TIP and Bibby’s 8-year partnership is stronger than ever
Following the closure of its Wigan workshop in 2011, Bibby Distribution started its relationship with TIP Trailer Services as part of a planned future trailer maintenance strategy. Initially TIP provided purely maintenance services to support Bibby’s 1,200 strong nationwide trailer fleet, however, over the next eight years, that support has developed into a comprehensive maintenance strategy as the Bibby fleet grew in size as a result of numerous significant logistics contract wins.
By 2019, 100% of the Bibby Distribution fleet is now managed by TIP covering over 1,400 trailers, including the recent fleet investment deal for over 260 new trailers, all of which has been sourced through TIP. In addition, sister company TIP Tankers also manages the maintenance requirements of a further 150 tanker trailers from within the overall Bibby fleet.
As part of its ongoing partnership arrangement with TIP, Bibby Distribution uses a variety of TIP’s services including lease, flexible lease, rental, contract maintenance and ‘pay as you go’ maintenance. However, the focus is very much on compliance and the key to the successful relationship is just how closely the dedicated teams from both companies work with each other.
Adam Purshall, head of fleet and procurement, Bibby Distribution, explains, “With a dedicated team led by account manager Luc Kergoat, TIP provides us with an exclusive account handling process as part of our partnership arrangement. This gives us continuity of staff and a seamless approach in conjunction with our operating procedures.”
Adam continues, “Over the eight years, it’s become a very stable relationship and it has grown alongside the expanding Bibby operation, with the TIP team regularly updating and introducing new initiatives into our standard working processes.”
As part of the overall framework agreement, monthly KPI review meetings are held between the two companies, together with yearly strategy meetings to help deliver continual improvement in market leading compliance performance.
Throughout 2019, TIP and Bibby Distribution continue to work closely together, in particular on IT development programmes to further integrate their respective IT systems, creating less paperwork and enhancing the digitisation of their processes.
As Adam concludes, “Digitisation, particularly the move to digital inspection sheets, will help improve our efficiencies in the area of compliance management of our fleet, moving forward.”
There is no doubting that this partnership has grown considerably over the past eight years with TIP also recently supplying 150 new trailers to Bibby Distribution at the end of 2018 and into early 2019, consisting mainly of Lawrence David tri-axle curtainsided trailers. This has now been followed by a further order for 110 Don Bur and SDC trailers as part of the ongoing fleet upgrade programme for delivery in June and July 2019.
Bibby Distribution is part of the family owned group Bibby Line Ltd, and provides services covering the end to end supply chain, from materials into manufacturing plants to sequencing, storage, and distribution. The company operates from more than 90 locations across the UK, employing over 2,000 people and operating over two million square feet of warehousing space.
