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NEARLY THERE
After months of being thrown in and out of lockdowns, the light at the end of the tunnel is beckoning us forward. As we find our paths again and (hopefully) leave lockdowns behind for good, we’re now heading back into the right direction. We’ve all missed the bustling restaurants, the shopping centres, the drunken choruses outside bars; but we also found a love for walking in parks, getting to know our local areas and baking banana bread every other week.
We’re sticking to finding silver linings even as the country slowly opens up again. After a gruelling extended winter, the sun has decided to welcome us back with full force - now is all about seizing every opportunity that comes our way. At Mixed Freight, we stayed positive and worked hard throughout 2020.
The challenges and obstacles the year threw at us have only landed as stepping stones, helping us to come out stronger and better. We’re going to tell you about the challenges and demands of the last 15 months, our business expansion and how we’re investing in our future.
CHALLENGES + DEMANDS
Businesses throughout the country underwent massive adjustments to accommodate for the pandemic, and safety became of paramount importance at Mixed Freight. Like many others, we implemented stringent changes to our operation, ensuring we keep everybody safe; from our own employees, to clients and visitors. Pressures were immense industry-wide, particularly for leading providers like ourselves. It’s easy to become snowed under in the midst of chaos, so it was imperative that we stayed on top of everything
The pandemic had a huge impact on the UK trade, with a notable decline in imports and exports.
From production to distribution, we saw less movements of cargo in the skies - and fewer planes meant less space available for freight that was still travelling.
With less space, it became increasingly important to meet strict cut-off times; not only do you risk incurring penalty charges, you also risk unhappy customers.
With difficult cargo and short turnaround times, we were required to be available at very short notice to both screen and deliver to airlines, and collect, store and distribute.
Even if that meant taking calls during our night operations, we were always ready and able to assist our international clients.
By embracing difficulties and working through the challenges, we always find the answers. Sometimes that involves direct dialogue with the government and other professionals, but on a daily basis it means lots of cross-departmental teamwork - in trying times, this became crucial to ensuring all avenues for solutions were exhausted. This has been one of the most challenging times Mixed Freight and our industry have ever faced.
Our achievements wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work and dedication of everyone at Mixed Freight. Working hard twenty-four hours a day in the offices, the warehouse, and on the road, we were able to keep our clients freight moving, ensuring everything got to where it needed to be. Despite the challenges we faced, we made it through by sticking together as a team. The last 15 months has been a testament to what Mixed Freight is capable of.
EXPANDING OUR BUSINESS
Of course, with the world slowed down, busy days were sporadic (but came with a vengeance). This meant many businesses were left with lots of time on their hands. We at Mixed Freight Services decided to seize this opportunity to improve our business; as a regulated site, we utilised the extra time to focus on updating our systems and making our site even more secure than it had already been.
When you pay us a visit, you’ll notice we’ve revamped our site with a brand-new warehouse extension. Within this, we’ve implemented dedicated security measures for valuable cars (which we see a lot of).
With allocated bays and, of course, CCTV cameras that span the entirety of our twenty-four-seven manned secure site, everything from McLarens and Ferraris to Subarus and Hondas are kept pristine from the moment they’re dropped off to us.
To assist with our operations, we have new automated systems that give us up-to-date information, improving our own efficiency, which also enables us to offer real-time information to customers about the status of their work.
If you want to learn more about our services and how we operate, drop Suzie an email and take a look at her page.
Safety and security are our biggest priorities, and we want to make sure all of our clients know they can rest easy once they leave their goods with us, whether it’s a £2 million car or a pallet of bestselling books.
We’ve also got some more exciting expansion news from our sister company, Heathrow Rent a Truck. We’ve upgraded our fleet to over forty commercial vehicles to meet the increasing demand. HRT remains operational 24/7, which increases the availability for hire , even more. If you’ve broken down at 2 o’clock in the morning, give us a call. You’ll soon be able to read all about this, so keep an eye out for the new upcoming Heathrow Rent a Truck website!
INVESTING IN OUR FUTURE
Now that we’re almost back to normal, it’s time to look towards a brighter future. We’re proud to say that, despite the difficulties far too many businesses have faced, we at Mixed Freight have made no redundancies; in fact, we’ve actually employed new staff over the past year and, as you know, embarked on a new marketing adventure.
Our digital transformation has become - and continues to be - a huge project we’re working on in the midst of everything else. The future is only as bright as your website, crisp, functional, and user-friendly. Our efforts haven’t stopped there, though. We’re releasing content and growing a following on our Instagram, where you’ll get to see our friendly faces. You can read about our collaboration with Digital360 and our commitment to making Mixed Freight accessible through digital over here!
With our office rental hire services, we’ve brought international clients and tenants closer to their cargo, operations and the action at Heathrow airport. This has given us another opportunity to meet and embrace international businesses and cultures, right on our doorstep. By expanding our business and developing our staff, we’re confident we can continue delivering excellent service to our clients.
Our team is at the heart of everything we do, working round the clock to keep the business running, so it’s of paramount importance that we support and develop their skills. We’ve improved both our accounts and HR departments, and are currently in the process of providing new office spaces and moving over to new, state-of-the art software for the team. Head over to our page to meet the guys that make Mixed Freight possible and learn more about the people who make Mixed Freight great.
WELCOMING YOU BACK
Despite the challenges the last fifteen months have thrown at us, Mixed Freight have been committed to keeping the world moving. We’ve remained operational 24/7, 7 days a week, and have consequently grown as a team and a company, continuing to employ more staff to accommodate for the growing business. By putting employee development at the heart of what we do, we can offer our clients the best experience possible.
We want to take this opportunity and optimism to build a bright future with our new expansion and investments. We can’t wait to (finally!) see you all in person. If you want to visit our site, learn more about services or see how we can help you, don’t hesitate to contact us today. We can’t wait to see you soon, and hopefully, not over Zoom.