Top Winners of 2008

Watch this section of the site for individual nomination remarks

Two wheel

Gabriel Alves-Dias / TNT - Gabriel is without doubt the best biker Vauxhall TNT depot has ever seen. He gets every job done with speed and efficiency. He does not know the meaning of the word ‘no’. Any weather, any day he is ready and willing to work with a smile on his face. “he is the most commite and professional courier I have seen in my sixteen years at TNT and we would struggle to replace him” says his manager. Gabriel is professional with his appearance from start to finish, he treats every job with the same level of respect. He maintains a clean and well maintained bike, he is courteous and polite to all our clients and his attitude is second to none, nothing is too much trouble for him. He ensures that he presents TNT in a professional light and advises his team of any delays. He works under difficult weather conditions but Gabriel gets on with the job making sure that riding safe gets him there on time. Gabriels key attributes include excellent communication skills and dedication to the job. He always deliver on time and in Gabriels line of work this is priceless. He is a conscientious individual who always ensures that his approach to work is methodical and professional, thus enabling him to achieve the highest standard of customer service. Customer testimonial: Gabriel is a very reliable, trustworthy and courteous rider. He is always security conscious when collecting and delivering our goods. When Gabriel comes to collect our goods we are 100% confident our packages will be secure and will get there on time. Secretary to a London City Hospital.

Will Hepworth / Connections - Will has been with Connections for over 5 years. He previously worked for another London courier company and 5 years ago they were oversubscribed with bikes so he came recommended to us. We do work for several large courier companies around the city and we feel that our couriers have a harder job of representing not only the industry but another courier company as well as Connections. Will is a mature man (over 60) who has been involved in the transport industry for many years having been a van driver, coach and bus driver as well as a motorcycle courier. Several clients ask for him by name if a job requires extra special care and attention. He always keeps us informed if there are any difficulties and we know he is totally reliable. He will always get up early if we have a collections or delivery to Manchester, Leeds or further etc where he has to be there for 8.00 am. He has 3 bikes available so that he can always be at work if one has a problem. He rarely has holidays or time off sick so we can always rely on him to be available.

John Powell / Post Haste. - John worked as part of the Post Haste team for over twenty five years. John joined before the age of computers, mobile phones & e-mails, all of which he managed to catch up with and use as part of his daily routines. Throughout his time he has proven to be efficient, loyal and trustworthy. Post Haste have become accustomed to clients requesting John personally for a particularly sensitive or important delivery. Despite lengthy service, he shows the vigour and stamina of a man many years younger than himself. Ever cheerful, he shows himself to be the epitome of riders at all times and in all weathers.Over the years he has helped considerably to promote the company, and offered guidance to new recruits. Post Haste put forward the nomination that they felt would be a well deserved “pat on the back” for such a reliable and duty bound member of their team.

Four Wheel

Mel Gabitas / MPC Excell - Mel, aged 42 has worked for MPC as a van driver for 10 years, having joined our sameday night operation “to fit in with his commitments to his band”. Mel, always courteous, always polite and nothing is too much for him. He cut his teeth sweeping up for our international courier side one night when a major City client had 27 very urgent shipments ready at 2.30 am that needed to be packaged, airway bills raised, manifested and delivered to 7 agents at Heathrow by 4.30 am – Mel made it with 2 minutes to spare and all shipments made their delivery deadlines. Mel was quickly promoted to days, handling the sameday operation for MPC international department. That entails making time critical collections from clients and delivery back to our international operations centre in London Bridge. Though a sameday driver, when Mel delivers back to our international operations centre, he often ‘mucks’ in in busy times, helping our international staff prepare airway bills and packaging consignments. He has received particular praise from clients, one specifically telephoned to thank him for helping one of their partners who was struggling with her own case files which were spread over the pavement, not even a job for him, he just went to help a damsel in distress, collected her files and delivered her to her meeting. Mel has also proven completely reliable when it comes to on-board couriers. On-boards are particular stressful, incredibly urgent and always come through at the last minute. Mel, passport at the ready, is prepared to drop everything and go. His latest delivery was to Serbia where he slept with his head on the shipment, scared it might have vanished by the morning. Mel truly has taken sameday couriering to a new level, changing his 4 wheels for wings to meet sameday courier requirement overseas. I am told the original band has disbanded due to Mel’s work pressures but a new band is about to “go into the studio” Watch this space.

