With strong haulier relationships and improved routes and load planning in place, the AMES Companies is well prepared to fulfil customer deliveries in season 24 with: 

• Strong haulier relationships 
• Efficient load planning 
• Responding to customer needs 

The team have spent the last 12 months listening to customer feedback and making changes to ensure its logistics systems are ready to respond. Transport Manager, Emily Handley, tells more. 

Strong relationship with hauliers 

Being a partner of choice is one of the core AMES Companies goals, and moving into 2024, that hasn’t changed.   

Emily says: “We’re dedicated to bringing retailers reliable deliveries that arrive on time. My team and I have built great relationships with several local and national haulier companies – to make sure that we have enough driver cover throughout the year to fulfil deliveries. 

“Success this year looks like a small number of haulier partners who fulfil daily and weekly deliveries.” 

AMES Companies drivers cover the same retailers each time, which means they get to build relationships directly with the stores they serve. Emily comments that this supports the AMES Companies’ focus on customer centricity. 

“We expect our haulier partners to build great rapport with our customers and we work with them because they’re passionate about the work they do – they’re committed to providing a first-class service.” 

Efficient load planning and times 

Having a proactive approach when it comes to deliveries is essential – the growing team now works in advance to plan routing schedules for drivers.  

Emily credits a recruitment drive for the introduction of new processes: “Our Transport team has grown to seven colleagues in the last twelve months, and they are a group of superstars! Each colleague has brought with them a unique skill set and they have backgrounds in different industries too, so there’s a real breadth of experience in the team.  

“We work together to plan routes and loads with our customers in mind – and we’re in regular communication with our drivers to make sure we’re delighting our customers.”  

Customer feedback is paramount   

AMES dedicates time to hearing from customers on improving delivery services and have made positive changes thanks to their feedback. 

Of the subsequent changes, Emily says: “We have brought our transport team in-house; who have full oversight over our delivery scheduling and routes. This means we can act quickly to avoid disruption to customers and ensure delivery KPIs are met, as well as plan the full routes for our drivers to ensure we are efficient.  

“It’s important to us that we get every single delivery correct, every time. We welcome honest feedback from our customers so we can continually improve our delivery service.” 

What’s next for the AMES Companies? 

Continuous improvement is key. With Emily at the helm, the Transport team will focus on efficient routes and creating loads automatically.  

She says: “Not ones to rest on our laurels, we’re continuing to assess our protocols and look where we can make new investment to strengthen our offering. We’re currently trialling new software with a suite of analytics, helping us further improve our delivery performance.” 

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