Today Team

Having hung up his boots at the age of 24, Jamie Boyd started the business from scratch with a loan from the Princes Trust. He had nothing but a van, a willingness to work hard and ambition. It paid off and in the first 18 months, the business grew substantially during which time he built a sizeable customer portfolio within his local patch, some of which had a European presence.

However, as both his customer base and their requirements grew, Jamie recognised that if he was going to compete on a level playing field and take the business to the next level he would need to have nationwide and contractor coverage.

He entered into discussions with Haulage Exchange. It was not, however, a decision he was going to take lightly. Having built his business, much of which on the basis of personal relationships, his chief objective was to find a facility which shared his commitment to putting customer service first –an ethos which he sees as being at the very core of any successful business.

Haulage Exchange fit the bill perfectly and in December 2006 he became a member and he hasn’t looked back since.

He commented: “Haulage Exchange has done a great job. It has given us the level of coverage that we needed and some of the contracts we have today wouldn’t have been possible without the Exchange.

“It suits our business. The speed of pick up works well and the level of service replicates that of our own – it is a seamless operation and one in which we have total confidence to provide a level of service commensurate with our own.”

Today Team is still continuing to grow at an exponential rate – a staggering 75% in the past 12 months. They have also moved to new offices and have plans to further expand.

Jamie continued: “Haulage Exchange has been good for our business and gave us a strong foundation on which to build. We have built our business on delivering personal service. No matter what we are asked to do we always try to find a solution and the Exchange helps us deliver that.

“The Exchange feedback system offers total transparency and is immensely valuable. In fact, the Exchange is just like using one of your own drivers.”

Based in Warrington, Cheshire Today Team operates 20 vehicles, has seven full-time staff and a team of self-employed drivers.

As part of a move to better utilise its fleet operation, Today Team has recently integrated its TomTom Telematics’ WEBFLEET system with Haulage Exchange. The initial trial involving two vans and an HGV is already providing value in terms of reduced administration, increased revenue and improved customer service according to Jamie Boyd:

Transport Exchange Group has worked closely with members to ensure that the vehicle tracking integration meets our operational needs to help achieve real performance benefits. We estimate that the business has already generated in excess of £40,000 of profit as a result of this new approach within our fleet operation.

“We have previously used the Exchange to predominantly source capacity, but other members are now seeing the location and status of our vehicles in real-time, so we are now receiving incoming job offers. This is helping us fill available capacity and create a new revenue stream,” explains Jamie.

“We are also reducing admin requirements because not only does the integration automatically update vehicle information, our partners also have live visibility of their loads which cuts down on the number of calls we receive asking for updates.”