Fighting fit

One year ago, Life Fitness switched its delivery to the Royal Mail Relay Pick Up, Drop Off (PUDO) service – and the company hasn’t looked back since.

A major supplier of professional gym equipment to chains such as David Lloyd and Anytime Fitness, the business had been experiencing problems in getting parts to its technicians tasked with fixing machines across the UK.

Previously, parts were sent directly to the customer, but a new computer system coupled with what was an ongoing problem of missing packages prompted Life Fitness to seek a new parcel carrier.

‘Our upgraded computer system told us we needed to send parts directly to technicians, but we also needed to solve the issue of parts being signed for, but then lost,’ explained Debbie Davis, Life Fitness’s UK supply chain manager.

In addition to this, Life Fitness technicians are on the road as early as 7am, so the company needed a next-day delivery service it could rely on to always be prompt.

Life Fitness explored other parcel carriers, as well as using local drop boxes, but the speed and efficiency of delivery and returns gave Royal Mail the edge.

Our team wait outside the company’s equipment servicing supplier in Norwich between 3.30 and 4.30pm, Monday to Friday, to allow for orders from around the country to be responded to any time up to that point.

Driver Graham Watts said: ‘I am always willing to be flexible and have given them five or 10 minutes longer if they need it, and I know they appreciate that. They’re a really friendly team and we’ve got on well since day one.’

‘It’s working really well,’ added Debbie. ‘We’ve had no complaints, even though it’s been a complete change for the technicians.’

Colleagues receive 15% off at www.lifefitness.co.uk/home throughout 2018 if they use promo code ‘RM15’.