hared-user networks are nothing new in the road transport industry. For many decades hauliers have been working together to gain economies of scale and improve business efficiency. But the rise of the pallet networks has taken collaboration to a different and more formalised level, offering customers and operators a more professional service, better marketing possibilities and, if the pallet networks are to be believed, better profit margins for participating hauliers. These networks - some run by hauliers, others by well informed entrepreneurs - have sprung up nationwide, giving a formal structure to what had grown organically into a wide spread but haphazard pattern of co-operation. For customer who wants to move a pallet, the proposition is simple: ring up your local agent, supply the necessary consignment details and sit back, safe in the knowledge that your goods will be collected and dispatched on time and on budget. That's the theory at least, and over the past few years we've committed plenty of column inches to the rise of these networks. The proof of the pudding is always in the eating, an we were keen to find out if the networks could live up to their grand promises. Our mission was simple, thanks to our friends at Halls Communications in Norfolk: we set ourselves up with six pallets to move from Norwich to Stockton-on-Tees. The goods we used old photocopiers - had to be collected in a tight 12-3pm window from CopyIT, a photocopier supplier in Norwich, and delivered to the MAN-ERF service dealership in Stockton-on-Tees before noon the nexy day.