Davies Turner Air Cargo managing director James Wheatley discusses the highs of the industry and the dynamic job environment that it offers.
“Like all good forwarders, I got into the freight business by chance – but then it got into my blood and I’ve never looked back,” says James Wheatley.
Returning from an extended backpacking tour of Asia in 1997, like many of us he didn’t have too much of a career plan beyond a thought that it would be great to be involved in international travel in some way. The young Wheatley was a keen sportsman and travel had been an essential part of competing in BMX and then table tennis.
Working for an airline naturally appealed; what he might not have expected, perhaps, is that he would be involved in moving freight rather than people.
So it was that he joined the cargo department of UK carrier British Midland in 1997. This was followed by a move to associated airfreight wholesaling company ICM and thus the ball was set rolling.
He moved to Davies Turner almost exactly 25 years ago as a salesman at the forwarder’s Bristol office where, despite being a relative youngster, he picked up a couple of awards.
“This got me noticed by the Heathrow HQ. So, in 2003, I moved to Heathrow as route development manager for Asia. The region – and China in particular – were on the path to huge change and it was a challenge that I relished.”
But 2007 was to prove perhaps the most seminal one for Wheatley when he realised a personal ambition to live and work overseas. The company needed a delegate for the office of its agent in Hong Kong. Davies Turner as a group is rather different from many other forwarders in that it tends to work through long term – sometimes, very long-term – partnerships overseas, but it does have delegates in some strategic locations to support development.
It makes for a more flexible business and, of course, as one of the UK’s largest and oldest established forwarders, Davies Turner gets “the pick of the bunch” when it comes to overseas partners, often similar-sized privately owned firms.
Davies Turner Air Cargo (DTAC) may not be a multinational, but it is very competitive on specific trade lanes, and certain niche product areas, often equalling or even surpassing the amount of business done by the multinational forwarders. It is, needless to say, one of the biggest airfreight forwarders in the UK. “But, really, our trade lane strategy for success is to prioritise long-term contributions over short-term profits,” says Wheatley.
Learning curve in China
China was, perhaps, a “defining moment for me. It was a very different lifestyle from the UK and, as a first-time expatriate, I had to adapt to many things and of course there was the language barrier and the different social and business norms to contend with”, he explains.
The Hong Kong approach can be summed as ‘work hard, play hard’, though perhaps with much more emphasis on the former compared with the UK, where life and work are more in balance. Company decision-making can be very different in Asia compared to the UK or Europe.
Wheatley hugely enjoyed his time in Hong Kong, but it also helped him appreciate home when the time came to return after four years. “Sometimes it takes stepping away from London to truly appreciate it.”
Once back in the UK, Wheatley had been with Davies Turner for close to a decade, although that was not yet an enormous length of time for a company where the average length of service for an employee is over 15 years.
Wheatley took over as managing director of DTAC from Denham Baxter in 2022.
“It really was a dream start. We had fantastic end of year results in 2022/23 and again in 2023/24 and then to cap it all we were named as Airfreight Company of the Year at the Multimodal awards in June 2024, so the sky is the limit to what can be achieved over the next 25 years.
“The strength of this company is that we have created a culture in which our employees are valued, genuinely empowered and customer focused. We don’t make short term decisions which means we remain competitive, grow sustainably and deliver a high quality service.”
Davies Turner tends to own most of its property; certainly almost all its major hubs. The one exception, ironically, is Davies Turner Air Cargo’s main base at Heathrow, where it has long-term leased a property since about 1990. That is due to the near total unavailability of freehold property in one of the most expensive locations in the world.
“We have 11 airfreight offices in the UK,” Wheatley adds. “We still believe in local coverage because people know their own markets best.”
Some of these are stand-alone DTAC offices, for example in Manchester and East Midlands, others, like Bristol, Coleshill and Dartford, are incorporated into the operator’s multimodal sites.
Dynamic day job
Being local improves responsiveness and this is vital in a fast-changing business: “One of the best things about airfreight is that it’s so dynamic; no day is the same. You can go to the office expecting one thing, and within ten seconds you find it’s something completely different,” Wheatley reflects.
The best thing about the business could arguably also be the worst: “Sometimes the unpredictability can leave you feeling overwhelmed.”
Being quick to respond is particularly important in some of the specialist sectors that DTAC has developed. For example, DTAC was a founding partner of the Aviation Logistics Network, now in its 18th year and comprising 77 companies that collectively provide worldwide cover for aerospace critical and routine shipping.
“Our cross-border e-commerce solution is another area where we are empowering our global connections to provide a seamless and reliable service for businesses and customers everywhere. In these businesses, there is often a huge amount at stake and DTAC’s customers need to know that they have a forwarding partner who, when the chips are down, can truly perform.”
As a UK forwarder, DTAC is also heavily involved in the UK’s export effort. Contrary to what might be thought, the country is still the world’s sixth biggest exporter by value, though not volume, as its strengths are now in ‘intelligent’ manufacturing like aviation or electronics.
“The death of UK exporting has been greatly exaggerated; in fact, our export traffic is up, across all sectors,” Wheatley points out.
With so many exciting things going on for Davies Turner Air Cargo and its parent company, the airfreight industry and UK companies, it is perhaps surprising that attracting people into the industry is still a struggle. While Davies Turner people, once they arrive do tend to stay in the company, getting them to take that first step across the threshold is still difficult.
The company isn’t alone in this, of course, but there are things that can be done to encourage new talent.
“Davies Turner as a group has a long history of taking on apprentices, long before the recent government and industry efforts in that area. We’ve also been heavily involved in the development of the Freight Forwarding Specialist apprenticeship scheme,” Wheatley says.
He adds: “There is a perception, unfortunately, that the freight industry isn’t glamorous compared with, say, tech or finance, but one of the best things about this company, and the industry, is that if you work hard, you will progress. All our directors are very approachable; hands-on and they’ve all worked in the business from the ground up.
“Davies Turner has created an environment in which employees feel valued and are treated with fairness and respect and I think that’s been very powerful for the company.
“At the same time, there’s also a lot going on in areas like artificial intelligence to enhance tracking and analytics and sustainability where we continue our programme of energy efficient measures across our branch network. These are very exciting times for airfreight.”
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