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Replanning the entire depot and route structure for the biggest parcel delivery network in the UK in 3 months might seem a daunting task, but when Parcelforce Worldwide (the well-known parcel delivery arm of Consignia) needed to radically restructure their distribution networks, they turned to GeoConcept.
The business had demonstrated a need to reduce costs and improve their delivery service, in the face of difficult market conditions. |
The market for Overnight parcel distribution has matured since the pioneering days of the early eighties, when the concept of offering parcel delivery by the close of the next working day had come to the fore. Many competitors had entered the industry, such as ANC, Target, Business Post, TNT and Securicor, and profit margins were tightly squeezed as competition took effect.
Parcelforce took the pragmatic decision to restructure, in order to capitalise on the strengths of the business (such as the state-of-the art Coventry hub, the largest parcel distribution facility in Europe) and return to profitability. The company decided to move away from the high-volume but low revenue parcels contracts that had previously been the mainstay of the business, in order to focus more on the time-critical B2B services.
The company had been a user of GIS systems for a number of years, but turned to the power and flexibility of Geoconcept to help tackle a planning problem of this scale.
“We used GeoConcept extensively in the planning of the new Parcelforce network” said Tim Burge, Network Development Manager. “Having established the projected size the business needed to be, we could use GeoConcept to help model any combination of depots and territories we wanted”.
“The Isochrone functionality proved particularly useful” continued Tim. “We mapped out areas of equal travel time from each of the new depot locations, in increasing increments. This meant we could model the time patterns for our fleets of vehicles as they return to the depot in the evening, and calculate for our call centre the latest possible time at which we could accept a collection, for any address in the UK”
Of course the proof of the pudding will be when the new network goes live. With the roll-out on schedule to start in July - GeoConcept has even proven itself here. Tim’s team produced specialist maps to help demonstrate to Senior management, depot management, staff and drivers the territory changes that will be taking place to transform Parcelforce Worldwide.
There’s a tangible sense of optimism at Parcelforce that the company has taken a positive step according to Mike Harrison, Head of Network Development - “We’re very confident that the plans we have made, with the help of Geoconcept, will transform our current network into a world-class distribution network, enabling us to exceed the expectations of our customers”. |
