Ask any haulier about the prospect of changing their Transport Management System (TMS) – and they will probably go very pale. It is an enormous undertaking and, if not managed well, can wreak havoc with your logistics operation. So much is at risk given the platform controls nearly all aspects of business; resource planning, routing of vehicles, order creation, invoicing, pallet tracking, proof of delivery, customer communication … the list goes on. When we were selecting our platform provider, we knew we had to bring all these variables together in beautiful harmony to ensure the system was fit for purpose for our team, whilst also providing best-in-class functionality for our customers.

We only went and did it!

When we signed on the dotted line with Qargo, we didn’t just sign up for an ‘off-the-shelf’ package. Instead, we joined an exciting partnership with an exceptional team of developers. Together, we have designed, tested, created and rolled out an IT platform that is, without doubt, sector-leading. In the run up to ‘Going-Live’, we collectively spent over 2,500 hours within the Qargo-Verse in a sandbox test environment, where we experimented with over 5000 non-live consignments.

Thanks to all the hard work that went into the 10-month development phase – the ‘Go-Live’ experience was, dare we say it, painless! We knew what to expect and when. The preparation enabled us to deploy the plan precisely. When we entered what Qargo refer to as the “Critical Care Phase” during the ‘Go-Live’ transition, the Qargo team were on site with us, and a team of platform developers were working 24/7 behind the scenes to set our systems up as we needed.

The Go Live experience – Seamless Deployment

Within less than 24 hours of ‘Going-Live’, we had over 1000 consignments booked on the new Qargo TMS, with API integrations flowing with customers and partners as well as full cross dock functionality and driver application. Everything just works! Our teams within the office, the yard and our drivers really love the intuitive way the software delivers solutions.

A few years ago, AI-supported job entry and full fleet route optimisation was a dream. Now it’s our reality and we love it.

Thank you Qargo!

How do you achieve a perfect work-life balance?

We are constantly in awe of our employees and what they juggle in day-to-day life: childcare, caring for parents, health challenges – all before you have even left for work!

As a family-run business, we do all we can to shoulder these challenges and flexible working practices have become a given to help find the perfect balance. For LGV drivers, some flexible solutions aren’t an option, hence the title of this post, but that doesn’t stop us.

The beauty of running a 24/6 logistics operation is that there are plenty of hours within the working week to be creative with shift patterns. We really can write the script for our employee’s working hours – In our team of 65 drivers, we proudly have 24 different working patterns, and we’ll happily create more!

We achieve balance when the set of variables is right for each person. For the employee, pressure is removed, and life is easier and more rewarding. For Anglia Freight, our vehicles have a driver in their optimal state – life distractions are reduced, fatigue is less, and attention behind the wheel is improved.

In 2023, we approved 11 flexible working requests; here’s a few

  • Kevin and Peter both moved to a 4-day week for health balance.
    ‘My knees give me a lot of problems. Having a Wednesday off gives me a break mid-week and I can rest and attend doctor, hospital or physio appointments.’
    ‘I found myself getting a lot of health problems, requiring doctor/hospital visits on Wednesdays. Anglia Freight approved the request with no issue, and if I can’t get my appointments for Wednesday, they allow me to switch days. As a result, my attendance has improved.’
  • Richard requested a 4-day working pattern due to family commitments and a staged approach toward retirement.
    ‘My extended personal time allows me to uphold family commitments and undertake longstanding hobbies. The request was handled promptly following consideration of any impact on the business whilst happily meeting my expectations.’
  • Darren requested flexible working to provide care for his father.
    ‘Due to a sudden change in my father’s health, I found myself regularly travelling to Hertfordshire to help with his care and support. This became more challenging to manage alongside my own home life and work. After speaking with the HR team, a flexible working request was agreed upon, reducing my working week to 4 days and having every Monday off. I can now spend more time caring for my father, including speaking with health care professionals on my Monday off work. This has also helped my mental health and resilience, as I am less tired and stressed.If you would like to discuss flexible working options with Anglia Freight, we’d love to talk to you – contact us via hr@angliafreight.co.uk

We feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude and pride as we bid farewell to our spectacular 30th Anniversary celebrations. Our grand finale at Caistor Hall was magical as we gathered to celebrate and recognise the shining stars in our team.

🏆 Representing each of our Anglia Freight company values, we’ve introduced four awards that embody the very essence of who we are and what we do.🏆 So without further ado…the winners are…..

