USC active in England – a working trip full of valuable encounters
Crossing to England and a surprise meeting in London
On February 28, I left Hook of Holland by boat for England. The next morning I visited our transportation partner where a delivery was unloaded in preparation for the following week. I then drove on to London. In the evening, after a long walk, I decided to soak up the atmosphere in a pub with live music. To my great surprise, I spontaneously ran into two BAR Young Movers there. In a city like London, that’s almost unimaginable. We spent the rest of the evening socializing together.
Customer visits and service work in Retford
On Feb. 31, I was scheduled to visit a potential client at Heathrow Airport, someone I had met at the SSAUK Winter Workshop in Switzerland. Then I drove on to Retford for an appointment with our regular customer The Hive Self Storage. We discussed their next delivery, I performed a small service and repaired a damage that had been caused by a car. We also took pictures of the property together for a banner that will be displayed in their office. The Hive rents both our containers and standard shipping containers, but manages to distinguish them well from each other on their website, among other things. As such, they call our units the “Premium Drive-Up Units,” a name we of course wholeheartedly support! This banner will further support this difference visually.
A special evening in the heart of London
On March 1, Maarten arrived and together we checked into the hotel and walked towards Westminster Palace and Big Ben. That evening we attended the Parliamentary Meeting of the BAR in the same building we overlooked, in honor of their 125th anniversary. It was an honor to attend and also to support this special milestone as a sponsor.
Delivery at Big Yellow and breakfast between planes
The next day Maarten and I left for Romford for yet another delivery to Big Yellow. The containers were already ready on the trailers as I had already checked on Saturday, so the work went smoothly. We have more and more deliveries in England, and always try to combine this as much as possible with customer visits and meetings. So that worked out well this week! We are happy to have a customer like Big Yellow, and look forward to the next deliveries.
After saying goodbye at the airport, the morning began for me on March 3 with an SSAUK Breakfast Meeting at Vanguard Self Storage in Staples Corner. The location was special, with an airplane literally hovering over the room. The beautiful weather and interesting conversations with customers and suppliers made it a successful morning. One of the attendees told me on stage that he had actually flown that plane once. Then I got back in the car, this time heading for Cornwall.
Gray with gold in Bodmin
On March 4, delivery began at our customer Camel Hire in Bodmin. USC containers can be ordered in all different kinds of color compositions and sizes. These containers were delivered in gray with gold, and looked really great! This customer chose a delivery that was built by us. We also offer deliveries without a construction team, but we will always be there to oversee the delivery and give you construction team training on how to build the containers. However, we have a lot of knowledge through all our deliveries, and so our English construction team had built the park in record time. This allowed us to leave by early afternoon on March 5, with a satisfied customer behind us. We look forward to the next steps with Camel Hire and their wonderful containers!
Stonehenge and new plans on the horizon
The way back offered another brief opportunity to get out at Stonehenge. A nice moment to reflect on a successful week. In Harwich I took the boat home again, but I knew then that we would soon return to the United Kingdom.
On March 22, I was already back in London for a meeting of the BAR Young Movers. The Crystal Maze and games at the Boom Battle Bar provided the perfect opportunity to catch up with the young generation within the BAR. Among others, I spoke there with Justin and Matt from Williams & Yates, who along with Fox Moving are anxiously awaiting the delivery of our new custom made Mover Boxes. We’ll be able to share more about this soon!
Looking ahead to SSAUK 2025
During this last trip, we also prepared our demo container for the next exhibition. We are greatly looking forward to having a big presence at the SSAUK in Telford in 2025. We will even give a live construction demonstration there, so don’t miss it!
Will we see you there?
Our bond with the United Kingdom continues to grow stronger. We continue to grow, meet new customers and build great projects together. We now also actively offer leasing in the UK, to make investing in our containers even more attractive. Wondering what USC can do for your location or business? Feel free to contact me, or speak to us during SSAUK 2025. We’d love to see you there!
Danny Schmidt