Report On the Documents of Transport Companies.

Report on the Documents of Transport Companies 27th November 2003

REPORT ON THE DOCUMENTS OF TRANSPORT COMPANIES

For the attention of: T J Hutchison 27th November 2003

Managing Director of Mega Haulage Ltd

TERMS OF REFERENCE

In response to a new venture into the business world the managing director of Mega Haulage Ltd, a recently established haulage company recommended that a report be made viewing the documents of other haulage companies. This was in an attempt to get an idea of how similar haulage companies to themselves conduct their business and how they structure their business documents for day-to-day usage. The report is to be submitted on the day of the 18th December 2003.

PROCEDURE

In order to view documents from other haulage companies to see what variations there are between the common documents used daily within the business, the following procedures took place:

∙ I asked my mother to bring home some examples of the day-to-day documents that she uses at her workplace as she works for a successful haulage company

∙ I asked my mother if she could also get hold of some documents from other haulage companies that she may know of and deal with

∙ I visited several haulage company offices myself in an attempt to gain more documents that they regularly use

∙ I contacted some haulage companies by letter asking for some documents to help compile a report but unfortunately I did not receive a reply from any of them

METHOD

I asked my mother if she could bring me some regular documents that she uses on a daily basis at her work as she works for a haulage company. She managed to get me company brochure, two letterheads and a business card.

I also asked my mother if she could get documents from other haulage companies that she may know of and deal with but unfortunately due to legal rights she was not permitted to do this. However she did manage to notify me of the addresses of some other local haulage companies which I could ask for documents from.

I visited three other haulage companies but only one was willing to help me out in my report. They also gave me a company brochure, a letterhead and a company brochure, which was useful because they can be directly compared to the three documents that I had previously received.

I also wrote a letter to a further two haulage companies requesting some business documents. However after not receiving a reply after a long period of time I have come to the conclusion that they are not willing to give me examples of their documents.

FINDINGS

Description of documents

Business Cards

The business card I received from Abnormal Load Services is approximately 90mm x 55mm and is made of a relatively strong card material and white in colour (front and back). It has the company logo in the top left hand corner, which is a bold, dark blue text with a small pattern consisting of the colours red, yellow and dark blue. Under the logo is the name of the person whose business card it is, which is in bold, black letters and under that in normal style letters is the job title of the person concerned. Directly aligned to the right of this is the company name in full which appears in bold, dark blue letters. Underneath the name and position of the person are the contact numbers of the company, which includes a company telephone number, a company fax number, a mobile telephone number of the person whose business card it is, and a private home telephone number of the person whose business card it is. These all appear in bold, dark blue text. At the foot of the card in the bottom left hand corner is an e-mail address of the person concerned and a general website of the company. On the right hand side of the card is the full company address consisting of six lines altogether, which is in normal navy blue letters except for the name of the company, which is the same text colour but in bold lettering. All this contact information is to inform the person who has received the business card and how to contact the company if they wish to go about doing some business.

The business card I received from Neill and Brown Global Logistics is approximately 85mm x 55mm and is made of a strong card material and white in colour (front and back). It has the persons name whose business card it is in large bold blue letters in the top left hand corner. Underneath this bold name are a mobile telephone number and an e-mail address for contacting the person. There is also a website underneath these and they all appear in a smaller, thinner blue text. There are three company logos under the website which are placed next to each other. These are the associate partners that Neill and Brown deal with on a day-to-day basis. On the right hand side of the business card is a large company logo. This logo takes up the whole of the right side of the card and is a globe with the text ‘Neill and Brown Global Logistics’. This white text and globe is placed on top of a navy blue filled box. At the foot of the card is a company address and contact numbers in a small, thin black text. This covers the whole of the bottom three lines of the business card and is made to look neat by been justifiably aligned. This is to tell any potential customers where they will be able to find and contact the company if they are interested in doing some sort of business with them. There is a small blue rectangle at the very bottom of the card, which is the foot of the logo. The company address has been placed on top of the logo and this small blue rectangle is just the bottom part of the logo that has been placed under the company address and has carried on under the address and appeared at the foot of the business card.