  • Peace of Mind Award: Mark Middleton: Operating with unwavering honesty and crystal-clear clarity, your dedication ensures there are never any surprises – only trust and confidence.
  • Innovation Award: Paul Ready: Famously known as ‘Wheelie’, you are a beacon of innovation, constantly seeking ingenious ways to provide the best solutions.
  • Loyalty Award: Danielle Dolton: Your unique relationships with our customers are the cornerstone of our success. Your loyalty has fostered bonds that are truly unparalleled.
  • Exceptional Service Award: Zoe Ratcliffe: Your commitment to outstanding service consistently surpasses expectations. You are the embodiment of excellence in action.
  • Geoff Moulton Opportunity Award: In an unprecedented move, we introduced the prestigious Geoff Moulton Opportunity Award. This award, named in honour of our late founder, recognises and celebrates an employee’s innate drive and ambition to seek out and grasp opportunities. Geoff valued this more than any other trait in an individual. He was hugely proud of the business for providing people with opportunity, nurturing their potential and watching as they flourished.

The winner of this award, Jordan Gough, is a wonderful example of this. Coming on board as an apprentice when he left school, Jordan showed great interest and intrigue in all business areas and demonstrated a real zest for progression. He has since had two promotions within the business, and we are hugely proud of him and his achievements.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for three decades of unwavering support, commitment, and brilliance. Here’s to many more years of success, laughter, and shared milestones! 🌟🎉🥂🍾

Hot off the press! Starting on Tuesday 27th March we’re running our very own fantastic ‘hare spotting’ competition to win a space grey iPad Pro 10.5 inch with Wifi and 64Gb storage.

As one of the proud sponsors of GoGoHares 2018, we have our very own hare.  Up until now, we’ve kept his identity a secret, but as reveal time approaches we’ve decided to have some fun and have hidden 25 images of him on our website.

Over the next 25 days, all you need to do is find these images of our hare, piece them together to create his picture and email it to us.  The lucky winner will win the iPad!

All the details you need, together with our Competition Terms & Conditions can be found here.

So, what are you waiting for?  Hop to it!

What a year so far! We are thrilled to announce that Anglia Freight has had its best year yet, achieving an unprecedented turnover of £10m.

Geoff Moulton founded Anglia Freight in 1993. It was his vision to establish the business and hit the ‘magic’ £10m turnover figure. Geoff worked hard and the company grew rapidly. In 2010, the second generation of family Directors was appointed. Geoff’s established vision united with the new team’s aspirations. Led by Managing Director, Doug Shawcross, ambitious targets were set and realised time after time. In 2016, our new Transit Hub launched. Business increased, volumes soared, we broke our records for the number of pallets distributed in one night and we hit our ‘magic’ turnover figure.

Geoff comments, ‘Three to four years ago, we were achieving a turnover of £5m. At that time, we had ambitious plans to double that within five years. I can’t tell you how proud I was that we achieved this goal well ahead of time, with 18 months to spare. What a tremendous achievement from our second generation Director team. Of course, I’m thrilled to have hit this goal ahead of time, but what pleases me most is the way that the five team members have gelled. They have brought their own skills and expertise to the table and have formed a successful team. I never thought I’d be able to retire and hand over the reigns to them so easily. This only reflects the total confidence I have in them and repays the faith I had in the new team structure when it was established a few years ago. I can only look forward to seeing how the team will take Anglia Freight to the next level.’

Doug adds, ‘I distinctly remember when we set the £10m turnover target. It seemed like a massive gap from where we were.  We were almost doubling our business. As a lover of sport, I would sometimes hear people talking after a good result, commenting on how ‘everything is coming together’. I have to say that hitting the £10m turnover mark felt very much like this. We set the intention, everyone got on board and we achieved it as a team.’ He adds, ‘The best bit is; the bigger we grow, the better our customer service gets. We’ve re-invested into IT and upskilled our teams, allowing us to cope with new business and increased volume effortlessly while still maintaining unprecedented service levels and have refreshed our brand and launched a new website to promote our company values and reinforce how we like to do business.’

Pallet networks are key to our growth

Our focus is network freight. We are a smart business and are in sync with our vision and values around where the business is going and how we’re going to get there. Palletline is the second biggest pallet distribution network in the country and Anglia Freight is a high quality palletised distribution company. We are proud to be the second largest inputter into this network at 3,500 pallets per week.

As a shareholder member of Palletline, we understand how pallet networks operate and consequently this area of our business is growing. We are a company with excellent pallet distribution, unrivalled customer communication and one which doesn’t distract itself from its core philosophy. We now have more staff and more trucks on the road than ever before and are continually improving our facilities and processes to deliver our customers the very best experience.

