HVAC & REFRIGERATION SHOW PREVIEW
The downside? On average, engineers will spend half a day waiting for their delivery to arrive. Some suppliers off er 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.
What about sending direct to client sites? This solution works well for small sites and is a tried and tested method adopted by many. The issue is that it doesn’t work for domestic markets as customers are often out at work, unavailable to take delivery.
At larger commercial sites, a component can get lost; imagine the receptionist who has no idea a part is going to arrive, let alone who’s going to collect it. This is doubly frustrating as it leads to time wasted trying to track parts down. As Rachel Burgess, customer services manager at AA First commented: “One of the biggest nightmares in this job is parcels that end up in the wrong place, get lost or end up back at base marked ‘return to sender’.”
The second solution, sending to locker boxes or engineers’ vans, 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 aff ord it and have clients willing to pay for it. However, for many businesses a logistics service is out of the question, purely because of the expense.
In addition, using boxes and vans (and logistics) makes shopping around for the best price far more diffi cult, as bringing new suppliers onboard requires full integration with existing logistics set-ups.
Pick up and drop off
Onto the last solution: pick up and drop off . You will have heard of, and perhaps already use, collection points for internet purchases. Some companies are now adapting and designing their domestic solutions to benefi t business-to-business markets.
One company leader which has done just this is Parcel Holders. Managing director Ed Fraser stated: “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 fi eld? 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 diff erent, so each time we take on a new type of business, our features and upgrades, important stuff for engineers, can be specifi cally designed.”
We asked Parcel Holders operations director, Monika Douglas, about the best part of using the company’s pick up drop off solution. She explained: “Any company, any supplier, any location can trial Parcel Holders for free and experience the money-saving benefi ts for themselves.
“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.”
Andy Chilvers, operations manager for Connect commented: “The transition from suppliers to PUDO sites works seamlessly. This PUDO system works really well.”
Is there a downside? “It’s unlikely any of our PickUp DropOff s are going to serve you a free bacon butty or fried egg!” says Ms Douglas.
Sure as eggs is eggs, the business of getting parts to where they need to be is only going to become more complex. It’s good to know what solutions are out there and how to make time-pressured engineers’ lives a little simpler. Parcel Holders will be found on stand E38 at The HVAC & Refrigeration Show at London’s ExCeL from 23-25 January 2018.
Vulkan Lokring
www.acr-news.com
December 2017 25
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