Allens of Bolton, participants in the haulage  industry for nearly ninety years, is looking to the future and using  the latest  online technology to keep their fleet of 12 artics and rigids fully   loaded every day. The well-established haulage company was developed on the back of a successful coal merchants business in Astley Bridge Bolton and then developed into general haulage centred on  the cotton, engineering and industrial base of the North West.

After their premises in Astley Bridge  were compulsorily purchased,  the family decided to move slightly out of Bolton to nearby  Westhoughton to a purpose built site with 30,000 sq ft of warehousing,  hard standing for the commercial vehicle fleet and opportunities to let off parts of the sites to customers. Current owners, Peter Allen and his father, Richard Allen, do not aspire to grow the haulage business to be too big. "We like to be in control and give excellent customer  service," says Peter "with ever changing legislation the bigger the   fleet the more problems, more costs and potentially worse service.

Out of this philosophy, the haulage company has developed a niche market within the transport industry carrying 'outsize freight'  that needs careful handling. This has  avoided them going head to head  with the pallet network members on palletised freight which Allen's say  is pretty low margin business. The key to optimising  our revenues from  the haulage business is finding courier backloads mainly from the Midlands  and the South East.  We can usually fill  between six to eight vehicles with our own work and customers.  So we  have been looking at developing  partnerships and using freight exchanges to help us achieve our aim.

Peter Allen is delighted with the improvement to his haulage business provided by the Haulage Exchange & Courier Exchange sites. "Haulage Exchange is an excellent business support. It is the first thing  I switch on in  the office every morning, and I look for specific loads  available  every half and hour," he enthuses. "It is a flexible package that you  can adapt to how you want to use it. "A very active user of both freight  exchange sites, Allen's also puts its small traffic, which the company cannot handle in time, on Courier  Exchange usually with immediate response.

Use of these freight  exchange sites has also led to new haulage business opportunities  with Allens partnering with a large courier company in Lancashire,  and developing all their non-compatible van traffic in  their 7.5-18 tonne  secondary distribution delivery fleet.  Allens is  also able to support local pallet network members for  palletised courier  deliveries in the North West. This  approach to keeping its commercial vehicle fleet as fully utilised as  possible has helped Peter and his father look to the future with confidence.

"And if to prove that the Haulage Exchange site does give  'instant access to work' Peter Allen was  able to pick up the last hotshot load he needed 'in front of our very  eyes' to be fully utilised next day," says Haulage  Exchange loads manager, Luke Davies from Allens on a flying visit to the  North West.

Not only did this mean that Peter Allen was  able to go home and have a peaceful evening. His day actually ended at 3.30pm!

Download the Allens of Bolton case study (PDF)