Palletforce developed the Alliance system at its Burton-upon-Trent hub.

Palletforce has invested GBP1 million (USD1.6 million) in the Alliance system, its IT infrastructure that has been rolled out to all of its members.

The member-owned palletised distribution network took a year to develop and deploy the system from the ground up at its Burton-upon-Trent hub.

Palletforce CEO Michael Conroy says: "Alliance is a purpose-built system which has been designed to facilitate the future growth of our network while supporting members to continue providing efficient, quality service."

Palletforce says Alliance allows full visibility of customers' freight from collection to delivery, including online information and comprehensive invoicing functionality, to provide members with a complete IT solution.

IT director Dean Hughes calls the development and implementation of the Alliance system across Palletforce's entire network "a great success".

"It was delivered both on time and on budget and is now a very active system being used by all member depots," Hughes explains.

Palletforce can modify and adapt the system to suit its unique needs and its members' and customers' requirements. Since the first phase of installation last June, the system has attracted 900 regular users and offers "99.9% availability, equivalent to about one hour of down-time a year".

Palletforce also provides classroom and online training to ensure users are updated with the enhancements that are developed.

"This active support from members means that many of the recent developments are based on ideas from our members," Hughes says.