Driving road freight excellence

Into his second year Metro’s European Director, Richard Gibbs, updates us on his mission to develop the infrastructure, systems and services that will provide the best European transport solutions, for effectiveness and cost efficiency. 

“Metro has expanded its European road freight platform considerably in 2023, growing the dedicated commercial and operational team by 12 and we are forecasting the continuation of this trajectory in 2024, with a 100% further increase in shipment numbers.

European road freight, cross-trade movements and associated customs operations are managed by teams located at our Global HQ in Birmingham, Manchester and Desford.

These dedicated road freight teams leverage their extensive knowledge, market expertise and unrivalled customer service to deliver efficient, road transport solutions, with full visibility and dashboard control available via the MVT supply chain management platform.

It is the teams’ attention to detail and focus on the little things that achieves the ideal balance of lead-time, capacity, frequency and cost, to transform standard road freight services into something very special, that meet every supply chain need.

Departing daily from around the UK and Europe; our secure full load services embrace general cargo, temperature-controlled, garment logistics and out-of-gauge shipments.

Larger part-load movements, over 1,500 kilos, are collected, transported and delivered on the same vehicle which ensure maximum reliability, security and speed.

For urgent shipments we provide an all-in price, transit time and booking for European Express van shipments, including guaranteed next day delivery.

With defined departure and delivery dates, our groupage services are the perfect economical solution for smaller cargo loads. Reliable door-to-door solutions, with easy booking, seamless customs processing and online tracking.

Cargo is received continuously at our midlands hub and continental freight centres for daily groupage departures to and from destinations across Europe, with Q2 expansion of groupage services to/from France/Germany/Benelux/Turkey and Iberia.

Continued growth in customer demand and team members means the team in Manchester has recently increased its office footprint (see pics below) and their road freight colleagues in Desford are in the process of relocating to a new location, which is 500% larger in Earl Shilton, Leicestershire.”

To learn more about our European capability, including FTL/LTL, groupage, express, customs brokerage (CuDoS) and distribution (DDP) solutions EMAIL Richard Gibbs.