Back in 1993, A&F Haulage kicked off with Liaqat Ali Majeed at the helm, hauling aggregates for the construction scene in Northwest England. They soon broadened their horizons, diving into Asphalt deliveries for the wider construction community. Fast forward to today, they’re cruising with 100 vehicles spread across 15 spots, from Liverpool to London, with their home base in Bolton, Greater Manchester.
The company’s Managing Director, Hammad Majeed, shares how the firm dealt with its massive growth and why they upgraded the way they work.
HaulTech: Can you talk to us about being a Managing Director of A&F Haulage?
Hammad: To be a Managing Director in this industry, you really need to have a great understanding of it. All the ins and outs of transport, otherwise things will just fall apart. The role involves ensuring the fleet is compliant, customers are happy, drivers are performing well and securing the future and growth of the firm.
HaulTech: What is involved in securing the growth of your firm?
Hammad: Recently, that has involved introducing a new way of working into our business. We used to work on excel spreadsheets which made it immensely difficult to track work and communicate with other staff about changes to jobs. We knew that with our growth the way we were working wasn’t sustainable.
With that realisation we chose to change gears and go with a Transport Management System and it’s really streamlined our processes and made the business even more efficient.
HaulTech: Where have you seen the biggest time savings since using a Job Booking and POD system?
Hammad: Well before a system, we had to wait for our drivers to go out, do their drop-offs and wait for them to come back to the office to get the PODs before our account team could invoice. Now the drivers just take a picture of their collection (or) delivery and it gets sent immediately to the system. We’re not waiting hours or days for the paperwork to come in.
On top of that, the system integrates with our Xero accounting software, so now when a POD comes in, the accounts department can invoice rapidly, in a literal fraction of the time. Because of that, our cash flow has also been bolstered.
HaulTech: Have you seen any other benefits?
Hammad: Because we are based in 15 locations, compiling data used to be hard. With the system, it allows me to create reports per depot or combined and see where we are strong and where we are not doing so well. The reporting helps us to make decisions and gives us answers to questions that we struggled to get before.
HaulTech: Do you see any downsides to using Transport Software?
Hammad: I’ve not noticed any downsides yet, everyone in the company has taken to the system quickly and our staff like using it.
HaulTech: How long did it take for the team to learn the system?
Hammad: The training process was made very easy thanks to HaulTech’s onsite training and one-to-one interactive sessions, this enabled all the admin staff to ask any questions face to face rather than having to constantly pick up the phone or email in. The onsite training was around 4 days and everyone was up and running within 2 weeks.
HaulTech: Would you recommend HaulTech?
Hammad: Yes I would recommend HaulTech for anyone looking to streamline their processes.
We’re honoured to be supporting Hammad and his team at A&F Haulage. If you are looking to streamline your processes then reach out today by clicking here, calling 01782 662244 or saying hello@haultech.co.uk.
