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It's all about resourcefulness
Page 68
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This is the time of year for reflecting on the past and making resolutions for the future. In keeping with tradition, the management team at Suckling Transport has been taking the opportunity to reflect on the performance of the company over the past year and set targets to improve our service and safety record.
This year we introduced service and safety performance graphs for all our customers on a quarterly basis, rather than just our term hire business.
It means increased administration but spot hire is now a substantial part of our business — some may question whether such self-assessment is worthwhile at all. But for me as managing director the practice ensures that I am aware of any deterioration in a customer's service levels before they contact me.
By analysing the data by service failure types,! can even identify the cause.This year, for example, the process enabled me to flag up the need for a vehicle replacement programme on one particular contract because of a gradual increase in failures caused by vehicle breakdowns.
This year all new customers saw an improvement in service levels through the year and all long-term customers saw improvements over the previous year.
One customer has seen a continuous improvement in service and safety levels over the past four years; another saw a 500% improvement in service and safety levels after the first year of operation in 2001, and this has been maintained for the past three years.
Last year was the first full year of a large new contract, and we saw a 100% improvement in service and safety levels between January and December.
Dedicated management
We like to think that such improvements are achieved through dedicated management running the business effectively. However, the real credit must go to the 200 tanker drivers we employ, who demonstrate an incredible inventiveness for ensuring our customers receive a top quality service.
In recognition of that, we operate a Driver of the Year award scherne.This initiative began in 1996 and has been won by drivers working on various parts of our business.After early domination by employees on our contract with Phillips Petroleum, subsequent winners came from drivers working for Shell, ConocoPhillips, Petroplus Marketing and our TankShare operation.
Drivers' performances are measured objectively. Each starts the calendar year with 100 points and they lose points for accidents, safety incidents, absences, tachograph infringements and disciplinary record.Two years ago Glenn Martindale, who works on our TankShare service, became the first to achieve a 100% record. In 2004 the competition was extremely close, and we may have another perfect score.
Improving service and safety levels for our customers requires us to find long-term solutions to everyday problems. It entails both pro-active and re-active steps — identifying not just the active cause for a failure, but addressing the latent cause. It requires a resourcefulness that, for me, is the defining quality of workers in the road haulage industry. •