Congrats in Cambridge

This year’s CEO and COO Awards have become bigger and better, and now include Parcelforce Worldwide as part of the scheme. Zoe Walker talks to Cambridge operations manager, Dean Bland, about winning the new award of ‘Parcelforce Depot of the Quarter’ for Q2. 

You moved to the Cambridge depot just after lockdown began. How have you found things?

I have been with the business for 14 years now and moved to Cambridge on 1April. To say it has been a weird, crazy time, well…it has been mental, as you know! The volumes are just crazy. It has been a strange year, but I think we have coped really well.

How does it feel to have received the CEO and COO Award for ‘Depot of the Quarter’ at a time like this?

Everyone has taken it really well and we’re pleasantly surprised, I think that’s the best way to say it. We know we’ve worked really hard. It has been a tough slog through Covid and lockdown – but we’ve seen a great team effort. Everyone works for each other here – we have a fantastic work ethic. People bounce off each other for ideas. It’s never ‘your way or my way.’ We’ll have a little debate and say: ‘Alright, that’s probably the best way of doing it – let’s go with that.’ It’s always a team effort.

Have the team at Cambridge worked together for a long time?

I would say the majority of the team have. It wasn’t brand new for me when I moved here because I know the depot from my previous roles. So, it was quite a seamless transition for me. They all understand where you’ve come from and what you know here. It’s so great to have a team around you that bounce off each other – I think that’s one of the best things we have as a depot. And it’s not just the depot – the cluster I’m in, East Midlands and Anglia, is great too. I can go to one of my colleagues and other ops managers in the area for a bit of support and say: ‘Do you know about this, and what’s your idea behind that.’ It’s not just a depot thing here, the cluster as a whole works together as a team.

Everything’s a bit of an unknown quantity this year, isn’t it? How has the uncertainty affected you?

Yes. I think that’s one of the main challenges at the moment – not knowing what’s around the corner. We have had our highs and lows of sick absences due to Covid and volumes bouncing up and down all the time. But it’s the way we have reacted in our depot that I feel so proud about. It has been a tough time, a crazy time, but the performance has just been fantastic.