Posted: June 6, 2011 ALLIANCE WINS MAJOR 3PL CONTRACT
ALLIANCE WINS MAJOR 3PL CONTRACT
The Alliance Group of companies, with a network of offices and depots across the United Kingdom & The USA, have today ratified a 3PL deal with the Multi-National Northrop Sperry Grumman Marine Group Head Quartered in the USA, to operate their proprietary in house “Client Interface” service, handling all aspects of logistics, Letters of Credit negotiation, invoicing stock management and despatch of multimodal cargoes on both an export and import basis.
This deal, brokered by Alliance group executive directors, Mr Gary Waller and David Tighe is the culmination of negotiations and over a period of 18 months, is one of many such contracts that start life as an “In-House” arrangement, when typically a shipping Manager, or senior similar logistics staff are not replaced following retirement or departure, with the costs savings of such an exercise ultimately reducing the contracting clients salary budget often by many hundreds of thousands of pounds in staffing costs and peripheral benefits.
“We are usually alerted by potential clients when we see a decline in their efficiencies, following a staff members departure, and have come to expect a lowering of their own clients service levels when they have been unable to replace the incumbent (departed) senior Manager” explained David Tighe the Alliance Group Managing Director. He further explained that Alliance offer to send a team in on an initial secondment basis to prepare a free of charge report as to their opinion of the viability of either maintaining that department as an ongoing units, and offer a two tier service based on:
i) An Alliance in-house implant to run the department in the absence of a suitable manager, whilst we assist the company in recruiting suitable senior replacement
ii) A total absorption of the shipping and logistics function into the Alliance Group in-house logistics department in our London Head office.
The usual modus operandi for clients is that Alliance prepare a full report on the logistics department following the implant facility (see (i) above, making recommendations to either recruit replacement staff, or, as is the case in many instances, it is more viable to consider the reduction or even closure of the department as an ongoing entity, with all facets of the logistics function being outsourced, as the most cost effective and logical step to take.
This allows clients to focus on their core business, and enables them to have a full blown (albeit remote) off site shipping and logistics department that operates 24/7 with no issues concerning vacations, sickness and other absences.
“The Northrop 3PL agreement has, due to ancillary staff contracts, invoked appropriate TUPE employment regulations, which our own HR department has handled with aplomb” continued Gary Waller, the Group Chairman, “as the new employer we accept the liability for the contracts of the existing staff members, and offer them similar employment at a number of our Group locations, to ensure minimum disruption, and wherever possible ongoing continuity of the shipping and despatch functions.”
The Northrop Grumman deal would be a highly prestigious acquisition for any freight forwarding concern, from the shipment of complete “IBS” units (ships bridges) for global fleets both on a merchant and a military basis, down to the airfreight of vital spare parts, The Alliance Group offices have the “know-how” and capacity to handle the same, with many multinational clients being served well by this Interface facility, and as such the Alliance Group, (founded by Gary Waller in 1975) is rapidly becoming an “old hand” in this specialised aspect of the industry, having weathered the vagaries of several recessions, dock strikes and industrial unrest in the East London docks and container terminals in the 1970’s.
“We celebrated 36 years of trading on June 1st 2011 and now enjoy global recognition and respect with our multimodal (I.A.T.A.) air and sea freight groupage services, over 200 reciprocal agencies worldwide, and a multiplicity of value added logistics services” continued Waller.
“To mark the advance towards its 4th decade of operation, The Alliance Group has launched a new and interactive website encompassing order tracking, sailing schedules and a full menu of export and import services, to assist both first time export or import clients and regular clients alike” he said.
“With our core import & export FCL & groupage services, airfreight consols, deep sea projects department and ongoing dominance in key trade lanes, we are set to see many more decades of trading and growth to come”