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The Thompson Technik plant at Pontycymer, South Wales manufactures plastic components for the automotive and agricultural industries including Ford. The automotive industry is renowned for working to Just In Time principles where deliveries must be on time and 100% reliable.

Bridgeway had been occasional suppliers to Thompson for several years but the volumes increased rapidly in the summer of 2004. Bridgeway are now the preferred supplier of transport services to the South and East of the UK for Thompson Technik, having provided an excellent, reliable service.

Although the majority of loads are within the UK we have also successfully organised several inter company transfers from all over Europe to their factory at Bridgend

Bridgeway started working with GSK by moving small consignments of blackcurrant concentrate from Cardiff to their plant in Coleford. The consignments were always urgent and needed to be delivered within a couple of hours so that continuous production could be maintained.

We were soon asked to help with the movement of a couple of loads from Dorset to their distribution warehouse in Sharpness near Gloucester. These loads were requested at very short notice needing to be collected within a couple of hours of notification. The success of these initial jobs led to Bridgeway being given responsibility for the movement of all of the production from Dorset, up to 1700 tonnes per week.

Before Bridgeway became involved a constant lack of communication led to a total breakdown in the trust between the production, transport and distribution functions.

Production plans could not be met due to delays and breakdowns, leading to wasted journeys, idle vehicles and empty distribution warehouses, possibly resulting in unfulfilled customer orders.

Bridgeway undertook a study to visit all production, despatch and distribution staff in Dorset and Gloucester to establish a good working relationship. This led to far better channels of communication enabling a smoother product flow. Bridgeway did not get involved with improvements to the production line or relieve the pressures on the distribution warehouse but could make those parts of the chain more harmonious and consequently more efficient.

Product is distributed in bulk using powder tankers or bagged in both Intermediate Bulk Containers and conventional paper sacks, all of the bagged product is palletised. The bagged product requires very careful handling and storage, damage has traditionally been a problem for Sevalco, the smallest tear in a bag can render a whole pallet of product unacceptable due to the contamination caused by product leakage.

Bridgeway first began supplying transport services to Sevalco in 2002, a few trial loads to the Manchester area were successful and fairly rapidly led to Bridgeway becoming a major supplier for full load traffic. The majority of collections and deliveries are timed and require careful management to ensure customer satisfaction. Sevalco were very happy with both the levels of service and a significant fall in damage complaints.

Because of the success with full load traffic Bridgeway were asked several times if it would take on the distribution of the smaller palletised consignments. A number of hauliers had been tried and discarded by Sevalco who were unhappy with both the number of late deliveries and product damage. They were very concerned that their sales were suffering because of the poor service. Bridgeway agreed to take on this work, and have successfully negotiated with a pallet network to ensure that Sevalco receive an outstanding service with negligible damages and accurate, on time deliveries.

Bridgeway now provides a complete service for the small consignments that includes booking in deliveries directly with customers, arranging returns and handling all of the short notice and sameday deliveries. Sevalco are delighted that at last they have been able to improve their customer service and reduce the incidence of damage by using Bridgeway Freighting. This is particularly important at the moment because the huge recent increases in the cost of oil have put even greater emphasis on the control of waste and maximising customer service.

Bridgeway first became involved with Seawheel about ten years ago moving occasional loads from Tilbury back into South Wales.

When Seawheel took over the Spanish service from Bilbao to Avonmouth they approached Bridgeway for help. Knowing of our previous experience and confident that our service levels would match their own exacting requirements, a partnership was established to service what was for them a new route.

The majority of the import traffic is delivered direct to customers in shipping containers. There are however a number of receivers who are unable to accept deliveries in this format. To satisfy their requirements the goods are transhipped onto standard flatbed or curtain sided vehicles at the port for onward delivery. Bridgeway provide the vehicles for this service to receivers throughout the UK.

Examples of the varied types of cargo transhipped : slates, steel wire, acrylic fibre, ceramic tiles, telephone cable and paper to name but a few.

