Bulk Group – Innovative logistics solutions for domestic and international markets

Handling the supply chain of any company, big or small, is a very challenging task. Most companies rely on others for all of their transport, supply chain, and logistics needs; although finding a reliable partner is not always easy. The Bulk Group, a privately owned family business, have been making a name for themselves over the past five years as one of the only supply chain solutions that can deal with consignments of any size or difficulty. Slowly but surely, the brand has become a trusted name in the business world of Australia in both domestic transports, 3PL warehousing and international imports and exports.

In August 2016, Bulk Transport Australia was rebranded into the Bulk Group, a one-stop supply chain solution. The new name and brand incorporates three distinct companies: Bulk Transport Australia, Bulk Global Forwarding, and The Procurement Firm. Bulk Transport Australia is the same branch as before, handling the domestic supply chain in warehousing, linehaul, and route deliveries. The second company, Bulk Global Forwarding, is managing customers’ international freight requirements across every area as well as customs clearance responsibilities. Finally, The Procurement Firm is a growing branch which aims to deliver on the logistics consumable requirements of the Group’s clients such as pallets, export pallets, skids, shrinkwrap, and cartons.

Managing any kind of project

Lachlan Tindal, Bulk Group’s Director of Sales, spoke with us about the company’s operations, their corporate ideals, and their aims for future growth. The most important point of difference, according to Lachlan, is that the Bulk Group can make anything happen, no matter the size of the project or the destination of the consignments. And as far as projects go, they have done quite a lot of them as they frequently do overflow work for large companies. For instance, they ran night shift contracts for Coca Cola products, entire fleet moves for mining companies and have been focusing heavily into the commercial solar project industry as well.

Commercial solar projects are an incredibly strong point of the transport and logistics market right now, Governments and companies are investing in environmentally friendly and cost effective infrastructure. The Buk Group organizes on-site storage for the panels, transport, logistics and manages the crane operations. By providing the most efficient solutions for their clients, they are also helping them reduce their overall costs. In turn, when large firms receive proposals by the solar panel companies, they are much more likely to install a solution that is better for the environment.

In their main centre of operations, the Bulk Group has 4,000 sq. m. of storage where they are constantly packing and unpacking containers for export and transportation. Their pallet operations also take place in the same facility. Trucks are coming in and out all the time to pick up and deliver consignments to customers too. By using a couple of different software partners such as Compdata Technology Services and WiseTech’s CargoWise, they can effectively manage everything that goes on within the company with ease. Though such investments are costly, they are necessary to ensure that they can stay up-to-speed.

Building a strong foundation

The Bulk Group has a very large network of carriers that they have partnered up with both in Australia and worldwide. Furthermore, they have agents around the world that act on their behalf. This is a part of the reason why they can move anything anywhere in the world at any given point in time. In addition to that, they have access to a full fleet which includes couriers, semis, B-doubles, drop deck trailers, floats to move machinery, container forks, and more. Moreover, they have access to a full fleet of crane trucks across Australia as they often organize lifting facilities for their clients.

The combination of the three companies has allowed the Bulk Group to integrate a huge number of solutions and service under one umbrella. They are now dealing with interstate and local transport, international consignments, import and export operations, air and sea freight, heavy haulage, warehousing and storage, logistics consumables, and a range of other projects. In addition to all that, they employ 3PL warehouses in every state and large cities throughout Australia to meet the needs of their clients.

Excellent customer service through constant communication

Delivering outstanding customer satisfaction is especially important to the Bulk Group. One of their core philosophies is that communication with the clients is crucial for a successful business. Because of that, they provide 24/7 of customer service as the phones are diverted to an after-hours number though clients can also choose to communicate via email instead. When a client puts their trust in the company, Bulk Group wish to honor that agreement by going above and beyond. Even when an incident occurs, the team at Bulk will immediately come up with a solution and remain in constant communication with their clients.

On the question of how the company is planning to expand, Lachlan was quite enthusiastic: “One of the ways is with the technology that we are investing in at the moment. With the opening of Bulk Global Forwarding, our international market is definitely going to expand. A lot of our clients that we are currently doing domestic transports for, we are in talks to take all of their import and export operations as well. We are also looking to expand into the logistics consumables market and supply all of our customers with pallets, packing, and other consumables, to become our clients one-stop shop solution”

Over the next few years, the Bulk Group will be focusing on consolidating the business that they have built over the past five years. The facilities and equipment that they have already acquired will go towards building an even stronger company. This will also allow them to diversify in order to make sure that they can become involved in as many markets possible. As a direct result, they will be able to focus on the strongest market at any one point while providing the customers with the best possible service. After all, treating clients right is the only way to ensure that they will stay with the Bulk Group for life.