Simarco Proud Of Marathon Men

Simarco are delighted to confirm that not one, but two of our valued team members completed the London Marathon at the weekend.

The onerous twenty-six mile journey starts at Greenwich, crossing Tower Bridge and taking in Trafalgar Square, before heading up The Mall to Buckingham Palace. Both Steve Wherrett and Chris Langohr of Simarco were there at the end.

Steve Wherrett completed the course with a chip time of 3 hours, 28 minutes and 15 seconds and commented:

“With the kind help of family, friends and colleagues I have managed to raise over £3000 in donations for Farleigh Hospice, a charity very close to my heart.  As expected, the race itself was incredibly tough but enormous fun at the same time. Many of my family and friends were among the hundreds of thousands of supporters that braved the weather to create an unforgettable carnival atmosphere”.

Steve thanked his sponsors and supporters and while still feeling the effects has already entered the ballot to do it all again in 2024. He added:

“My advice to anyone would be to ‘do it’ if you get the chance. Don’t worry about the time, as the longer it takes, the more fun you have and the more incredible people you meet along the way”.

Meanwhile, Chris Langohr completed the marathon in a time of 4 hours 42 mins and 9 seconds, and told us:

“It was definitely one of the best experiences and days of my life. All was going so well until around the eighteenth mile when my legs were constantly cramping, which meant I hobbled over the finish line. The support from the crowds was insane and definitely helped me get to the end”. 

The directors and staff of Simarco are very proud of Steve and Chris.

Simarco plant over nine thousand trees with Ecologi

Last month was the official ‘International Day Of Forests’, which also means its over one year since we started planting trees with Ecologi.

Simarco has been working with Ecologi in building it’s forest since February 2022. The climate based solutions business have made a huge impact, so far planting 60.9 millions trees and avoiding 2.5 million tonnes of CO₂e.

During our 14 months, we are delighted to have made our own positive impact on the world by being responsible for the planting of 9,750 trees and 96 tonnes of carbon reduction.

Simarco are also aligned with Ecologi’s Science Based Targets Initiative who recommend tree planting as one of the climate solutions to remove residual emissions to reach net zero. 

For more information on Ecologi please visit: https://ecologi.com/

Developing the next generation of budding logisticians

Simarco was delighted to be invited to attend a careers fair at Maltings Academy, Witham, Essex, hosted by Priti Patel MP.

This was a great opportunity for us to meet many enthusiastic students from various schools in the area and talk to them about a career in worldwide logistics and supply chain management. 

We are committed to developing the next generation of budding logisticians and continue to do so via our extensive use of apprenticeships and training. Thank you to our hosts for the warm welcome and we look forward to welcoming students to the next event!

If you are interested in working for Simarco, whether you are starting out on your journey or as an experienced colleague, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at recruitment@simarco.com.

Two new upgrades to the Simarco fleet

It has been a busy time for Simarco’s domestic transport division recently, and they were delighted to welcome new upgrades to help cater for an increase in demand.

Two brand new DAF vehicles joined the fleet this month and due to high demand have been put to work immediately by the team.

Simarco are continuing to invest in new vehicles equipped with the latest technology, which enables us to maintain optimum service levels, while also improving health and safety for our drivers, customers, and other road users.

By utilising modern technologically advanced vehicles, we are also improving fuel efficiency and creating less emissions for the environment, which helps us continue to achieve our ongoing sustainability goals.

Northern Ireland trade deal near completion

MP’s voted overwhelmingly in favour of the ‘Stormont Brake’ in the House of Commons yesterday, which is the key component in the UK approving the new Northern Ireland trade deal.

According to the government, this was the only chance that parliament had to reject the Windsor Framework, as there will be no further votes on the new deal. This follows news that the EU also passed the key elements of the deal this week.

We expect the deal, which should reduce a lot of the red tape involved with moving goods to and from Northern Ireland, to be phased in this year.

Simarco are continuing to monitor developments closely, as we provide established daily groupage and FTL (full trailer load) services to Belfast, with 48 hour and next day deliveries.

We also provide a daily import service for groupage and FTL, along with an express next day service.

The main features of our services include:

• Daily Northern Ireland export service
• Express Next day delivery
• 48 Hour delivery
• Accompanied trailers
• TSS completed by Simarco
• Full supplementary declaration on request
• Daily import service – Next day available

Ruby’s First Round of the BMX European Cup

As we confirmed last week, Simarco are sponsoring Ruby Moores who is competing this year in the UEC BMX European Cup, racing in the age 13-14 class.

