Product Champions: Redefining Road Freight With Stuart Haywood 

Road freight is essential for the movement of goods across UK and Europe. Where air and ocean can often prove too expensive, road presents a more affordable alternative. Provided you do it right.  

Do it wrong, and it can cost a small fortune to get your goods moving. Especially since Brexit, where new customs checks have disrupted and delayed countless lorries over the past two years. 

But not with Cardinal. And to prove it, we’ve asked Stuart Haywood to explain why… 

How has road freight changed over the last 3 years? 

Everyone knows a lot of lorries move between the UK and EU. But since January 1st 2021 there has been a huge learning curve when it comes to trade between the two states. This has of course been caused by Brexit. And the subsequent introduction of customs for all imports/exports has understandably put a huge strain on businesses.  

Initially, experience was minimal. Unprepared customs agents were dealing with thousands of entries on a daily basis. Businesses needed support. Which is why we made the decision to create our own in-house customs team headed up by Karl Heron. His team’s expertise has been vital to our customers and grown from doing a couple of entries each day to managing over 10,000 entries every single month. 

And so to improve our road service, we’ve worked closely with Karl to process clearances quickly and effectively. In some instances, we don’t receive commercial invoices until the back doors of the trailer have been shut, leaving us less than an hour to receive and process the customs entries. That’s not a problem with the approach we have. 

What have been the biggest challenges facing the industry in 2022?  

Because of these customs delays, we’ve seen a lack of EU drivers wanting to come to the UK. This shortage of candidates has resulted in a shortfall of loads, which in turn has driven prices up. 

Now, pair this with the increasing fuel costs we saw across the world, and you can understand how it became difficult to offer customs long-term fixed pricing. Consequently, it’s been difficult for our customers to plan. 

This increase in price has led to customers bulking orders together to bring their cost per units down. Where customers may have once religiously sent out single pallets weekly to their clients, they are now grouping them together to make the shipment more cost effective. 

What do you think 2023 looks like in road freight world?  

Those who do not have the ability to bulk orders together, whether that’s due to lack of warehouse space or longevity of their products, are having to swallow the increases or risk losing customers. And that’s something that’s becoming more and more difficult. 

It’s no secret that a recession is coming with a lot of businesses holding less stock than what they have done previously. Consumers are naturally acting a lot smarter with their money and thinking twice before making those impulse buys. But during peak season, this savviness is costing companies money. 

What advice would you offer businesses looking to invest in road freight? 

The best advice I can give to customers is to find a company who understand your requirements and effectively act as an extension of your business. Here at Cardinal our aim is to take all the stresses away which can come with delivering and collecting goods, whether that be around the UK or in and out of Europe. We are the experts in this field, making it our goal to ensure we deliver your goods on time with zero hassle. 

The way that our road teams are set up allow our account managers the freedom of liaising with partners/hauliers/customs themselves allowing us to be not only very quick when it comes to responses but agile when it comes to solutions.  

Our core principles are to be pro-active not re-active, to do what is right for our customers and not ourselves, to ensure our account managers are not flooded with work to ensure they can focus entirely on delivering an exceptional customer experience for our clients. In an industry where we have 100’s of competitors I feel we must break down the boundaries of what our customers’ expectations are and create a new ‘Normal’ they are yet to experience anywhere else. 

Our approach 

We offer free consultations with prospective customers to understand ‘IF’ we are the right fit for each other. Without understanding how your logistics looks today, how can we suggest alternative methods to make effective change within your supply chain? Our aim to mitigate risk to ensure goods are delivered in a timely and cost-effective fashion. 

If you’d like a free consultation, get in touch with the team today by filling out our contact form.