Seawheel places great emphasis on Customer Service and demand high standards from their suppliers. Many deliveries and collections are timed and require careful supervision. A key requirement is constant communication both with dock staff and Seawheel and advice of any delays or problems.

Just over 2 years ago Bridgeway opened an office on the container terminal at Avonmouth to further improve the communication flow and provide Seawheel with a presence on site. This has led to reduced delays in loading transhipment vehicles and reduction in time spent solving any problems that may arise with transhipment loads.

Most of the finished product is supplied palletised, there is a growing trend for material to be supplied in bulk, particularly to Tarmac suppliers. Excel has recently re-located to a larger modern factory and is a major player in the industry.

The products are distributed throughout the UK and Western Europe.

From a steady start some four years ago when we were given a few trial loads to test our service Bridgeway is now the major supplier of transport services to Excel. The relationship grew rapidly as it became apparent that our reliability, efficiency and flexibility were well in excess of previous suppliers. Within a few months Bridgeway was making a very high percentage of the UK deliveries, as we are today.

With bulk material becoming a more important part of Excel’s development strategy Bridgeway are playing a major part in exploring solutions for the most cost effective and efficient delivery methods for the bulk product.

Excel is in a highly competitive, low value industry and is under extreme pressure to maintain and increase market share. Excellent Customer Service has been a vital factor in winning new business and satisfying the current customer base. The services offered by Bridgeway have been instrumental in utilising this as a key selling point

Eternit approached Bridgeway to provide warehousing facilities in Cardiff for their South Wales based delivery vehicle. This developed into a full depot facility with direct computer links to the Eternit sales office so that customers could make collections directly from our warehouse.

Eternit had a number of regional depots throughout the UK and the Cardiff depot operated by Bridgeway became their top performer in terms of accuracy of stock, quality of handling, and responsiveness to customer needs. Eternit’s annual stock check was an indication of the quality of the service we provided. At Cardiff the annual stock check would take 50% less time than at other depots with little or no errors. This level of accuracy was due to our own warehouse management system and regular stock audits provided as part of our value added service. It is a testament to the meticulous nature of our work in all areas of our business.

The efforts put in at the Cardiff depot led to a request from Eternit for Bridgeway to become involved in the movement of product from the manufacturing points in Royston and Widnes. From a fairly modest start Bridgeway became a reliable supplier of transport, managing the movement of approximately 25% of Eternit’s total production. The deliveries to all parts of the UK, were generally multi drop and included all of Eternit’s urgent deliveries. Our performance record for them was constant at around 98.5%.

The quality of both the depot facility provided and the freight movements controlled by Bridgeway helped Eternit to improve the efficiency and quality of their other depots and transport providers.

ABP in Cardiff were handling reefer ships loaded with orange juice in 45-gallon (205 litre) drums from Brazil. They had already engaged two large and reputable transport companies in the Cardiff area to handle their transport needs. Each ship of approximately 4000 tonnes needed to be discharged within 3 to 4 days. The drums were destined for three cold stores in Cardiff, Manchester and Dartford.

Whilst dealing with the first ship it became clear that the existing transport arrangements were not to coping with the demands of the ship and ABP called on Bridgeway Freighting to help. Whilst there was very little time to prepare we managed to make a significant contribution to the movement of the juice in the last 2 days. For the next ship about 6 weeks later we were asked to be involved from the beginning. Consequently we took responsibility for all of the loads destined for the cold store in Dartford. During that second vessel we were asked to help out with the Manchester deliveries as well.

During our liaisons with the Dartford delivery point a number of ways were identified in which we could help both their situation and that of the port. In preparation for the 3rd vessel we spent a considerable amount of time visiting both Dartford and Manchester at our own instigation clarifying their needs. ABP asked us to take full responsibility for the provision of all transport for that 3rd vessel and all subsequent vessels. As a result we provided an ultimate solution in Cardiff to ensure that ships were never delayed and that both Dartford and Manchester were supplied with deliveries in a consistent and manageable way. Vehicle delays were minimised and deliveries were smoothly effected, without large claims for demurrage.