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f you have an aversion to Christmas trees, Santa Claus,
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or Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, then the last place you want to work is Avanti International. Along with its sister company Avanti VM, the Newark-onTrent firm specialises in supplying shops and nightclubs with seasonal display material to help get customers in the holiday— and spending—mood. It decks the halls of commerce and entertainment, if not with boughs of holly, then at least with jolly snowmen and decorative festive garlands up to 6 in long. All the deliveries take place between late September and the end of November so the pressure can be intense, says managing director David Fellows. So how does Avanti cope?
For the rest of the year the fleet is kept busy hauling a variety of chilled and ambient goods, but the firm switches this work to subcontractors during the Christmas season. The drivers and vehicles thus released are used to deliver decorations to stores such as Debenhams.
"As a consequence we don't have to bring in a lot of temporary staff" says Fellows. Using temporary drivers on this type of work can be problematic, he explains, because it's quite specialised. The Gm garlands are transported on racks inside the truck, and carried into the store on poles.
"It takes three or four men to carry them, and they're fragile as well as heavy because they come with the lights attached," he says. "The atmosphere can get very fraught at times, and the driver has to be something of a diplomat. The client is paying a lot of money for this service, after all, and we don't want to offend him."
There's little point in decorating any shop if the goods aren't on the shelves for customers to buy. Argos copes with the rise in demand in its 478 stores at this time of year by increasing the number of deliveries, using bigger trailers on some runs—"We'll switch from a 33ft trailer to a 4oft trailer, for instance," says fleet services manager, Roy McCrudden—and by ensuring that every trailer that goes out is fully freighted.
Argos even adjusts its fleet replacement programme to make sure it has extra trailers on hand to cope with the • Christmas rush without
having to rent them. "We acquire our new tractoi in the autumn but hang on to if ones we're going to get rid until the New Year," sal McCrudden. "That means we'l got enough on hand to co' when we hit our peak."
New Wave Logistics adopts if same approach, says group disti bution manager Andy Mannin Distributing consumer electro, ics such as televisions and vidt recorders accounts for 8o% of i business, with clients includir Pioneer, Samsung, and Sanyo.
Different goods
To ensure that vehicles dOn't out half-empty, it consolidat4 deliveries of different goods on one truck wherever possible.
"As well as TVs and so on, v distribute sports equipment, fc niture, and footwear," sa' Manning. "They tend to be so mainly in the spring and sur mer, so we can re-allocate son of the drivers we use on th work to the consumer electroni side of things when autu //comes round."
The seasonal upsurge can I pretty extreme, according to Da Fiddy, commercial director Culina Logistics. "That's ve much the case in chilled food d tribution," he reports. "We've g one customer who does 25% oflannual volume in the four to weeks leading up to Christma: Tim Slater, business develo ment director at Exel, confirr that the Christmas delivery pe. now starts later in the year, witt
)t more activity compressed into shorter period. That makes careul forward planning more :nportant than it has ever been if our distribution operation isn't oing to collapse into chaos.
"Come June/July you've got to tart forecasting how many rental chides you're likely to need, and ow many people," he says.
Asking warehouse staff to pork on an annualised hours asis can help here. They're con:acted to work an agreed numer of hours during the year, rorking longer days when the usiness is busy, and shorter ays when things are quieter. The drivers' hours rules would lake it difficult to employ truck rivers on this basis, however. Getting hold of additional drim-s can be a real headache dur
ig the countdown to 2.5 ecember. "We're based in Janelli, Carmarthenshire, and 's not too difficult around here, At we've got a site in Bedford /0, and it's a major problem [ere," says Susan Lewis, depot ianager at temperature-conoiled specialist N R Evans.
Booking agency drivers several ionths ahead is one answer. "We ork with our clients throughout Le year so we can forecast what Leir requirements are likely to !, and ensure that we'll have the ople available to cope," says igel Peligno, head of special serces at Driving Power. Part of the anpower agency, it assigns 000 temporary drivers to cusniers every week.
Another way to boost the Jmber of drivers for the hristmas rush is to train emoyees who don't hold HGV :ences to drive a truck, and en put them through the test. That way they can take to the ghvvays at Christmas, and pro:le sickness and holiday cover at her times of the year. "We tend to train all our non-HGV ivers to Class a standard," ys Manning.
Such a policy could prove to be life-saver given the national Lortage. The lack of drivers cant that I was turning away as much as 36% of the work I was offered earlier this year," says John Broadley, driving division manager of Cambridgeshirebased agency QCLS, which has offices in Peterborough, Huntingdon, and March.
Agencies supply drivers on a contract basis, and the minimum period is usually a day. The hourly charge for the services of a Class I driver ranges from £5.50 to £9.00.
A driver who wants to work for Driving Power is subjected to an interview that can last an hour and a half. "We carry out a skills assessment, and find out if they understand the Drivers' Hours rules," says Peligno.
"We check their licences, and take up references from their previous employers. In particular we ask them about their former employee's accident record, and how well they got on with their customers."
Checking an individual's background is especially important in the run up to Christmas, bearing in mind that a he may be entrusted with trailer-loads of turkeys, Christmas trees, and drink—all easily disposed of if' a driver is dishonest, and has the necessary contacts.
Pass muster
Drivers who pass muster will be offered a contract of employment. Their tachograph charts must go to Driving Power first, says Peligno, but they will be dispatched to the haulier concerned once they've been checked and copied. "They will be sent within 21 days," he stresses.
QCLS is equally strict about checking qualifications. "We examine a driver's licence when he joins us, and every six months thereafter," says Broadley.
Like hauliers, however, agencies are finding it difficult to find drivers—and not only at this time of the year. "We are all fishing in the same dwindling pool, and I think we've got to spread the net wider," says Peligno.
"That includes making a more concerted attempt to recruit women, older drivers, drivers who only wish to work part-time, and members of ethnic groups. We have to get away from the stereotypical image of a truck driver."