Harry Holland / TNT - A previous National Courier Award winner, Harry continues without a doubt to be one of the most professional drivers within TNT. Performance profile Harry achieve 94.4% out of 100. An amazing achievement. Harry stands out from the rest because of his positive attitude, no matter what time of day or night. He shows enthusiasm, dedication and professionalism in everything he does. He is always extremely smart and well presented in his uniform. He is easily identified when out and about with a personalised TNT number plate. Harry was given some batch of parcels for delivery to a different clients branch when he came across one item that was not address for that branch. Harry brought this to the attention of the Centre Manager and upon further inspection, the package contained a large amount of South African currency (£340). Because of Harry’s actions TNT were able to notify the customer and get the money returned safely back to them. This incident highlights how the integrity and honesty of Harry represents TNT. Another example of Harry’s willingness to go that extra mile is when another courier broke down and Harry volunteered to drive 40 miles to bring in the packages on board resulting in minimising any negative impact on the customer, delivering the clients work on time. Another occasion whilst Harry was out on the A1 he spotted another TNT Van broken down on the roadside, he noted it was a lady driver. With no packages onboard he called into his control and informed them he would wait with her until the RAC came out. This is typical of Harry putting others before himself.

Anthony Rudder / eCourier. - Anthony portrayed the courier industry on national TV, he has been with eCourier for the past 4 years. Certainly the most helpful, polite and courteous on our team. Anthony has been with eCourier from the beginning and is a great ambassador for the company. Anthony and his vehicle are smart and clean, on time and keen to help the company grow. He sometimes gets sent the work that no one else wants but he just knuckles down and gets on with it. He was the subject of a prank for a Channel 4 TV programme called “Balls of Steel”, it was by chance that Anthony was the victim of the prank but it proved his patience and customer services skills. The idea behind the prank was to see just how far someone can be pushed before they react. Thankfully the patience of the production team ran out before Anthony’s and they blew their cover long before the Anthony blew his top. It is just one of the examples that emphasizes Anthony’s personality. Patience and care, helpful and persistent, smart and presentable to the customer face. He is liked by the customer, receives praise from all client levels and his is popular with the fleet. He has shown the world of television that he can’t be shaken from his professional task.

Contract

Raymond Beer / TNT - Ray is commended by his client (Financial sector) for his tireless and never ending dedication to getting the job done. He regularly meets the incoming flight from the Channel Islands, often the weather hampers take-off and those delays impact on his schedule. Often waiting for the work to arrive, aircraft cancelled and arrive at a totally different time. Ray is always willing to assist and because of the close rapport he has built up with the airline they often advise him of flight status and arrival times directly. A director of the aviation company wrote in commendation of Ray, “Ray has a great sense of humour which is tempered with enthusiasm and professionalism” It is this enthusiasm that makes Ray see a difficult situation as an opportunity to shine. Ray approaches his work in the same way that he approaches his home life. “I treat people the same way I wish to be treated with respect and humility” He delights in exceeding expectations in everything he does and is well known by his colleagues as a man who will put himself out for others. His attention to detail is remarked upon as is his appearance starting the day with a crisp, white ironed shirt and freshly shined shoes. His painstaking approach to the cleanliness of his vehicle is also an example of how dedicated he is. Ray is liked by all his colleagues and on one occasion Ray noticed a member of staff was not her usual self. She broke down in tears whilst speaking with him. Ray took time out to console her and offering her some words of encouragement causing her to comment “I wish I had a Grandad like Ray” He is one of the most respected couriers we have ever had and has many testimonials from customers commenting: “how courteous, smart, timely and well mannered he is”

