TRANSPORT P
rocuring a significant number of commercial vehicles and those vehicles going operational in a large fleet is a complex matter, with much devilry
in the detail. A project to specify and introduce the latest vehicles for the home delivery fleet has been a critical one for the Wickes transportation and distribution team that involved a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. Wickes’ 230-plus sites nationwide are serviced by its Northampton central distribution centre; the company’s home delivery fleet for kitchens and bathrooms also runs out of the same facility, servicing customers across the breadth of the UK. Wickes began a relationship with Ryder in December 2018 when the fleet management company was able to help Wickes’ parent company, Travis Perkins, with the supply of more than 600 vehicles at short notice following the withdrawal of the previous vehicle supplier. The relationship has gone from strength to strength over the past 18 months.
Ryder currently supplies more than 240 vehicles into the Wickes fleet. This includes supply into the national 24/7 store distribution fleet of 50 DAF XF tractors and 110 trailers, of which 80 are high- volume, step-sided versions. Ryder also supplies the company’s kitchen and bathroom home delivery fleet with more than 80 specialised DAF LF rigid curtainside trucks and trailers. John Robinson, Ryder Director, Fleet Sales, has been involved in the Wickes relationship from the beginning. “We got off to a strong start in 2018 after taking over a large part of the Travis Perkins fleet, and the Wickes component within it. Wickes has very clear objectives in terms of what it requires from its vehicle fleet. We’ve worked hard over the past 18 months to understand these requirements in detail, and the demands of the company’s transport operation. This has involved our sales, fleet management and engineering teams, who have all played an important role,” he says.
“I’m delighted that we were able to build on the initial supply of vehicles with a further 50 new DAF XF tractor units last year for the Wickes store supply fleet. We’ve also recently supplied a further 17 new specialised DAF LF220 15t rigid replacement vehicles into Wickes’ kitchens and bathrooms home delivery fleet. We will shortly begin a programme of trailer refurbishment across the Wickes fleet.”
Dudley Holliday, Wickes head of kitchen and bathroom distribution, comments: “Our vehicles have to last seven years, so getting the specification right for these new kitchen and bathroom delivery vehicles was absolutely key. “We run a premium two-man delivery service with delivery to a customer-specified delivery location, and to the room of choice in the
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FLEET’S THE
customer’s residence. Safety is our top priority. Home delivery is an uncontrolled environment and our vehicles and drivers need to be able to react quickly to a range of scenarios and delivery situations, including the need to be able to adapt rapidly if a delivery is cancelled. “We spent a lot of time working on the new vehicle specification. This included running focussed workshops with our internal stakeholders, driver trainers, distribution managers and with Ryder. A key consideration was getting the end user’s input as drivers can spend 12 hours in the cab, and they know the day-to-day demands better than anyone. Our focus was on developing a vehicle specification that supports safe, high-quality delivery with maximum efficiency. The Wickes brand image is also very important, so we reflected this in the high vehicle specification with a unique, high quality livery.
“Each vehicle’s delivery round needs to accommodate seven bathrooms and/or kitchens, together with smaller deliveries. Safety and innovation is key when loading a range of components for kitchen or bathroom installations on to the vehicle at the same
IN TOWN
Procuring commercial vehicles is not a trivial matter. BMJ takes a closer look at how Wickes worked with Ryder on its fleet management.
time, and being able to offload an individual customer set independently of other customer orders. Some items can be bulky, for example work tops and appliances, and other supporting components. This is extremely challenging as this needs to be done safely and without damage to some very expensive items.”
Dedicated engineering support In order to support the specific project objectives, Ryder provided a significant amount of engineering expertise into developing the right specification. David Grogut, Senior Engineer at Ryder, comments: “We started with a detailed list of requirements from Wickes based on their experience with the existing vehicle fleet. This was supplemented by workshops with the Wickes transportation team, driver trainers and the bodybuilder.” Key areas included camera specification and positioning, reversing signals, seats and driving position, ergonomics, satellite navigation as well as safe loading and unloading. A number of bespoke features were designed specifically for the new Wickes kitchen and bathroom delivery vehicles.
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net December 2020
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