Collaboration could help small hauliers - transport student claims

Small haulage operators engaged in international transport, should join forces with some of their competitors to form road haulage consortiums to enable them to compete with larger operators, a student of transport and logistics has claimed.

Eoin Plant a PhD student at DIT says that joining forces to form a road haulage consortium can allow small to medium operators to take on higher value logistics contracts.

The idea is a new one and has been working successfully in the UK for many years, according to Plant. “The benefits of collaboration include the maximisation and utilisation of assets that can be achieved,” he commented.

Consortiums allow for load consolidation, which increases utilisation and reduces the number of trips. Consortiums can also deliver benefits in reducing “one-way movements and empty miles.”