1.2 Letterheads

I actually received two letterheads from Abnormal Load Services as they operate with two different materials of paper. There is a normal white A4 size printing paper and a more expensive, rougher A4 sized paper. The normal sheet of paper is used for dealing with matters internally within the company whereas the more expensive paper is used for dealing with matters where a letter needs to be sent to another company / client as this paper produces better looking printouts. It produces better-looking printouts because the rough paper material used absorbs the ink better from the printer. The layout of the letterheads are the same, starting with a colour logo in the very top left hand corner of the page to show the receiver what company the letter has come from. Directly aligned to the right of this is the company address which consists of the company name, the address, telephone number, fax number, e-mail address and website. The company name, telephone number and fax number all appear in a bold, navy blue text, and the address, e-mail address and website all appear in a normal navy blue text. The address and contact numbers are there to inform the person who is reading the letter where it has originated from and the ways to contact / reply back to them if necessary. At the foot of the paper in the bottom left hand corner are two other company logos, which are associate partners of Abnormal Load Services, and also two other associate partners logos appear in bottom right hand corner of the paper. These logos are navy blue and white in colour. In between these four logos, aligned in the centre of the page are some company registration details to show that they are a legitimate business. It includes the registration number, the registered address of the office, the VAT registration number, the bankers they use for their finances, their sort code, their account number, a list of all the company directors and a sentence confirming that Abnormal Load Services meet all the ‘Standard Trading Conditions’ of the British International Freight Association. This appears in a slightly smaller normal navy blue text than the address, e-mail address and website do at the top of the paper.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Neill and Brown’s letterhead is a relatively thick and strong white A4 sized piece of paper. In the top right hand corner is a large company logo, which is blue with white text, and it also has a blue and green globe on it. Underneath this, also aligned to the right is the company address, telephone number, fax number, e-mail address and website. This all appears in a normal black text, and is there so that the person receiving the letter can be informed of who it has been sent by and how to contact them back if it is necessary. At the foot of the paper in the bottom right hand corner are three company logos of associate partners that Neill and Brown do business with. These logos all appear in their colours, which consist of greens, blacks, blues and whites. Above this also aligned to the right is some company information to show that Neill and Brown is a legitimate company. It includes the registration number, their incorporating names and a list of all the company directors.

1.3 Brochures

The format of Abnormal Load Services’ brochure is very original and I have never come across one that looks like this before. It is made of a strong glossy card material and is full colour printing throughout. There is a slightly thicker card material, which are the front and back covers of the brochure that keeps all the pages in place with a flap that is joined to the back cover. When turning over the front cover to view the inside of the catalogue on the inside cover is a large photograph of an abnormal load been transported on a road along with a brief description of the companies functions and some contacting information. On the back cover of the brochure is a map of where the ALS offices are situated in Europe. There is also a list on the left hand side, which gives the addresses of all the branches, including their telephone numbers. On the corresponding page to this is where the originality of ALS’ design comes into it. Under the flap attached to the back cover I described earlier, are 10 sheets of glossy card material, which have been printed on front and back in colour. They are the same width as an A4 sized sheet but they are slightly taller in terms of height. These sheets are simply placed under this flap on top of each other and to read them you simply take each sheet out individually and view both sides. The sheets of card do have regular patterns on them; such as each page has a colour ALS logo in the top left hand corner of the page (this appears on both sides of the card), each page has a blue strip at the top with signs of several formats of transport pictured in them, and each page has a picture in the top right hand corner which shows what the information is been given on that page. Also running along the bottom of each sheet of card is a plain blue strip with one orange and one red rectangle in the bottom right hand corner at the end of this plain blue strip. These are basically the headers and footers of the sheets. Pictures appear regularly in this brochure, there is a total of 45 colour photographs on the 10 sheets alone, with 9 other colour pictures on the sheets as well (not including the header and footer pictures described previously). The main body text of the brochure is black and is roughly size 12. Paragraphs appear on every page and each one describes some of the things that ALS offers or an example of something that they have done in the past. The brochure describes several case studies of the past along with pictures of the events to show what the company is capable of, it describes some of the associate partners and how they link in with the transporting of abnormal loads, it describes how ALS go about planning such things as routes, police escorts, permits etc, and it also includes some history of the company. The case studies are very effective because they show what the company is capable of doing along with backing it up by showing pictures of the events, and another effective contributor is the fact that they include quotes from companies that they have helped out with abnormal loads, which is an appraisal for their company. This is to mainly persuade any potential customers that ALS is a company capable of doing certain jobs that other transport companies may not be capable of doing. To highlight the start of a case study in the brochure ALS use a different font colour and size, which makes it stand out. They use larger white text in a red filled box and this makes it stand out really well on a white background. Captions to pictures also stand out well on the white background because these appear in a blue filled box with white text. Any page or paragraph headings are in a bold black font rather than the main body text, which is a normal black font. This shows that they are headings and explains what the following page or paragraph is about. Finally with the brochure on the flap that holds the brochure sheets in are 4 small slots. These slots are cut diagonally in the card and they are there to hold the business card of the person who gives the brochure out to someone.

