Add in product innovation across all sectors and new manufacturers entering the market, means trade counters are often incapable of carrying the huge range of different parts required. This leads to ordering in stock from the manufacturer or stockist direct or ordering from a centralised warehouse. As a result, the first trip to the trade counter can be a waste of time. Not to mention, a waste of fuel and yet more CO2 emissions.
Recognising issues with trade counters, businesses often order parts direct from major stockist distribution centres and send them straight to their engineers. It’s looks like the obvious solution; parts get to where they need to be with no driving. The downside? On average, engineers wait half a day for their delivery to arrive. Some suppliers offer premium-priced deliveries to get parts out earlier, but these are often expensive and still usually cut an hour or two off an engineer’s working day.
This, the second solution we found out about, is popular with large businesses with an engineer work force of several hundred. In fact, they will often go a step further and employ a third party logistics service to deliver overnight. Again, this is great for those that can afford it - and have clients willing to pay for it. But for many businesses, a logistics service is out of the question, purely because of the expense.
A company leader is Parcel Holders. MD Ed Fraser says: ‘I started with internet shopping. Our sister company Parcel PickUp uses local shops, garages, pubs and so on to take delivery for people who are out during the day.
In 2013, I had a ‘lightbulb moment’! How about a service dedicated for engineers in the field? Using mostly newsagents and convenience stores [open early to take the papers in], Parcel Holders has upwards of 400 PickUp DropOff points (PUDOs) and a dedicated online system. From vending to IT to CCTV to refrigeration, we’re expanding. Every sector is different, so each time we take on a new type of business, our features and upgrades, important stuff for engineers, can be specifically designed.’
‘Any company, any supplier, any location can trial Parcel Holders for free and experience the money-saving benefits for themselves,’ she said. ‘We use supply chain transparency, meaning suppliers are added into the process, so consignments can be tracked from the minute they leave the supplier to the moment they land in an engineer’s hands.’
Sure as eggs is eggs, the business of getting parts to where they need to be is only going to get more complex. It’s good to know what’s out there and how to make time-pressured engineers’ lives a little simpler.
What Ed and the team offer is a real breakthrough in driving after-market support and it fits hand-in-glove with our business model of driving continuous improvement in all that we do.
The Parcel Suppliers system effectively eliminates all those ‘chasing up' phone calls that are enough to drive anybody mad. Everybody involved knows exactly where they stand, so from a service point of view, it just matches what we're trying to achieve in the business.
The support and efficiencies it [Parcel Holders] has driven within our business have been fantastic... it's a hassle-free solution
