Ensign Couriers - Case Study

Case Study

A New Beginning

Paul Gray of Ensign Couriers who have been introduced to many new customers by Courier Exchange.

Having steadily built up a successful courier business over 14 years, South Shields-based Ensign Couriers had 15 vans delivering to over 200 sites throughout the UK. A phone call one Friday afternoon from their largest customer saying it was going into receivership that afternoon could have spelled the end for Ensign Couriers.

Two years on, thanks to the Courier Exchange, Ensign's boss Paul Gray is confident about the future and the company is beginning to expand again. "We had to make some immediate decisions on how to stay in business, reduce the fleet to manage the remaining business efficiently and look at ways to build up new relationships quickly and effectively," says Paul.

"I must say that the Courier Exchange was a bit of a lifesaver," adds Paul "as it enabled us to generate backloads from all over the country into the North East and stabilize the fleet at six vehicles. The Courier Exchange introduced Ensign Couriers to many new customers to help build up the work to help them move forward. Most of them were other courier companies or transport companies already using the Courier Exchange based in other parts of the UK. This enables us to offer customers in the North East a 'national service'.

Paul Gray of Ensign Couriers, left, with Lyall Cresswell, managing director of Courier Exchange.

Permanent planning tool

Ensign's traffic manager uses the Courier Exchange every day and it is a permanent operational planning tool for the business. Ensign Couriers uses the Return Journeys part of the site to match loads, increase vehicle utilizations and create partnerships with other couriers in different parts of the UK where there is compatible traffic. This whole process has been built up on 'trust' comments Paul. "As soon as people have used the service once they are usually convinced we can meet any customer criteria they throw at us." Using Courier Exchange as an operational planning tool Ensign Couriers is also able to be pro-active with customers of its own. "It is sometimes more cost effective for us to use another Courier Exchange member to deliver in the South East, for example if they were delivering into the North East and returning home empty. By planning these trips in advance using the Courier Exchange 'goods to move' facility, we can keep a very close eye on our costs, revenues and profits. This confidence in the delivery capability and performance of other Courier Exchange members has been a vital ingredient in making this planning exercise work for us," adds Paul.

"The Courier Exchange gave us immediate confidence that we could survive for twelve months at least with sixvans," added Paul. "Without Courier Exchange we would most certainly have dispensed with our two outbased vehicles in Pontefract and Castleford that were providing a dedicated service for our big customer that went bust."

Ensign Couriers' traffic manager uses the Courier Exchange every day as a permanent operational planning tool for the business.

Building up traffic

"Using Courier Exchange we have been able to build up the traffic in the Yorkshire area far more quickly than we would have been able to in South Shields alone. Our next plans are to have dedicated premises and overnight storage facilities in order to offer a 24 hour service and deliver direct to customers at the time they require not when the vans are in the area."

This, Paul believes, is where the added value comes over the bigger operators whose customers often have to fit into their operational criteria. "We want to be small, flexible and customer conscious as we know that personal service is very important to the customer. If we turn up at 2am and the load is not ready we call back when it is". The flexibility also runs into the types of vans operated by Ensign Couriers, two long wheelbase sprinters, one high roof transit and three normal transits. This enables the company to match the vehicle for the precise loads. As part of the restructuring exercise Paul Gray has also switched his fleet to a flexible contract hire package where the vehicles could go back tomorrow if the work dried up.

So controlling his vehicle costs, using the Courier Exchange to develop new business and then plan it effectively to increase the utilization of the remaining vehicles in the fleet and develop new opportunities in Yorkshire has helped Paul Gray stabilize the business and look to the future with confidence.

Indispensable

With the Courier Exchange now as a 24 hour-a-day indispensable part of his total operation, Paul Gray is looking to develop the business steadily on the principles he has employed from day one. Customer service and high quality performance is 'second nature'. Through the Courier Exchange Paul has built up relationships with quality couriers in other parts of the country, created a market for Ensign's services in the Yorkshire area and developed further added value services. And that terrible Friday afternoon phone call is now just a distant memory.