The format of Neill and Brown’s brochure is a more basic one. It is made from glossy white card and is A4 sized. It is 4 sides in total with colour printing on both front and back of the card. At the foot of each page is a blue strip that is roughly 2 cm in height. The bottom of the strip is navy blue but as you look upwards towards the top of the strip the colour fades to a light blue. This is a footer where on the first and last pages it states the address in white text, whereas on the middle pages where there is no address, just a blue strip. At the top of the first page is another blue box that fades to a lighter blue. This has the words ‘Neill and Brown’ in large bold white letters to show which company the brochure came from. The information on the brochure explains what the company does, how it does it, and how it has developed over the years. Each paragraph has a title above it to explain what it is about. The title is in a light blue filled box with large bold white text that stands out well on the white page. When names are mentioned, which occurs regularly throughout the brochure they are highlighted in bold text so they stand out from the page, for example when quotes appear by members of staff their names appear in bold text. These quotes are written to persuade any potential customers that Neill and Brown is a good transport company because somebody said so. Altogether there are 9 coloured photographs and one colour picture, which is a logo of an associate partner. The paragraphs on the page are mainly in a formal, black text that is roughly sized 12.

Comparison of Documents

2.1 Business Cards

When looking at both of the business cards I think that overall the one from Neill and Brown is the better one. This is mainly because of the layout as it is a lot clearer and it is not too crowded with text and pictures, even though it is physically smaller in size than the ALS one. Also the use of colours on the Neill and Brown business card makes it more pleasant to look at as there is a good variation between the blue and black text, whereas on the ALS business card the only variation in colour of text is the name of the person whose business card is it, the rest is just blue. Looking at the company logos the Neill and Brown one stands out more from the paper in my opinion because of the 3-D blue and green globe on it, but the ALS logo doesn’t have and kind of 3-D effect, just a plain red blue and yellow pattern. The company logos are both positioned on at different sides of the business card but I do not think this really affects how good the business card is. Including the associate partners on the business card is quite a useful decision for Neill and Brown because it adds colour to the card and makes it look more attractive and appealing to eye.

2.2 Letterheads

When looking at both of the letterheads I think that overall the one from ALS is the better one. This is mainly because the appearance of their letterhead is a lot more spread out than the Neill and Brown one. It has a logo in the top left hand corner, an address and contact numbers in the top right hand corner, and all the way across the bottom is logos of associate partners and the registration information. This fills up a satisfactory amount of space for a letterhead whereas Neill and browns letterhead is very one-sided. The logo and address at the top of the page are both aligned to the right of the page and the logos of associate partners and the registration information at the bottom of the page are also aligned to the right of the page. This leaves a lot of space at the left hand side of the page which makes it look very blank at one-sided yet very crowded at the other side. The quality of the paper from ALS’ letterhead was also a factor in it been the best letterhead because the paper used absorbs ink better from a top quality inkjet printer and produces a final document that looks good. The paper Neill and Brown uses for their letterhead is just normal printing paper and it will perform normally in an inkjet printer, which would mean that the ink is not absorbed as well and will smudge when wet.