David Green / Post Haste - David has worked as part of Post Haste APC team for 18 months delivering on a daily basis up to 60 consignments a day in London East postcodes. These are areas that were new to our depot but when we were asked to service these areas by APC David personally helped to make the transition from one depot to another as smoothly as possible. His previous four years experience was invaluable during this time, and with his help many new clients were introduced. Since joining our company, we have been impressed by his reliability and professionalism, his coolness under pressure and his can-do attitude that every multi-drop driver needs. Nothing prepared us for the event that took place in May 2007 when David was attacked in the Custom House area. The attackers knocked David to the ground, stole his vehicle, including the remaining APC deliveries and callously drove the vehicle over David in order to escape. After being resuscitated at the scene and airlifted to the Royal London Hospital David’s injuries were described as life changing, although for a time we thought that it may be life threatening. His wife and children were devastated by this event and upon hearing that the Metropolitan Police were treating the attack as attempted murder. David’s recuperation took over six months, but with support and encouragement from family, friends, colleagues and customers we were delighted when David returned to work in time for the Christmas rush. During his absence we would often receive calls from customers and regular delivery addresses asking for reports on his recovery. Of course the reports on the various news programmes and newspapers ensure that he will remain a celebrity, but we remember that he is a competent and able driver who does his work to the best of his ability, day after day. In similar circumstances many drivers would not have returned to work or would have requested a change of delivery route but not David. His commitment is an inspiration for his colleagues and his enthusiasm infectious.

Paul Johnson / DHL. - Paul is an individual that stands out from the rest of the crowd. Running from DHL Heathrow depot our van couriers deal with a variety of on the spot changes as well as not knowing whether the job is local or national. Over this last six months Paul has been collecting material from a particular city legal firm from the DHL aviation depot at Luton Airport. Paul has handled objectives such as material not being labelled therefore delaying the release from Luton, he has contact DHL or the client and updated on any problems enabling control to rectify, Paul then would transport shipments to LHR, whereby he has on occasion re-packed the shipment (due to rain damage) to make ready for handing to British Airways Secure area after it had been refused due to the same reason, he has personally marked and labelled the shipments sometimes totalling up to 50 which is time consuming, and ensured all paperwork is processed with DHL Aviation in LHR and British Airways. As Paul is an owner driver and this is out of his normal remit, I feel that should he not have gone the “extra mile”, this would have caused major delays to a high profile client, knock on effect resulting in loss of revenue, this has occurred on more than one occasion and DHL strongly feel this individual has showed true commitment and dedication to the business needs. Paul is also very polite and his Customer Service skills both internal and external have been noted.  Indeed British Airways Commercial Operations Manager has called DHL personally to reiterate his thanks and praise Paul for his efforts and assistance.

Office

Ros Grinham / Prestige - Ros started with Prestige 22 years ago as a telephonist has moved on to bike controller, car controlling, car coordinating and now organises all the PCO paperwork, employing of drivers, complaint letters etc.etc. and generally is capable of doing anything! Nothing is too much trouble and the clients are delighted to deal with her. When asked to do something it gets done professionally and efficiently. She has dedicated herself to the company and the industry tirelessly aiming for better and better ways of giving a service to the customer. She is capable of supporting any one member of our team and knows how to get the job done. She is a marvel to Prestige and without her a huge gap would or could only probably be filled by several others. Her standards are high and she inspires those she works with. A true professional person who represents the company unfailingly. Without a doubt we would not have made it this far without her. She is also a single Mum who drops her child into nursery before school and still gets into our office come rain or shine by 8am. The whole company know how good she is and Prestige just want to say so.

Lee Lloyd / MPC Excel - Lee started as motorcycle courier at the age of 20 as a first job - “just to see what it was like” After 8 years on the road Lee found himself at MPC where he was the top earner for over 12 months. He was also the top moaner for 12 months and after one of his lectures of how to run a courier business, MPC’s sameday operations manager asked him if he wanted to cover a telephonist position for a week, covering a holiday period. The idea was to show him the pressures of a busy control office so he could never moan again. After his one week cover, Lee asked if he could cover a co-ordinators position for a week, again to cover a holiday. That one weeks cover was in 1999. Since then he has now risen to senior controller. Lee has a special quality that only a very few top controllers have. He is brilliant with the riders and drivers, having his own nicknames for them, he is excellent with the customers, often taking over an irate caller from a customer service staff member, placating clients with consummate ease. He never panics, loves Friday afternoons and really makes is job look easy. MPC have the lowest turnover of drivers which I believe is partly due to Lee running ‘his control desk ’ with a great deal of fun but never forgetting the professional side to the business. His character and professionalism was recently tested further by the merging of our sameday courier operation with Excel Couriers. Though he could see the benefits, nobody likes change and he had to keep the sprits high with fellow member of staff. He was an integral part in the merger of the two control rooms. Without him it would not have worked so smoothly.

