Delivering our products

Every week our UK business delivers an average of 750,000 tonnes of aggregates, asphalt and cement and 80,000 cubic metres of ready-mixed concrete by rail, water and road. We also ship around a million bricks and thousands of tonnes of precast concrete products. 

On-time delivery of quality products is essential to our continuing success. That’s why we employ dedicated logistics teams to focus on this key area. They work closely with operations, sales and service centre staff to improve both distribution efficiency and customer service.

We recognise that logistics is more than simply product distribution. It encompasses the whole spectrum of customer service – getting the right product at the right quality to the right place, on time, every time and with the best and most sustainable use of transport. 

Road, rail and water

Our products are delivered to customers in a fleet of around 1,300 Hanson and Castle Cement-liveried vehicles, some company-owned but the majority operated by external contractors or by owner-drivers under a franchise scheme. Additional hired vehicles are used as required and we also operate a fleet of rail locomotives and wagons through a joint venture rail freight business, Mendip Rail.

Our marine dredging business operates a fleet of modern trailing suction dredgers which extract sand and gravel from licensed areas of the sea bed in the North Sea, the English Channel and the Bristol Channel. The fleet supplies more than 30 wharves around Britain, and in mainland Europe from Amsterdam to Le Havre. 

We also move materials by barge using the River Thames and the Grand Union Canal to supply ready-mixed concrete plants with sand and gravel.

A key part of our logistics management is to measure and improve service performance. A good deal of time and effort is spent gathering and analysing data surrounding vehicle availability, plant availability, late loads, customer call-back and vehicle utilisation. 

Improving truck utilisation is a key performance target for the business; we are also trialling the use of alternative fuels in our road transport vehicles.