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2022 has been a successful year for TJ Transport, despite the many challenges the UK has faced this year. With the world returning to a more ‘normal’ state as the year progressed, this allowed things to improve in many industries. That said, 2022 has still been a mixed bag, with many new issues arising that have caused problems for the entire country.
The soaring fuel and energy prices have affected businesses greatly as they’ve had to find the extra funds to keep themselves operational whilst also remaining competitive in the market. In addition to that, 16% of businesses have reported that inflation of goods and services prices was amongst their top concerns. Whilst, as a haulage company, the petrol prices have had a huge impact on our operations, we’ve worked hard to protect our customers where possible.
The recruitment market has presented challenges too, with 28% of businesses with more than 10 employees experiencing a shortage of workers. Despite this, TJ has managed to stay fully staffed and operational throughout the year, attracting new staff to join the business and utilising our team of sub contract hauliers as and when needed.
Working around these obstacles, we have had much to celebrate this year, including a variety of new contracts won, existing ones well-maintained, new staff employed, existing staff invested in, accolades won, our fleet enhanced, aggregate donations to worthy community projects and fundraising for charities.
Golf club project secured
In the summer we were awarded a contract to upgrade and improve the driving range at Basingstoke Golf Club. The work commenced in the autumn and is expected to take around a year to complete. The construction of the new driving range will involve the importation of many thousands of tonnes of clean soil and we’re working closely with the club and golf course architect Weller Golf Designs Ltd to ensure the driving range aligns with the plans.
Providing essential services to HS2
We’ve been successfully working in partnership with Cemex throughout 2022, delivering haulage services on their behalf for the HS2 project. We have a number of lorries stationed at Langley Quarry, near Heathrow; our drivers travel up together every Monday, returning on Friday. This arrangement allows us to increase efficiency, keeping costs, mileage and omissions down by not driving the lorries back and forth to the south coast. This contract is a five-year deal between ourselves and Cemex to supply between 3 and 6 tipping artic lorries a day, running circa 1250-1500 tonnes of sand and graded stone per week to three different sites along the HS2 network.
Chalk donation to QE Park
We donated 40 tonnes of rock chalk to Queen Elizabeth Country Park near Petersfield to enable the construction of a new bike trail for riders who are keen to try off road cycling for the first time. The Park already has two official bike trails for mountain biking – a Blue Route and Red Route – with the donated chalk being used to construct a new third route. The new trail has been constructed by the Queen Elizabeth Country Park Trail Collective – a group of local mountain bikers volunteers – who work in partnership with the Park. We were more than happy to contribute to the project when approached regarding a donation.
Drivers provide vital assistance to Ukraine Appeal
Two TJ Transport drivers embarked on a mission to Ukraine last summer to deliver much-need supplies to refugees. Drivers Mark Stanley and Peter Hunt felt so strongly about the crisis that they started looking for ways to help. Stella’s Voice, a charity that provides support to refugees in areas of conflict, was looking for drivers to transport donated supplies to Poland, so Mark and Peter signed up.
TJ supported Mark and Peter every step of the way, donating £1,000 to the Go Fund Me page Mark set up, which helped hugely with the fuel costs, whilst colleagues also helped with preparations for the trip. They set off on the four-day round trip and upon arrival, met a contact from the Slovak Mission, an organisation that provides hostel accommodation on the Polish/Ukrainian border for refugees coming out of Ukraine. Mark and Peter’s van contained much-needed sleeping bags, medical supplies, baby supplies, hygiene products and dental products.
Investing in staff
Head of Compliance Jack Macfarlane has successfully undertaken and passed CPC for Transport Managers training with TJ’s support. Jack completed the 10-day intensive course over a two-week period at 2Start in Hilsea. Topics covered include financial management, vehicle costing, drivers hours, business and company law. As a transport company, we have a legal obligation to hold an operator’s licence and declare a competent transport manager on that licence and this CPC training has allowed us to fulfil that requirement.
Charity fundraising
Each year we get involved in a range of fundraising activities for various charities and 2022 was no exception. September saw us take part in Macmillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, raising over £175 for this fantastic cause. Throughout the year we host monthly ‘dress down’ days, whereby staff pay a £2.50 donation to wear casual clothes for the day, with the funds raised going to a different charity each month. Charities that have benefitted in 2022 include The Fostering Network, The Ukraine Red Cross Appeal, NICU at Princess Anne Hospital, Stubbington Ark, Jeans for Genes, the Wessex Kidney Centre at QA Hospital and Save the Children.
Find out more about our services and the work we get involved in or get in touch if there’s anything you’d like our help with.
Source: ons.gov.uk
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