Pallet network Pall-Ex celebrated its 10th birthday on Saturday night with a dinner for 400 at the super smart Celtic Manor Hotel in Wales. Hilary Devey, managing director, recalled the first night on November 20 1996 when, operating from a pre-fabricated building, the network delivered 117 pallets. The network has grown at rates of more than 100% a year and now, says Hilary, it is still seeing grwoth of 25%. Pall-Ex has is now acquiring more land adjoining the hub, for a 150,000 sq ft warehouse.
At the dinner she paid tribute to all the original members and also made a special Award to Paul Shaw of Leach Distribution, who has won the depot of the year award three times. Hilary also presented a cheque for £14,680 to industry charity Transaid, being the money raised through donating a penny a pallet to Transaid and also through collections at the dinner.
Hilary is one of the most prominent people in the whole industry and has fought hard to make Pall-Ex the success it has become. It has become probably the best known name in the pallet industry surpassing those who moved into the market earlier. It also has a extremely impressive hub that is a testiment to it professionalism.

The UK industry is at risk of being left behind in some of the new developments, Kerry McDonagh, board member for marketing and sales at Daf Trucks warned last night. He said that while the UK Government has finally commissioned some research on longer and heavier trucks, Dutch operators are well ahead with operational trials taking place.
Incentives for Euro 5 vehicles have already been introduced in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands, he said. “That is good for the industry and good for the environment.
“The rather fevered debate about SCR versus EGR is really rather futile. He added: “Customers don’t buy trucks for technology reasons. They buy a Renalt because it’s a Renault, a Scania because it is a Scania and a Daf because it is a Daf. They buy a brand, with all that entails in back-up, image, residuals and all the rest.”
More than 45% of Daf’s customers are now opting for Euro 5. “That’s today without any concrete incentives to encourage them. Elsewhere where there are sensible incentives, the figures are even higher. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland and The Netherlands it is excess of 85%.”