2.3 Brochures

From looking at both brochures I think overall that the one from ALS is the better one. This is because the design is very original and different, there is a lot more information contained in the ALS brochure than the Neill and Brown one, and there are a lot more colours featured on the ALS brochure. The brochure from Neill and Brown has a very basic layout with a simple fold in the middle of a double page spread whereas the brochure from ALS is completely different. The 10 pages come individually inside the main cover and are printed in colour, front and back. The inclusion of many pictures and case studies is also a main reason why I prefer the ALS brochure because the pictures provide evidence of something that cant be made up. The examples of some of the jobs that ALS has done show other companies what they are capable of and this is not evident in the Neill and Brown brochure. In the Neill and Brown brochure they do not provide evidence of previous case studies, they just simply inform the reader what they do but they do not back up what they do. The ALS brochure is quite evenly matched in the terms of pictures to words. You can easily read the paragraph then relate to it by looking at the relevant pictures that go with it. In the Neill and Brown brochure it is based very heavily on text and a lot of paragraphs are crammed full of information, and this makes it quite draining to read because of the amount of text. The brochure from ALS is also quite practical because on the flap that holds in all the pages are 4 slots where a business card can be placed, which is useful for the person/company receiving the brochure. In terms of organisation the Neill and Brown brochure is slightly better because it doesn’t have all the separate pages it is all attached together.

Evaluation of Documents

3.1 Business Cards

The good things about the business card from ALS are that it is made from card that is quite strong, it does have some colour on it, it is a good size for a business card, and there is a good, relevant interchange between normal and bold text. The bad things about the business card from ALS are that it is quite crowded, even though there are some colours there is not a large variation, they do not include the logos of any associate partners which could add colour, and the text is all the same colour, when varying the colour would make it more attractive to look at.

The good things about the business card from Neill and Brown are that it is made from card that is quite strong, the logo is very bright and colourful and gives a nice 3-D effect, the logos of associate partners are colourful and attractive to look at, the text appears in two different colours which makes it look more attractive to read and the card is not too crowded with either pictures or text. The bad thing about the business card from Neill and Brown is that the address at the bottom of the card has been aligned justifiably so the text is spread out across the bottom of the page and the gaps between words become quite long, which looks untidy.

3.2 Letterheads

The good things about the letterhead from ALS are that it contains all the relevant information that you would require a standard letterhead to have, the features are spread out evenly on the page, which makes it look tidy, it has colour in the logo and colour in the text which makes it look more attractive, it includes the logos of associate partners that ALS deal with, and it has a good quality of paper to deal with matters outside of the company so letters will be presented better on it. The bad things about the letterhead from ALS are that the text featured on it (the address and registration information) is very small and some people with bad eye site may struggle to read it, and even though they do include the logos of associate partners they are not in colour they are printed in blue ink that does not look as attractive as colour.

The good things about the letterhead from Neill and Brown are that it contains all the relevant information that you would require a standard letterhead to have, it has a full colour logo along with the logos of associate partners that are also fully in colour and it has large and easy to read black text. The bad things about the letterhead from Neill and Brown are everything is aligned to the right of the page so that it takes up a lot of space at one side and leaves the other side blank which doesn’t look very good, the logo is quite large and takes up a lot of room so there is less room for text on the letter, and they only use on material of paper when producing documents – they do not have two materials to deal with matters inside and outside of the company.

3.3 Brochures

The good things about the brochure from ALS are that the design is very original which immediately makes you take an interest in it, it is very colourful which makes it attractive to look at, it contains a lot of colour pictures which provide evidence to go with the case studies to show they are real, it contains a lot of information about the company and what it does, there is not a lot of text to read all at once so you find it easy to read, and it is practical because it contains a flap to hold all the pages in and this flap has 4 slots where a business card can be placed. The bad things about the brochure from ALS are that it can be quite confusing and awkward to read because the pages are all separate from each other and are printed on back to back and the pages are not numbered which would cause confusion if the pages got mixed up because you wouldn’t know what order to put them back in.

The good things about the brochure from Neill and Brown are that it is all attached together in one double page spread, it contains all the companies information and what the company does, it is made from a glossy card material which is strong and attractive to look at, it is organised in sections which are each given a title and they include photographs of some of the jobs they have done. The bad things about the brochure from Neill and Brown are that they do not include any case studies of any previous job, there is not a large range of colours on the brochure, there is a lot of text crammed into each paragraph which makes the brochure quite draining and boring to read, it is not in an original format there are many brochures laid out similarly to this one and there are no pictures featured in the brochure – just photographs. This brochures purpose is to inform but I found it does not do this to a certain extent because there is too much information to take in from the text.

