For the past few years, investment has been the buzz word at Miniclipper Logistics in both the transport and warehouse operation.
Starting the journey back in 2021 with the relocation of the Distribution Centre from Leighton Buzzard to an industrial site in Dunstable, today the expanding business has an impressive portfolio of 600,000 sq. ft of warehousing space, an exemplary fleet of over 50 vehicles, and over 210 employees, a 62% increase since 2018.
In 2023, Miniclipper expanded its reach to East Staffordshire, acquiring a 95,000 sq. ft warehousing site in Burton-Upon-Trent, and launching a second distribution centre to create a trunking solution from Central Bedfordshire for deliveries within the Burton vicinity directly on Miniclipper wheels.
Complementing this expansion was the decision to move from a leasing model of fleet acquisition to longer-term investments of purchasing vehicles as business assets. As well as doubling the fleet in 2022 to include DAF & Volvo units, a fresh look livery has been introduced and is being rolled out across all new tractor, trailer and rigid units. In the last two years, Miniclipper have purchased seventeen DAF and two Volvo tractor units along with 35 trailers both to replace expiring lease vehicles and expand their national delivery fleet further. In addition to this, they have purchased seven DAF 18 tonners and four DAF 12 tonners to support with Palletline, Hazchem Network and customer deliveries in the Home Counties and Midlands areas.
A partnership with a global packaging brand has created a joint marketing initiative with the customer’s branded livery on two new straight frame trailers.
Miniclipper Logistics has also invested in EMPMS (Electronic Brake Performance Monitoring System) on trailers, removing the burden of laden roller brake testing, and re-levelled the Dunstable transit warehouse to increase pallet volume and racking capacity by 40%. This makes cross dock sortation and loading easier and has several health and safety benefits such as zoned working areas for forklift trucks.
Investment in people remains a key priority at Miniclipper, with the second cohort of ‘Warehouse to Wheels’ successfully obtaining their Class 2 HGV licence last month. The third cohort is now starting their training, highlighting the success of the in-house driving school. The addition of the Burton-On-Trent site has also created opportunities for 11 new drivers, a Transport Team Leader and a Transport Manager, two of whom relocated from the Bedfordshire site to bring their wealth of experience to the new satellite depot. The introduction of a full-time in-house HR Manager with extensive experience of working in the logistics industry has also advanced recruitment and induction processes, HR systems and employee recognition programmes.
Being located within close proximity to London, and running direct deliveries into the Capital, the next step is to retrofit and purchase all new vehicles to comply with The Direct Vision Standard (DVS) and HGV Safety Permit Scheme for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) operating around Greater London. This is ahead of the DVS requirements changing this October. In addition, this summer, a new Transport Management System, Mandata Enterprise will be rolled out, providing a better user experience for customers by delivering real time ETAs and instant photo PODs. The system also benefits from real time routing direct to driver PDA’s so collections can be updated without the need for a phone call to the driver, and live track and trace to see the status of delivery drops on real time.
The hard work to advance the business is paying off with several external audits taking place in the first half of the year, yielding excellent results. This includes the reaccreditation of ISO standards for Environmental Management, Occupational Health and Safety and Quality Management, Department for Transport, and RHA Operator and Health and Safety audits. The family business has also expanded its membership of industry to bodies to both The Chemical Association and the Transport Association, where it is looking forward to making a positive contribution with its semicentennial years of experience in the haulage industry.
Transport Director, Lee Atterbury says “We are investing in our people, our fleet and facilities for the future, with compliance and health and safety at the forefront our business planning.”
