditional, local general hauliers or government owned carriers.
This began to change in the early 1980s when, under the leadership of Sir Peter Thompson, the National Freight Consortium (NFC) an amalgam of several previously dusty and unloved distribution businesses, came into being.
NFC was arguably the first company to coin the phrase contract distribution and its success seemed to galvanise other distribution operators. Before long significant numbers of manufacturers and retailers were looking at the process of contracting out warehousing and transport to this new business genre.
NFC brands such as BRS and Exel Logistics, Christian Salvesen, Hays, Tibbett & Britten and TDG, brought a new energy to the marketplace, plus a professionalism to their core products transport and warehousing. For the first time, rather than simply being a cost to be borne on the end of the manufacturing process, these activities added value in their own right.
Customers of these pioneers saw a number of benefits; their balance sheets were rid of costly assets in the shape of trucks and warehouses, their operating costs were reduced by access to their suppliers wider networks and they were rid of often longstanding and occasionally troublesome staff employment conditions.
As the contract distribution concept became established, a second tier of smaller, often niche market service providers emerged in competition to the big players. The established operators also faced pressure from companies who had previously operated in related but not directly competing sectors. For example, Federal Express and TNT expanded from parcels into contract distribution, and the chill market featured gases specialist BOC as well as companies such as Wincanton and NFT, whose food manufacturing parents exploited the scope that existed within their own well established logistical infrastructures as a service provider to others.
Astonishingly, after only a single generation, the contract logistics market was already overpopulated, and rationalisation was inevitable. The origins of the present day logistics super companies can be found in the mergers and acquisitions of this period. For example, the multi billion dollar business recently created by the merger of Exel and DHL has within its bloodline many famous industry names BRS, Lowfield, Rockwood, Tibbett & Britten, McGregor Cory, MSAS, Danzas, Securicor, Scottish Express and Russell Davies to name but a few.
In recent years, with consumer and retailer pressure squeezing margins in their traditional UK domestic warehouse and transport products, some of the bigger logistics services specialists have capitalised on the globalisation of many markets to reinvent themselves as managers of global supply chains. As a result, UK domestic transport has become less of a core product for them it is now viewed by many as a commodity area where it is difficult to add value and hence to make adequate returns. This has seen the end of some longstanding business relationships, and brought opportunities for some of the smaller players.
For the smaller haulier, the shift among manufacturing companies to contract out to the big logistics providers had initially been very bad news. Historically, a manufacturer with its own fleet needed local hauliers as a support mechanism, and many privately owned family companies had built a business on the back of this. The arrival into this scenario of a big player, with a long term contract, meant in the worst case no work and in the best case some work, but at lower rates.
As time progressed, local hauliers found that their traffic profiles were seriously under threat. They therefore had to find a mechanism by which they were able to work as subcontractors to the big players, in order to maintain the load volumes that were the lifeblood to their business. The mid and late 90s saw many such hauliers form relationships with the bigger players, and as a consequence they were forced to improve their standards to a point that was indistinguishable from that provided on the big players own fleets. Newer kit, uniformed drivers, cabphones and increased use of technology have all been features of this.
More recent times have seen the combined effects of greater professionalism among smaller players and the move away from traditional transport markets by the super companies, lead to a new industry sub-sector based on complementary regional players working together on a collaborative basis. This approach has seen companies such as Palletways, Pall- Ex and Palletline now dominate the smaller consignment end of the market. Additionally, Jigsaw Solutions has taken the UK volume transport market by storm, and is now the fastest growing business in the UK transport sector.
By harnessing the resources of its partner hauliers all leading privately owned businesses with reliable yet innovative systems, clear minded management and a strong attention to detail, Jigsaw Solutions can offer transport solutions for customers requiring national coverage, flexibility and scale.
