Freightline Ltd. (FL) is an express delivery company specialising in next day and time sensitive business-to-business deliveries. It was established in the UK in 1978 and has since developed a leading position in the express delivery market through organic growth and the acquisition of smaller, geographically strategic companies. It now employs in excess of 10,500 people throughout the world. Most people operate from a depot and these range from employing just a few people to the larger depots of 200.
Each depot has a manager, warehouse operatives and drivers. Goods come into the depot or are collected from businesses within a region. They are then sorted by the warehouse operatives according to their destinations and this sorting takes place during the night so that each delivery van is loaded and ready to set off as soon as possible. The key job in the organisation is regarded as being the Loading Bay Operative (LBO). This individual is responsible for loading the goods onto the correct van, checking the bar codes and ensuring that the vans set off in time to meet deadlines. It is a highly pressured and technical job as the incorrect loading of the goods onto a van means wasted time and money.
The larger depots also have administrative staff who provide customer services such as dealing with complaints and liaising with existing customers and there is also a business sales unit responsible for generating new business. The operation is therefore 24/7 and unpredictable in terms of volumes of business.
The Depot Managers have a great deal of autonomy on how they run their depots including responsibility for staffing issues, appraisal, training and any local practices such as disciplinary handling. The company has a central HR service which can be called upon for guidance but the Depot Managers are expected to run their depots like mini-businesses within budget guidelines and with the aim of achieving the corporate objectives which are given to them each year.
These corporate objectives are communicated at a series of conferences for Depot Managers which are held annually around the world. At the most recent conference, the theme was ‘Achieving growth through people'. This seems to have signalled a shift away from focussing on the operational issues, budgets and sales revenue towards a recognition that the express delivery business is highly dependent on the quality and hard work of its employees.
At the conference, the Managing Director explained that ‘Achieving growth through people' was critical at a time when the company's competitive position has been threatened by a slow down in the global economy and correspondingly lower demands for business-to-business delivery services. He emphasised the importance of everyone operating as efficiently as possible and cutting back on costs. Given the high overheads in the business for labour and associated costs, he has asked the Depot Managers to put forward some ideas on how to improve productivity levels and encourage people to ‘go the extra mile'.
There was then a session when the Depot Managers broke into smaller groups and collated a list of issues to do with the workforce and threats to the business in the next few years. The results of a recent employee attitude survey were also announced at the conference and were available to the Depot Managers in their discussions as follows.
All in all, it seems that the Managing Director's slogan ‘Achieving growth through people' was a rather unfortunate choice, given the problems noted above. At the end of the Conference, the MD outlined the key objectives for the forthcoming year which were to reduce costs by 5%, for each depot to make efficiency savings in their carbon footprints by 10% and to do this without any additional resources. There would be a recruitment freeze other than for essential posts and it would be unlikely that the company would award any pay increases unless a strong individual case was put forward on the basis of exceptional performance. Any requests for bonuses would have to be approved by the MD.
As they left the Conference, the mood of the Depot Managers was one of cynicism and anger. Obviously, they understand that trading conditions are tight but they have argued unsuccessfully that investment in better sorting equipment, and a more motivated workforce who are highly incentivised are the keys to achieving the objectives set. It looks like a difficult year ahead.
