Motor Transport Awards 2021 shortlist: Home Delivery Operator of the Year

DPD UK

In 2020 DPD rose to the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic, successfully handling a 50% surge in home delivery volumes triggered by the lockdown e-commerce boom.

The company recruited 532 new managers and 4,654 drivers. It invested £2m on morale-boosting gift items for employees and their families, as well as supplying 1,000 Chromebooks to support home education efforts – all leading to excellent people engagement scores and best-ever service levels of 99.99%.

Through the new ‘driver rating’ feature on its app, DPD provided customers with new levels of insight and enabled drivers to be rewarded for customer-centric performance. DPD topped the MoneySavingExpert carrier poll for the eighth year and recorded its 11th consecutive year of profit growth.

The judges said: “DPD Demonstrated high levels of innovation and customer satisfaction during a period of significant growth.”

Hermes

As the coronavirus pandemic took hold, Hermes had to radically adapt its business to ensure the safety of its people and customers as it continued to deliver nationwide every day, including to the most vulnerable, while supporting its retail clients.

Volumes skyrocketed by over 200 million in 2020 – up from 400 million the year before to more than 630 million – and the company delivered its five-year growth plan within five months. Investment in technology, infrastructure and people gave Hermes the capacity and flexibility to adapt.

Four new operational hubs, five depots and 90 delivery units were opened across the UK, as well as a national returns centre, which can process around 120,000 parcels per day. The fleet was increased by 2,500 and 10,500 new roles were created across the business; 13,000 couriers were also added to Hermes’ UK network.

The judges said: “A fantastic response to the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Panther Logistics

Panther continually strives to deliver an outstanding service and become a natural extension to its customers’ home delivery requirements. A trailblazer in two-man home delivery, the Panther brand is synonymous with a fast, flexible and high-quality service delivering a competitive edge and adding value to its customers. It has the ability to offer both next day and nominated day delivery underpinned by robust technology ensuring total transparency and a first-time delivery rate of 99.5%.

Turnover levels have soared with Panther beating its projected turnover of £58m in 2020 by 20% to finish the year just shy of £70m. And with a projected turnover of £78m for 2021, Panther is on course to achieve 30% growth in just two years.

During this period, customer service has remained at Panther’s core, with a Trustpilot rating of 4.6/5 from more than 20,000 reviews in the past 12 months, despite the challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The judges said: “Panther demonstrated a highly agile approach to customer deliveries during the pandemic.”

Tesco

At the start of 2020 Tesco Grocery Home Shopping (Tesco GHS) was already well established as a leading online grocery retailer. Due to lockdown restrictions as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic there was a swift and dramatic change in customer demand to order groceries online.

Tesco responded to that challenge by increasing the delivery slots available from 650,000 to 1.4 million each week, whilst still maintaining the quality of service, continuing to drive improvement and ensuring its employees and customers stayed safe. More than 4,000 new drivers were employed in a six-week period through the creation of 40 recruitment hubs across the UK, and 50 new driver-assessors joined the health and compliance team to oversee the new recruits.

To ensure Covid-secure deliveries, Tesco rolled out cleaning and sanitising kits to vans; face coverings for drivers; and an e-learning video to demonstrate socially distanced deliveries.

The judges said: “A great emphasis on health and safety for employees during the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Wren Kitchens

2020 delivered unprecedented challenges for the industry, yet Wren’s robust, agile delivery model enabled it to expeditiously realign its focus on safety, wellbeing and customer satisfaction.

The swift introduction of Covid-safe procedures enabled Wren to keep business moving, staff employed, customers ordering and manufacturing on track. The safe delivery of 96,296 kitchens was accomplished, ensuring customers weren’t without cooking facilities.

Key achievements include 99.95% deliveries on-time-in-full; £1m efficiency savings and delivery lead times reduced by 60% by Dynamic Planning & Order Pinning; £2.8m efficiency savings and a 33% reduction in road miles since TripleTrunking was introduced; and Wren’s best-ever CSI scores of 93% giving a rating of 8-10/10 and top Trustpilot score (4.5/5).

The judges said: “An excellent entry. A progressive business with robust investment in the operation.”