The haulage and distribution industry might have had a difficult time in the last few years, but there is money to be made, as the latest Motor Transport Top 100/Fastest Growing survey, produced in association with Barclays Bank, shows.
The figure I always look at is the return on sales (ie profit margin). That enables you to have a direct comparison between the very largest and very smallest companies.
It shows, for example that Citylink made a return on sales of just over £20% and Turners (Soham) Ltd did very well with a return of very nearly 14%. TNT UK achieved a return of just over 10%.
But these are big players. Yet Stan Robinson got a return of just over £17% and Grocontinental achieved 7.12%. Both Knowles Transport and Fergusons (Blyth) had returns of £12%.
The average return on turnover is now 2.78%. It is not a huge amount; but is possible to survive with that. And as people such as Stan Robinson and Turners (Soham) have show, it is also possible to get a very good profit.