Conclusion

4.1 Business Card

In my opinion I feel that the most effective business card is the one from Neill and Brown because it informs the viewer appropriately about how to contact the company and it includes all the correct features such as the company logo and address. However I would include some features of the ALS business card such as the bold text, which I think stands out well on the white background, and the size of the ALS business card because you could make the text a bit larger if you had more room to fit it into.

4.2 Letterhead

In my opinion I feel the most effective letterhead is the one from ALS because the features are more spread out on it than the Neill and Brown one is. They are spread out evenly in each corner and across the bottom of the page whereas the Neill and Brown features all appear on the right of the page which means that a lot of room is taken up. However I would include some features of the Neill and Brown letterhead such as the larger text because it makes it easier to read.

4.3 Brochure

In my opinion I feel the most effective brochure is the one from ALS because it is very original and catches the eye with the design. It is very colourful, full of photographs and the text is very large and bold so it is easy to read as well. The layout is good and it is presented in a very formal manner that is ideal for a business brochure. However I would include some features of the Neill and Brown brochure such as the organisation of it because it is more clear than the ALS one. Page numbers would also help on the ALS brochure to avoid confusion when a person is reading through the brochure.

Recommendations

5.1 Business Card

In order to establish your company amongst some of the leading competitors in the transport company market an individual business card for each member of staff is an important way of giving a good impression. Therefore I recommend that a business card be produced of a standard size made from a strong white card material. It should be colourful with contrasting colours by including such things as logos of associate partners this can be achieved. Also the information on the card must include a name, company address, company logo, contact numbers, webpage address and an e-mail address. The information should be well arranged so that the card does not look crowded and becomes hard to read. A dark font of a reasonable size should be the main body text and another font of a different dark colour should also be used to give a nice effect.

5.2 Letterhead

In order to establish your company amongst some of the leading competitors in the transport company market a general company letterhead would really give your company a good image. Therefore I recommend that two letterheads be produced of a standard A4 size, both on normal paper for dealing with matters within your company and on special, more expensive paper for dealing with more important matters external to your company. It should contain colour in the company logo and colour in the logos of associate partners – both of which should be included somewhere on the letterhead (Your company logo separate to associate partners’ logos). Also a company address should be placed in the top right hand corner of the page with all the appropriate information included, including contact numbers. A dark font of a reasonable size should be used for the address and contact information, and should be the same as the font used on the business card to keep a consistency within the company, which creates a better image. At the bottom of the letterhead should be the registration details, which can be shown in a smaller font if necessary as this may take up a lot of space. The features must be colourful and readable, however they must not take up too much space as these documents are designed for a letter to be typed / written up on them.

5.3 Brochure

In order to establish your company amongst some of the leading competitors in the transport company market a brochure is the ideal way to get the message across of what your company does and how it does it. To grab attention a brochure must be bold and extremely colourful to make it stand out. I recommend a front cover with a large company logo and other colourful images such as photographs and cartoon images. The company name should also be included in large letters so that the reader knows which company they are looking at when picking up the brochure. The design of the actual inside of the brochure, to create interest from readers must be something original and different that you will not come across regularly. This will make people take notice and they will be more willing to read your brochures if it’s in a different style to what people are used to. To avoid confusion the pages should be numbered because reading previous brochures I became confused at a few that didn’t have page numbers. A good idea would be to have a contents page because that would establish some sort of order to your brochure and organise things into their place. The brochure should contain photographs regularly as these can back up any text that you include as evidence that a certain event did actually happen. The pages should be fairly well balanced with approximately 65% text and 35% pictures to give the desired effect of a brochure. Throughout the brochure use captions with any photographs that are included to make sure the reader knows what the purpose of the photograph is and try to stick with a maximum of three different fonts. This will make the page look tidy and will also allow you to change the font at appropriate times so that the reader does not get bored of seeing the same things.

ADAM WATSON

Signed:……………………………………………Chairman

Transport Company Analyst

Page