2008 to be Year of the Freight Exchange

With continued freight industry unrest at the price of UK fuel, many hauliers and lorry drivers are finding it increasingly difficult to turn in a profit. Not so for Haulage Exchange, a subscription based freight exchanges, who have announced a record number of loads and backloads on their system despite the general industry recession.

Since 2006 the past two years, Haulage Exchange's membership numbers have grown 130%, with the total number of loads on the freight exchange also seeing a massive increase, growing by 160%. With the tough political environment for road haulage professionals, it looks like 2008 could be a big year for Haulage Exchange, and other notable online freight exchanges operating.

Haulage Exchange Manager Luke Davies believes there are a number of factors for this rapid growth, but the main area is definitely the increasing hardship faced by lorry drivers balking at the cost of fuel: "Obviously the price of fuel is a major issue with our membership - you can tell that just by visiting our message boards - but I think in a way it's created a great sense of solidarity between Britain's lorry drivers. In the past there's been a suspicion towards freight exchanges, because it involves potentially helping your competitors. But the price of fuel has made more people - especially owner operators - try it, and I think they're seeing that actually the benefits outweigh the paranoid suspicion that you may be advantaging your rivals at your own expense," he said. "As a result, our numbers are at the highest they've been since we opened the site in 2005 - both in membership numbers and number of loads to move posted on the freight exchange. We have responded to this demand by adding in some new features to the site, that we hope will make the process of finding loads for our members' lorries that little bit easier."

These new features have been trialled on Haulage Exchange's sister site Courier Exchange, for some time, and is now being rolled out to the freight exchange for larger vehicles. The first of these is called 'epay', and allows hauliers to deal with all their invoices and payments electronically online, allowing owner operators and haulage companies to arrange their finances quickly and easily - and this is fully compatible with Haulage Exchange's mobile services. The second is the glamorously titled 'Tramp' which is a fully featured transaction hub for each load swapped via the freight exchange, and allows confirmation of loads to be exchanged via email, fax and mobile.

"It's unusual for a company to be thriving in such tough times for the road haulage industry in general, but obviously I'm not going to be complaining," commented Davies. "It's just especially awarding that we can help out Britain's lorry drivers in times of adversity while still maintaining a healthy business," he concluded.

About Haulage Exchange:

With offices in London and Nottingham, Haulage Exchange (http://www.haulageexchange.co.uk) is one of the UK's leading independent freight exchanges for the 7.5 Tonne market and beyond. Its sister site, Courier Exchange, is the UK's biggest exchange for express and same day movements and is now in its sixth year of trading.

Membership of the exchange is limited to accredited transport professionals, and offers them the chance to buy and sell domestic and international road transport industry services such as full loads, backloads, return loads, freight forwarding, and road haulage.

For more information, please contact Lyall Cresswell:

Haulage Exchange

Cumberland House

80 Scrubs Lane

London

NW10 6RF

020 8968 4105

2008 to be Year of the Freight Exchange

2493 readers online...

2008 to be Year of the Freight Exchange

Search