CS Ellis Logistics

75%
less time spent on invoicing
2–3
hours saved daily thanks to AI-powered order entry
60
vehicles run daily across the UK - planned and dispatched using Qargo
Business Type
  • Carrier
Region
  • United Kingdom

We turned on the AI order entry and within six jobs, two to three hours of daily admin just disappeared.

— Steve Gray, Managing Director, CS Ellis

About CS Ellis Logistics

CS Ellis is a fourth-generation, family-run 3PL based in the East Midlands. Founded in  1933, with over 90 years of experience, the business offers a full suite of warehousing and transport services, from ambient pallet storage to full-truck load UK distribution.

CS Ellis were early adopters of Palletline, a long-standing Transport Association member, and are BRCGS-AA accredited. Their fleet of 60 vehicles is supported by 31,000 centrally located pallet spaces, a strong subcontractor network, and a hands-on, customer first focussed team of  170 employees

Despite the scale, CS Ellis remains proudly personal in its approach. “We’re big enough to cope, small enough to care, keep our promises  and always in it for the long term,” said Steve, Managing Director.

How they found Qargo

CS Ellis had been long-time users of their previous TMS but the system hadn’t evolved in over a decade & coupled with a frustrating customer service experience following its acquisition prompted the team to look elsewhere.

“We were promised a lot, delivered very little, and then told the system would be shut off in 12 months,” said Steve. “We knew we had to move, and we weren’t going to be forced into a corner.”

The team evaluated several systems  & while Qargo wasn’t the only one they liked, it was the only one that felt like a true partnership. “We weren’t just buying software. We were helping build something fit for real operations,” said Steve. “That’s what sold it.”

As one of Qargo’s early adopters in the UK, CS Ellis played a hands-on role in shaping the platform, and brought valuable insight from their experience in both transport operations and overall network collaboration.

“We don’t want transactional relationships. We want long-term partnerships, with our customers and our suppliers.” — Steve, MD, CS Ellis

Onboarding

The business went live with Qargo in July 2024, rolling out across both its Rutland HQ and Leicester depot in parallel.

Working closely with Qargo’s onboarding team, they took a “replicate first, innovate later” approach, matching their old workflows in Qargo before introducing new features.

That approach paid off. “It was pretty seamless,” said Steve. “We planned for a few teething issues, but we were up and running within a few days.”

A key driver of the project was Richie, their IT Manager, who led onboarding not as an IT project, but as an operations one. “He spent time with planners, understood the day-to-day, and rolled things out with their input, not from a distance,” said Steve.

The challenge

Like many traditional transport & logistics businesses, CS Ellis relied on a TMS that hadn’t kept up with the pace of change in the industry. The interface hadn’t moved beyond an Excel-style layout, and staff were spending hours each day entering orders and processing invoices.

The business was also looking for smarter ways to collaborate across its networks, including Palletline and The Hazchem Network, along with fellow members of the Transport Association, and preferred subcontractors with great and long-standing relationships like Anglia Freight.

“We wanted to move away from a model where everything had to go through a central hub or involve endless admin. We wanted a smarter, more scalable way to work with trusted partners,” said Steve.

The solution

Once up and running, CS Ellis began unlocking Qargo’s full capabilities, especially its AI-powered features.

Order entry via PDF went from a two-hour daily task to near-instant processing. That time was quickly reinvested into more valuable work. “Creating an order is no fun for anybody, is it?” Steve added. “Put that out as a job spec and I doubt you’ll get many people apply for it. So the mundane side of things is definitely something Qargo has helped with.”

Invoicing has also been transformed. Thanks to the Xero to Qargo integration, what used to take a day and a half now takes just half a day. Giving a long-serving staff member the flexibility to move to part-time hours without adding pressure on the team.

The team also use Qargo to allocate loads to their preferred subcontractors directly through  the platform,  eliminating manual calls, emails and order duplication. “Now it’s just click, assign, done,” said Steve. Qargo’s network functionality has opened the door to more collaboration between like-minded operators to share work without the added costs or overheads of a traditional pallet network. 

Integrations

To keep operations efficient and connected, CS Ellis has integrated Qargo with key systems across transport, finance and planning, with more functionality on the way.

  • Accounting: Xero integration has streamlined weekly invoicing
  • Telematics: New Webfleet system is being rolled out across all vehicles
  • Planning: Future plans to integrate a driver HR scheduling system for smarter resource management

The results

Since becoming early adopters of Qargo, CS Ellis has seen measurable improvements across its operations, saving time, reducing admin, and strengthening partnerships both inside and outside their business.

AI-powered order entry: Replaced hours of manual admin with near-instant job creation

Weekly invoicing cut by 75%, enabling a long-serving staff member to reduce their hours without affecting output

✅ Stronger subcontractor collaboration: through shared jobs, tracking, and visibility via Qargo

Flexible adoption: Even traditional planners have embraced the system over time, helped by hands-on training and operational ownership

Final thoughts

The CS Ellis team is now focused on expanding their use of Qargo Network, continuing to build direct relationships with other operators to exchange jobs more efficiently and profitably.

They’re also looking forward to deeper integration with fleet and HR systems enabling smarter planning, better forecasting, and easier driver management.

“The long-term goal is getting to 100 years in business, sustainably and profitably,” said Steve. “Qargo is helping us do that, not just by saving time, but by connecting us to the kind of future we want to be part of.”

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