Refreshed brand. New website.

Off the back of our record year, we are continuing to raise our game, elevating the Anglia Freight brand in the hearts and minds of our customers and within the logistics industry. In line with our growth strategy, we have updated our branding and launched our new website. We want our customers to be able to do business with us quickly and simply, understanding what services we have to offer as well as the benefits of using Anglia Freight. Whether booking a consignment for delivery or getting a quote, we want our website to become a simple one stop shop for all.

Our refreshed brand and new website symbolise what Anglia Freight is all about. For our customers, we do our utmost to get things done quickly, simply and effectively and our new, clean cut identity reflects this. We are more in tune with who we are as a company and believe that less is definitely more. It is this straightforward professionalism that we value and is the way we do business.

Our customer service team prides itself on its communication, responding quickly and efficiently to enquiries. All new customers experience our Onboarding Process. They become familiar with our freight booking systems, can easily find FAQs  and can get a quote within 1 hour. Our systems are slicker and existing customers are putting through higher volumes as their businesses grow.

Further development is already in the pipeline. These are indeed exciting times for Anglia Freight.

Anglia Freight Cross Dock

Saturday 17th September 2016 will go down in the history books for Anglia Freight! Our new £500,000 transit hub facility was officially opened at our site on Mid Suffolk Business Park.

This is an exciting new chapter for us in our business expansion story. We’ve been at this site delivering freight on behalf of our customers for just over 15 years. It’s a great location and we employ over 80 people from the local community.

Our investment in the new 17,000sq ft. facility means we can continue to grow our business from strength to strength. It provides a covered loading and unloading area which is directly connected to the warehouse as well as low energy lighting and solar power generation, benefiting customers and employees alike.

Our process for moving pallets through the Anglia Freight system will be quicker, safer and more efficient, improving the quality of service for our customers as well as increasing the volume of pallets that Anglia Freight can handle each night.

We’d like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone that helped us celebrate! To the Anglia Freight team and their families, as well as Amy Liston of Palletline and Nada Marinovic of the HazChem Network who performed the official opening and cut the ribbon – thank you for your continued support.

New Transit Hub – Benefits to our Customers and Employees

1.     1-way traffic system

  • We can load and unload pallets quicker and move them more efficiently through the Anglia Freight system
  • All Priority Freight will have their own time slot making it easier for them to hit their connections on time

2.     Undercover and fully lit

  • Freight is kept dry and protected
  • Pallets can be labelled easier and quicker
  • A more comfortable and hospitable working environment for our teams

3.     Improved Health & Safety

  • A simpler and more straightforward layout enhances our already high levels of Health and Safety.  Keeping our teams safe is our priority.

Read more about the official opening in our press coverage in the East Anglian Daily Times.

Need more information? Call 01379 872872
Email sales@angliafreight.co.uk
Click our Distribution page for further details

Following the EU Referendum on June 23rd and the decision for the UK to leave the European Union, there’s been much speculation about what Brexit means for you and for the UK logistics and supply chain industry.

We’re conscious of the uncertainty this causes, but for now, the UK is still a member of the EU and will continue to be whilst negotiations around trade deals and movement of goods take place over the next two years.

In the meantime, we’ve got our ear to the ground and are well informed within the industry.  We have regular communications from both the British International Freight Association and Road Haulage Association as well as keeping up to date with local business news via the Suffolk Chamber of Commerce.

So for the time being, it is very much business as usual.  The way we ship to and from the EU remains the same and we’re here to help you trade with your customers in Europe.

Anglia Freight ships to all 28 EU countries

As a shareholder member of the award winning Palletline network, we ship to any of the 28 countries in the European Union.  Shipping to EU countries occurs in exactly the same way as shipping to any part of the UK with no special documents required.   Whether you’re shipping to Bulgaria, Spain or Germany, follow our ‘Getting it Right’ guide below.

Shipping to Europe – Getting it Right

  • Tell us your collection date
  • Tell us your collection address with postcode, name of contact and their phone number
  • Tell us your delivery date
  • Tell us your delivery address with postcode, name of contact and their phone number
  • Know your country code. Each country has its own unique country code e.g. France is FREU
  • Tell us of any specific delivery instructions
  • Tell us what service level you need e.g. 2 days, 5 days
  • Tell us if you are transporting hazardous cargo
  • Tell us how many pallets you are transporting and how much they weigh
  • Correctly label all pallets with a Palletline/Anglia Freight label

Need more information? Call 01379 872872

Email sales@angliafreight.co.uk

Click our Distribution page for further details.