NORTHAMPTONSHIRE – the epicentre of the UK’s logistics sector. Not only is Northampton right at the heart of the country’s major road network, but with Daventry’s International Rail Freight Terminal within the county, and air freight within touching distance, the logistics industry is a vital part of this county’s prosperity. Professional logistic analytics calculate that Northampton is one of the most efficient places for a logistics base for UK-wide distribution – just ask BMW why they relocated their UK parts distribution centre from Bracknell to Swan Valley!
At Howes Percival we continue to act for many clients who are headquartered in this logistics hub. To name a few, we continue to act for Panther Warehousing, Dachser and, most recently, Cargoes Limited, on a whole host of legal issues that face their businesses every day. We work hard to understand the key drivers for success and what issues will be impacting our logistics clients in the future. However, some issues are not peculiar to the logistics sector. Like many other sectors, GDPR has been top on the agenda for many of our logistics clients; a topic that’s even more important where a whole array of personal data of customers is passed to logistics firms every minute of every day.
Our involvement with logistics is much broader than entrepreneurial businesses that grow and sell. We act for established businesses that obtain planning for and lease buildings for logistics or that have regulatory issues surrounding operational matters such as ‘O’ licences, hours of operation and tachometer problems. We act for clients engaging with a logistics partner, or waiting to outsource their logistics requirements. We act for banks who are lending to customers in the logistics industry. We advise on terms for contract hire, leasing and hire purchase of tractors and trailers. We advise on employment contracts and self-employed contracts for drivers. In particular, we are working with a number of clients on the likely impact to their business of upcoming legislative changes (for example the status of self-employed ‘worker’ drivers, and what rights they are entitled to, and the potential impacts of Brexit on the supply chain).
As the leading corporate law firm in Northamptonshire, we have to be able to advise the logistics sector in its broadest sense: from developers of logistics buildings, to logistics companies to businesses that need a logistics partner. Whilst rightly, the county celebrates its heritage in high-performance engineering, it is also pleasing to see that we celebrate our success in being the leading location for logistics and being at the forefront of its development.