£6.5 billion wasted in road freight

Operators could save up to £6.5 billion a year by improving vehicle capacity utilisation, according to David Jennison, managing director of OnTruck.

Speaking at the Commercial Vehicle Show, he said: “At least a third of UK trucks on the road are empty at any one time and the remainder, on average, are only 68 per cent loaded. This means that for over 50 per cent of the time a truck is on the road it is not earning money.”

Most businesses remaining tied to the use of manual, offline processes such as phone or fax. However, when it comes to finding the best suppliers, lowest prices or the best tool then the internet is the go to.

“Most matching of shipment to haulier is done this way and routing is typically manual, or left to the haulier to figure out. Our analysis suggests that a technology driven approach to pricing, shipment matching and routing would drive a 25 per cent improvement in efficiency, resulting in immense savings for UK road freight businesses. This is money that UK businesses can ill afford to waste,” said Jennison.

OnTruck launched in the UK in September last year providing an online marketplace for road haulage companies.