Are your looking for an FD or CFO from the Transport and Logistics sector? Or a Finance Director that has previously worked with Transport and Logistics businesses? Then you have come to the right place, here at FD Capital Recruitment we have a large database of candidates all with Transport and Logistics sector expertise.

Having previous experience within Transport and Logistics business is essential for an FD to be able to make the biggest impact.

The sector has faced significant challenges which have impacted it more than others, these are sometimes referred to as the cauldron of costs. Life in a lot of transport companies is tough and pressured as a result.

The National Living wage increase has impacted on many warehouse roles and as transport and logisitics business are often larger employers then the apprentice levy applies.

The sector traditionally did not provide pensions to its staff, so has been significantly impacted by the auto-enrolment pension contributions.  Whilst very welcome nationally it means that companies are facing costs of 3% of payroll when previously they paid £nil.  Pension costs are likely to have to rise in the near future as the funding levels provided by 3% employers and 5% employees on a band of income are a long way short of what is needed to provide a replacement income pension.  Typically contributions of between 7 and 9% of all income will be needed by both employees and employers alike.

The  newly announced increase in national insurance is also likely to impact on the sector assuming it applies equally to employees and employers.

Brexit and Covid have had big impacts as the sector was reliant on large numbers of Eastern European drivers who were able to work in the UK when we had free movement of labour.  Following Brexit that is no longer an option and the UK economy is suffering with the shortages that have resulted from that.  The Covid Pandemic of course hit the sector as a % of drivers and staff tested positive meaning that they were not able to attend work.  The Government Furlough scheme has been widely used by the sector to support itself during the times when work was interrupted.

Even before Brexit the UK economy was very successful in creating jobs and unemployment was around 4%, as transport companies typically recruit within 5 miles of their depots, this caused issues as the pool of available labour was greatly reduced.  We regularly advertise roles, check out our Finance Director Job Board for our latest ones.

Lastly companies are not that robust at passing on costs and have often had issues in increasingly their charge rates in competitive markets.  Having the right FD on board can make a big difference to how effectively a company is able to monitor and control these cost pressures.

Understanding the challenges noted above and having experience working with the culture within transport businesses is one of the Unique Selling Propositions that we offer, our team have worked with these companies for many years and have built up industry knowledge and experience, plus useful contacts within the sector which can be drawn upon when needed.

The sector needs to adapt to the post Brexit and new economic reality and there is likely to be a lot of consolidation within the sector as this change takes place across the sector.  Our team are very experienced at raising funding both debt and equity and are particularly strong within the Private Equity funding space, it therefore makes sense to source an experienced FD through us as we are very well connected with funding partners.

Having a keen eye for savings and tight monitoring of contract profitability is essential for success in this sector.  As noted above there are more challenges likely to appear in the next years as the economy settles back down to a post Brexit equilibrium.  At some point the sector will need to address the use of diesel in its HGV vehicles, there are alternative fuels such as Hydrogen and electic HGV such as the Tesla prototype but these all come with higher and potentially far higher costs again.

The future may involve great use of driverless vehicles and even automation to load and unload vehicles, but at this point in time that is very hard to imagine other than as part of the very distant future.  The national switch to using ecommerce and home delivery in place of high street shopping means that the sector will continue to see increased demand, even thought the supply of drivers remains and will remain limited.

All that said, this is an interesting and dynamic sector to work in and we are always interested to take on new senior financial recruitment business in this area.

We have grown and grown and had our busiest year so far in 2020 with some of our team working six days per week.  Many of our team and most of our candidates are ICAEW qualified.  See more of the areas covered by FD capital here.

Our main offices are based in Great Portland Street, London.  We however now have FD’s all around the Country and can offer near national coverage.

We pride ourselves on always being friendly and professional, plus our approach reflects that we are team made up of FD’s and professional recruiters, so you can be sure of talking with someone who knows first hand what your issues and situation is likely to be. Many of our team have been entrepreneurs themselves so can really relate to our owner manager client base. See our sectors page to find more of our specialist Finance Directors.

Because we are so experienced we always find the best candidates.

Call us today for a no obligation initial discussion

Have one of our specialists call you back to discuss your hiring needs.