"With a decade each under our belts both Planet Logistics and Courier Exchange have expanded and evolved to cater for today's market. It's been fantastic working with Courier Exchange and its members over the last ten years and here's to the next ten."
SAMEDAY courier specialists, Planet Logistics celebrates two anniversaries this year -it's own ten year birthday and ten years of being part of Courier Exchange, the world's largest trading hub for sameday and express freight carriers.
Established in 2000 by former Lynx employees, David Summerhayes and Glyn Hall, Planet Logistics has grown alongside Courier Exchange.
In the early days it was purely a three-man band with David and Glyn out on the road while colleague, Roger Jackson, a sales expert, pulled in new business.
Now Planet Logistics has three offices, a head office in Gloucester, complete with warehousing, plus offices in Reading and Bristol and it has its own sales force and fleet of vehicles.
However with the increased vehicle resources open to Planet through Courier Exchange David feels he has a fleet large enough to compete with the big corporates on both a local, regional and national level.
Courier Exchange has been an integral part of this expansion according to David,
who has been in transport and logistics for the majority of his working life.
"I think we first learned about it through word of mouth and we thought we'd give it a go to see if it would increase our business. And undoubtedly it has.
"It's a fantastic forum for gaining extra business and increasing capacity and it has definitely helped us increase profits and reduce costs, for us it's a no-brainer in that department."
With a varied but mainly industrial customer base Planet Logistics can deliver whatever the client wishes, from aviation parts to window frames and spares.
Courier Exchange enables them to accept jobs which if they were not part of a trading network they would almost certainly have to refuse.
The Exchange also offers peace of mind with Planet knowing they are calling on a collection of reputable drivers and companies, all checked and verified before being accepted as members.
As David explained: "We can now collect a consignment from Manchester for one of our Gloucester-based customers and deliver it to Ipswich because we can tap into availability on Courier Exchange.
"And you can build up relationships. We have formed some great partnerships and people have become friends, it's become a community as well as a business tool."
With the uncertainty of the last 18 months many customers have needed to re-evaluate their operations. Courier Exchange has helped Planet adapt to these changing markets in order to retain its existing customer base while offering the capacity to meet future expansion.
David said: "Courier Exchange has evolved and developed and we would like to think we have developed and moved forward too with its' assistance.
"It's been a tough time for everyone over the last 18 months but being part of the Courier Exchange has certainly helped us to continue to service our customers in the manner they expect and deserve.
"With a decade each under our belts both Planet Logistics and Courier Exchange have expanded and evolved to cater for today's market. It's been fantastic working with Courier Exchange and its members over the last ten years and here's to the next ten."