1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178 
Smooth delivery
Page 66
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Ihave always thought that my office runs fairly smoothly and that, if I was not on site, everything would still tick over like a well-oiled machine. So when Commercial Motor invited me to the Motor Transport Awards I thought:"Why not?" I'd enjoy a night out on the town and, to top it off, I had been invited to a golf day at Castle Combe the following afternoon.
Perhaps I thought I deserved a little rest and recreation because some lengthy negotiation with ANC had just paid off: we were granted the franchise for the CF and NP postcodes in mid-June.
It's been four years since we operated any next-day parcels service and back then we were delivering about 350 consignments a day. So it was a real wake-up call that First morning with ANC. We had E900 parcels to deliver, and 1 can tell you that this number of parcels looks a lot worse on the floor than it does on a spreadsheet. It had been a long time since I had last seen six o'clock twice in one day.
After the initial shock it was time to get down to business.The first job was to get the parcels delivered — not too much of a problem as I'd inherited a good bunch of drivers who kept everything flowing smoothly.
But I soon found out that Monday is the easiest day for deliveries and it gets busier as the week progresses. On Thursday it reaches a climax with 2,400 consignments and I want this lot delivered on the same number of vans.lhat first Thursday I learned what it is like to want. At least I was prepared for the followingThursday.
Our ANC depot is about 14 miles away from the Westone Express offices.This has meant that 1 have had to divide my time between the two locations. While this has not proved to be impossible it seems that whenever you need something quickly it is always at the other office.
At the moment we are refurbishing our new premises,which will enable us to run the two businesses from the same office. We intend to move Westone Express the week before we move ANC in.I think this will prove to be the busiest 10 days I will ever experience.
With the way overnight parcels are in this country, there isn't a great amount of margin so every penny counts. Over the next couple of months I need to reduce costs, starting with the cost of delivery per parcel.This means that all of the drivers are going to have to be paid on a deliveredparcel rate and I'm hoping that each driver will be able to deliver an extra 10 or 15 consignments a day; it will earn them more money and reduce our costs.
While getting that side of the business moving in the right direction we will also need another 400 parcels per night. Once this is achieved I think we should be home and dry. At the moment everybody is going the extra mile and proving lobe a real asset.
While this was all happening! realised that my two hospitality days had arrived. Unfortunately, because I needed to be at the depot at 6am the next morning, I had to turn down the Motor Transport awards. However,! did sneak off to the Minorplanet golf day at Castle Combe the following afternoon. I am very glad I did because I came home with a bundle of goodies, having won my first golf competition. •