Rounds one and two have just taken place at the BMX Olympic Arena in Verona, and we would like to share Ruby’s progress.

There were 47 girls in Ruby’s ‘joint’ race category and, as one of the youngest competitors, the weekend was always going to be an uphill challenge. In Saturday’s round one, she missed out on the final by 1 place when finishing in 9th position, although ordinarily that would have seen her finish 2nd in her actual age group.

On Sunday, during round two, Ruby did amazingly well in her qualifying races, beating girls amongst the best in the world to qualify comfortably for the semi finals. Ruby then came third to ensure her final place, before finishing 7th overall in the joint category final – the equivalent of first in her actual age group.

So, a great start to the European Cup ! Ruby now get’s a weekend off before heading to Kent next week for the first event in the National season. 

Simarco sponsor Ruby for European BMX season

Simarco are delighted to be sponsoring Ruby Moores who races BMX bikes competitively throughout Europe and is set for the season’s first event this weekend.

Rounds one and two of the UEC BMX European Cup are due to take place on the 18th and 19th March at the BMX Olympic Arena in Verona. Ruby will be racing in the age 13-14 class.

The European Cup competition continues throughout the summer, with 10 Rounds held in the five locations of Italy, Belgium, Latvia, Czech Republic and Norway. This is followed by the Final Rounds, which are to be held in Portugal on 2nd and 3rd September.

The team at Simarco will be following Ruby’s progress very closely and wish her every success for the weekend and the rest of the season.

Simarco deliver the Guinness ahead of St Patrick’s Day

As St Patrick’s Day was approaching, the Simarco team were busy ensuring that a 3000 kgs air cargo project was delivered on time for the Guinness Gives Back 1m Hours Pledge.

Our job was to air freight, deliver and help set up a kinetic brand display experience for the City of Chicago Plaza during a small window on the 9th March.

Meeting the complex criteria required hours of planning from our Air Cargo Team. Coordinating through our US partners, many calls were made in the early hours of the morning to ensure the delivery met with the brand’s social impact initiative.

The display generates electricity from visitors footsteps on an energy floor, which helps to unlock community service donations as part of the Guinness Gives Back 1m Hours Pledge.

Guinness donates $1 million to food banks across America and this project encourages the US public to donate voluntary community hours, targeting 1 million hours between now and January 2024.

Simarco were honoured to have been involved in such a worthy project and pleased to have helped by delivering on time, ahead of St Patrick’s Day.

Team Simarco walked To China (and almost half way back)

Simarco staff successfully completed their ‘Walk to China’ challenge this week, and very nearly managed to walk half of the way back.

Thankfully, this did not lead to team members relinquishing their work duties and heading off to arrive in Beijing for the summer. The challenge was to collectively walk 4,846 miles, the equivalent of walking from the UK to China, between January 9th and February 28th.

We are delighted to confirm that the team completed 6,575 miles over the seven-week period; which means they walked an additional 1,729 miles!

The Simarco Connections organised the competition to promote a healthy start to 2023 and invited all staff to get out walking and recording their steps. 

Simarco felt this would be a great initiative for staff wellbeing and followed the team’s progress with great interest.  As it turned out, they exceeded expectations and would probably have been in Kazakhstan when the task ended; on their way back.

Northern Ireland: The new Trade Deal with the EU

The UK’s Prime Minister has confirmed that a new deal has been made with representatives of the EU, regarding movements between Northern Ireland and the rest of the country.

The ‘Windsor Framework’ has to pass through votes in parliament and the European Commision, but we could see a phased implementation start to roll out by the end of this year.

The key components of the new deal include:

• Goods from Britain destined for Northern Ireland will travel through a new “green lane”, with a separate “red lane” for goods at risk of moving on to the EU.
• Products coming into Northern Ireland through the green lane will see checks and paperwork significantly reduced, while red lane goods will still be subject to normal checks.
• A “Stormont brake” allows the Northern Ireland Assembly to raise an objection to “significantly different” new EU rules which would apply in Northern Ireland.
• Northern Ireland would also no longer have to follow certain EU rules, for example on VAT and excise for some drinks and goods.

Simarco will be monitoring developments closely, as we already provide established daily groupage and FTL (full trailer load) services to Belfast, with 48 hour and next day deliveries.

We also provide a daily import service for groupage and FTL plus an express next day service.

The main features of our services include:

• Daily Northern Ireland export service
• Express Next day delivery
• 48 Hour delivery
• Accompanied trailers
• TSS completed by Simarco
• Full supplementary declaration on request
• Daily import service – Next day available