Truck and Track Summer 2025 www.truckandtrack.com 38 PALLET NETWORKS UK pallet volumes showed significant growth in Q1 2025, across all pallet sizes and services, against the same period in 2024. Key points include: ■ Total pallet volumes YTD 2025 were 3.4% higher than the same period 2024 ■ Over 7.2 million pallets were delivered across the UK’s eight major networks ■ Next-day volumes in Q1 2025 were 3.5% higher than in Q1 2024 ■ Economy volumes in Q1 were 3.0% higher than in the same period 2024 ■ Home deliveries are up by four percentage points in Q1 2025 against Q1 2024, with a total of 15.3% of pallets delivered to residential addresses To date in 2025, next-day services account for 61.1% of the total volume and economy services 38.9%. This is a marginal shift towards the use of economy services compared to the services split in full year 2024. All pallet sizes have grown in volumes to date in 2025 against 2024 volumes, with 3.8% growth in full pallets, 3.7% for half-pallets and 1.6% for quarter pallets. APN chairman Paul Sanders says, “It has been an excellent start to the year for the UK’s pallet networks and a healthy indicator for the economy as a whole. The growth has been relatively consistent across all services and pallet sizes, which suggests a strong uplift in consumer and business demand.” Service levels have remained high at an average 96.5% of consignments delivered within the specified service criteria. The ongoing safety focus at UK Hubs, reinforced by the annual Health and Safety at Work Week which occurred at the end of April, has continued to drive safety improvements. After six years of incident reductions, with a slight increase in 2024, the networks are again achieving record safety results. So far in 2025, there has been a 26.7% reduction in incidents so far this year, with an average of 0.3 incidents per 100,000 pallets delivered, lower than the 2023 record of 0.36 incidents per 100,000 pallets. Sanders says, “It’s pleasing that the sector has maintained its high service levels despite the growth in volumes. It’s even more important and satisfying that we have continued to work more safely and drive injury incidents down to record lows. Our aim is to achieve zero harm in the workplace.” The average weight per pallet resumed its downward trajectory, after the slight increase in 2024, falling lower than in any previous year at 364kg per pallet. www.theapn.co.uk Paul Sanders, Chairman of the Association of Pallet Networks Pallet networks see promising growth boost in Q1 2025 TRUCK & TRAILER SOLUTIONS WELCOME TOALLPORTS GROUP allportsgroup.co.uk
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