Chichester-based Pemberton Distribution started its life just a year ago.
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With impressive foresight, the family firm invested in state-of-the-art logistics equipment and sought to project a professional image. Paul Newman talks to a young company that is already reaping the benefits of canny planning... VIe have all experienced the frustration of waiting in all day for a delivery that doesn't turn up, only to find that when you chase it up the goods still haven't even been dispatched. Father and son team Russell and Carl England decided it was time to do something about this and put service back into the home delivery business.
Before founding Pemberton Distribution, managing director Russell England had spent z5 years in the transport business including a spell in the home delivery of furniture for major chains such as MFI. Meanwhile, his son Carl was working for a local carrier in Sussex and had set up an account with them for The Iron Bed Company, a Chichesterbased operation specialising in the production of hand-made high quality beds.
"We saw an opening on the customer service side of things," says Russell England. "They needed a hands-on feel to their home delivery. They produce a fantastic product and have wonderful brochures for mail order and have retail outlets throughout the UK. But they would lose control of delivery as soon as their products went out of the door They had all this customer confidence but had no contact with their customer until it had been delivered and if there was a problem they would only know then."
So early in 1998 Carl left his job at the carriers and approached The Iron Bed Company to offer them a tailor-made home delivery ser
vice which would keep them informed throughout the whole delivery operation, from the person ordering the bed to the final delivery at the customer's home.
We have worked with The iron Bed Company to create a computer system which allows them to be able pull up a delivery at the instant the order is taken," says England. The system provides the customer with the telephone number of the vehicle which will be making the delivery. They can then offer the customer a postcard a week before delivery to remind them the vehicle is coming on a specific day, and the driver can be contacted if this is not convenient.
On the day of delivery the customer can phone the driver to get an accurate ETA; the driver can also work with the customer to alter the time of delivery if needed. The whole operation is controlled from Pemberton's computer system at its Chichester base.
Delivery dates
This kind of service usually means the transport company needs to be in-house," says England. "But with this system you don't have to be. It doesn't matter how many stores your client has or where they are—they can key into the system via ISDN from anywhere and i can put up all the delivery dates throughout the U K relating to post code areas. The system will give available spaces on the vehicle for all the delivery dates to each area against all the spaces you can fill. So you can't overbook the van. This can all be done from our base here in Chichester" The other vital component of this kind of service is good drivers. Pemberton pays over the odds to ensure its drivers present the right image to the customer. Pemberton's vehicles carry the client's livery and its drivers wear a uniform bearing The Iron Bed Company's logo, so the customer is presented with the impression that they are dealing directly with Pemberton's client rather than with a carrier "The customer sees a nice looking vehicle outside the house and a smart chap walks in and places the item in the room of their choice, removes the packaging and takes it away for disposal, so the whole system is geared around customer service," says England. "There are hundreds of transport companies and small operators out there so we have to provide a perfect service if we are going to stay in business."
Pemberton is still a young company and The Iron Bed Company is its main contract at present, but two smaller local accounts are in the pipeline and it is negotiating with a large retail and mail-order sofa company.
England explains: "We are a small family concern which over the next three years intends to have half-a-dozen good contracts with the same sort of status and size as The Iron Bed Company and we will provide them with a top quality service. We are really looking for at least 15o UK deliveries a week per contract to operate this system properly. You have to provide enough dates in the UK over the month to provide the customer service we want to. If you are going to each place only once in eight weeks that is no good. In the short term it is more costly for us—but in the long term it is beneficial for us and the client."
The week Commercial Motor visited Pemberton the company was just about to embark on its first Continental trip. Pemberton's latest acquisition, a left-handdrive Volvo FHI2 i8m drawbar fitted with demountable bodies, was all set to leave for Germany. The vehicle will provide The Iron Bed Company's German customers with exactly the same home delivery service which it offers in the UK.
Computer system
Manned by two German-speaking drivers, the drawbar rig will drop the trailer once it is over there and use the prime mover to make deliveries, swapping bodies once the first container is empty. The company's computer system ensures the containers are loaded in the correct order for each area of Germany as required by the delivery schedule.
"Although this is primarily for the Iron Bed Company at the moment we can do this for anyone," says England. "It just goes to prove the system can work anywhere.
"It is early days here but exciting times," he adds. "We started the company with money out of our own pocket so we are not in debt to the bank. At the end of the day it comes down to service, service, service. If you can't offer those three points you haven't got a chance. With all the good marketing in the world if you can't actually produce the product you are not going to survive."