DKV BeNeLux You drive, we care
Written by Neil White, Sales Team Leader United Kingdom & Ireland at DKV
We provide you with intelligent solutions of the highest quality that reliably help you to refuel cheaply, stay mobile, and work efficiently. Always true to our philosophy: “You drive, we care.” However, don’t take it from us. Take it from our customers. I recently got the opportunity to speak with Terry Bleeks, Business Development Manager at Dixon Transport, about our partnership. What is the value of our services for their operations?
Terry, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and about Dixon Transport?
Hi Neil. I am the Business Development Manager for Dixon Transport based in Dublin. In this role I’m responsible for the business relations with our existing customers and for bringing new customers on board. This involves networking, prospecting and pricing. In addition to this I also look after our social media channels and company website.
Our company, Dixon Transport, was founded in 1979 by Michael Dixon Snr and operated until his passing in 1988. The business was restarted a decade later by his son Michael Dixon, and quickly expanded to over 170 trucks and 300 trailers operating in Europe, UK and Ireland, with our core business being in the movement of pharmaceutical, food and retail products. We employ over 200 staff across two offices in Dublin and Coventry. In addition to transport, we also have a temperature-controlled warehouse facility at our Dublin location, with capacity for over 8000 pallet spaces. This will be expanding to over 18,000 pallet spaces in 2022.
What are the future plans and priorities for Dixon Transport?
In the immediate term it’s the expansion of our warehouse facility in Dublin, with completion expected in 2022. We also work on the continuous growth of our business, with plans to increase our footprint both in Irish imports and exports as well as domestic transport within Ireland and the United Kingdom. To facilitate this, we have opened a state-of-the-art office in Coventry a year ago. Central in our all future plans is sustainability and the reduction of our carbon footprint. A number of our trucks are CNG powered and we will continue to invest in this area to further reduce the emissions our vehicles produce.
Can you tell us about your partnership with DKV Mobility?
We have always recognized the fact that DKV Mobility is a market leader for premium services, covering all aspects of on-the-road supply and mobility for truck and car fleets. You can truly call us an early adopter of the solutions DKV Mobility offers as we have been using their products in some shape or form for around 20 years. As DKV Mobility is a reliable company that offers support across a broad network, we have gradually moved all our fuel and toll services to DKV Mobility over the past years.
What do you like best about the products from DKV Mobility?
The broad portfolio of products are beneficial to several departments within our business. From an accounting point of view, the simple invoicing process ensures we have complete insight to all of our toll and fuel charges, which improves our budgeting and forecasting. The live rates for fuel allows our transport planners to proactively inform our drivers where to refuel, which helps us to operate in a cost effective manner. The ease-of-use is also a big bonus for our business. For example, with a fleet of over 170 trucks which is always expanding, the quick installation of the toll boxes into the trucks is a big plus and ensures we have little or no downtime.
Do you use the digital products from DKV Mobility, such as DKV LIVE or DKV eReporting?
We benefit enormously from the online reporting tools. This gives us near realtime insights in our spend on fuel and tolls. This is particularly useful for our commercial department when pricing jobs as it allows us to calculate the exact costs on a particular route. This feeds into our ability to operate efficiently, which is key to being able to offer high quality transport services to our clients. It also helps us to reduce our CO2 emissions, as we can operate our trucks more efficiently.
What stands out in your partnership with DKV Mobility?
Our relationship with DKV Mobility is very positive and constructive. Not only does the company offer bespoken, cost effective and easy-to-deploy solutions that empower an efficient operation, they also continuously introduce innovative new features that are useful to hauliers like us. In addition to this, the team is eager to listen to our feedback – and to use this feedback actively to further improve products and services.