Parcelforce peak practice
Planning for peak is paying off for the teams in Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester Parcelforce depots as they get off to a cracking start.
Operations manager for the three sites, Dale Nicholson, is confident in saying that it’s all down to working together as a team with early planning and regular reviews being key.
‘Planning for peak started back in July’, he says. 'We were looking at the agency resource needed against our forecasts and constantly reviewing that number as the forecasts changed.'
Reviews of agency resource and vehicle requirements take place each day between the three sites. ‘We have a set amount of agency resource so we have to be flexible with that and look at sharing it out where we can,' Dale says.
‘It’s the same with vehicles, we’ve got our extra vehicles for peak based in Gloucester and by reviewing forecasts of volumes and people, we share those out, flexing for any off the road’.
Dale’s proud to have been one of the 12 trialist depots of the new peak incentive scheme taking place over a six-week period during the summer.
‘It’s made a massive difference’, he says. ‘Our productivity has increased way above our budgeted forecast.
‘Our people of course are super keen to earn some extra money for Christmas. It’s not just about that though, they understand the seriousness of our financial situation and getting things right for our customers.'
Dale and his team of managers have processes in place to learn from any issues that impact on quality by talking to their team the following day to understand what fixes are needed.
‘It all starts with the night shift,' Dale says. 'They’re a key part to achieving high quality of service. We’re reliant on our night sorters to clear 100% - having parcels scanned to route and pre-loaded ready for our drivers to go out.
‘Getting into the spirit of it all and having a bit of fun along the way, we’re making use of the We are Christmas props.
'We’re all looking forward to working together to deliver a brilliant Christmas for our people and our customers.'
