Celebrating 5 Years Of Excellence: The Story

Today marks Hartley Logistic's 5 years of operation. While we celebrate 5 years of distribution excellence, we are going to leave you with the story of how it all began... It all started with our CEO, Dominic Hartley. Back in early 2013, he secured a temporary job at the company Eddie Stobart, so he could gain experience behind the wheel of an arctic lorry.

His truck was a 2011 Scania Streamline. He spent most of his trucking career inside the cab. Eating, drinking and sleeping, it was his home on the road. Eventually, by September of 2013, word had got out that Dominic had saved up enough money to start up a business. He purchased his first garage in Plymouth, where the business' hub is still located but he couldn't afford his first truck. However, Dominic's manager at Stobart had told him that his truck was going to be sold for a low price as it had reached it's maximum mileage for the Stobart operating rules so Dominic decided to purchase the Scania S and even had enough left over to make it his own. And so, with that done, Dominic started up the company, back then known as Hartley Transport on Sunday 3rd of November, 2013.

The business had set off well with 3 trucks by the end of 2013 and two drivers, Miriam and Carl who have now retired from the company. Hartley Transport wasn't like many other companies. They didn't have any trailers but instead decided to rent out their three trucks and two other drivers, as well as Dominic, to haulage companies who had no trucks to deliver loads. Dominic had felt that this was a very good and steady way to go about business for a very long time.

As more money came in, Dominic thought it would be best to expand the business. They first thought it would be best to join hands with another business so they decided to join hands with a local coach firm, Callington And District with their company CEO, Bradley Roberts. From this, Hartley Transport were able to open a subsidary company, JAD Travel (Jubilant And Different). Unfortunately, Callington And District had experienced financial difficulties in lending JAD with the three coaches so JAD Travel had to be closed early 2015 and the partnership between Hartley Transport and Callington And District was officially discontinued. After this, Dominic Hartley had changed the business name from Hartley Transport to what we all know today, Hartley Logistics. A couple of years pass and we enter 2017. Hartley Logistic's COO, Bradley Roberts decides to leave so he could focus on extending his Callington And District business even further. This left Hartley Logistics in a situation without a Cheif Operating Officer. With Dominic already being super busy, he had to hire someone to take over the role of COO. One person who was perfect for the job was P.W. Limited's CEO, Philip Weston. After loads of communication, meetings and deals, Hartley Logistics and P.W. Limited had become business partners and P.W. Limited's CEO was also made the COO of Hartley Logistics. Since the introduction of Philip into the business, Hartley Logistics have been expanding quickly and bringing in annual profits of around £23 Million. With all this money, Hartley Logistics decided to purchase 3 garages and open a driving school (SouthWest Driving School) where new drivers will work towards getting a HGV license with a guaranteed job with Hartley Logistics at the end.

This was a very smart move in the end as Hartley Logistics counted up profits of around £30 Million at the start of 2018 before tax. In February of 2018, Hartley Logistics had purchased a number of Heavy Haulage trucks to transport wide loads, bringing in even more money.

With all this, Hartley Logistics became one of the most valuable haulage firms in the UK with a total value of £402 Million in August 2018.

Then the month of September came along and Hartley Logistics had made the biggest order to date. The had contacted Krone trailer company to order over 250 trailers for the company. This had set them back around £50 Million and the order consisted of Flatbed trailers, Curtain Siders, Refrigirated Trailers and also Biomass Trailers. Hartley Logistics was then no longer a truck and driver rental company but instead, its very own haulage firm. That now brings us to this day. Saturday 3rd of November 2018. 5 years after the very begining. With over 200 trucks, 5,000 staff members and 70 depots across the UK and Europe, Hartley Logistics is now a well known, trusted brand. But the thing all of us at Hartley Logistics LTD value are the hundreds of thousands of smiles we have put on the faces of our customers. And because of this, we will push on further. Here's to 5 years of excellence, 5 years of deliveries and 5 years of smiles.