Jean Lowe / Pink Express - Jean joined Pink in 2000 as a clerk in the finance department. She quickly displayed the professionalism and dedication to get promotion to Finance assistant, and then supervisor. In the following years she progressed to Finance Assistant Manager and then to her present role as Finance Manager. She is now a very important part of the management team and runs the entire finance operation. Along with this dedication to the professional side of the business she is also know as the company ‘mum’ and spends considerable amounts of her personal time helping staff with personal issues. Jean undertook accounting qualifications in her personal time to better prepare her for her finance role. She organises Pink charity donations which support numerous children’s charities. Party in the Park, Breast Cancer and Children’s Leukaemia. All in all she is a credit to Pink and to our industry. A customer reccomendation wrote: “When I deal with Jean I know she is dealing with the issue with the utmost attention and clarity. She never fails to be helpful and polite and will always ensure we are looked after. I am very happy to support a nomination for her professional ability”

Kenny Muir / DHL. - Kenny Muir has been with DHL for almost 10 years which in today’s climate is a very long time to be dedicated to one company, he still shows his commitment and enthusiasm for the company by working tirelessly to help RFOM as much as possible without fuss or complaint. Kenny over a period of 8 months has been managing Aberdeen branch as well as Edinburgh. This has meant he has spent a lot of time apart from his wife and small child. While at Aberdeen he has undertaken the task of training all staff at this branch as they only started as he took over and keeping the branch ticking over by working all day and being on call through out the night. While there he had to train the couriers on how to use the very important HHCD equipment, and train staff. Kenny has had to do all the reporting for both branches i.e. overtime, P&L etc. When a new manager was appointed in April he then undertook the task of training him on the branch and reporting systems. As the new manager departed DHL Kenny stepped up again to help his RFOM keep the site running with the best of their abilities. On his return to Aberdeen the warehouse had to go through several movements and through sickness Kenny took it upon himself to do this. He also went through DHL level 4 security training to gain access to the warehouse as the staff on site were going through the checks for this. He took over OOH picking as they are not aloud out to the warehouse. Kenny found £3000 of lost revenue for the branch and has not claimed his overtime (60 hours) he is entitled to to save costs on the regions monthly P&L report. His mobile phone is on 24/7 365 days – even when he is on holiday!! And if the need arises he will cut short any holidays if possible and come to the office, which he has done this year. Also, on three separate occasions there have been alarm malfunctions at the Livingston Service centre and Kenny has spent the night acting as a security guard to ensure that the building was safe and naturally to ensure no harm came to the customer stock stored in the warehouse.Kenny has red and yellow DHL blood running through him and is a company man. With this sort of dedication he will and is an invaluable asset to the company

Team Prize Special

Swift Despatch Liverpool, recognition for multiple decades of dedicated service. - Forty four years of unbroken four wheel service from two van drivers who began work over twenty years ago. Independent courier Company Swift of Liverpool boasts this outstanding long service. The drivers themselves could list nominations but this is about the individual who creates the ethos and environment to boast such long stay records. Mark Davies running today’s operations is responsible for keeping the team together and what a star job he has done. Making the industry his life he should get recognition for outstanding problem solving, people handling and life skills which he has matched to industry knowledge and professional stature in the courier industry. Credentials of the drivers that have stayed on his team for so many years are the signpost that marks him out for a national courier award at an independent courier company. The two gentlemen of particular note, nurtured on Marks team are David and Phil. They started work with us within one week of each other and they have carried out 22 years of service each. There professional ability and skills have adapted to all the changes the industry has seen over the years and they have shown an outstanding wiliness to learn. We are proud that they have stayed with our company but also by their preference to continue working as van couriers with Swift under Marks leadership for so many years. In a changing industry he has kept both them and many others on a level footing and made their jobs their lives too. There can surely be few independents who could claim such a stay record and I believe Mark Davies to be key to the success of that record.

Safety Award

TNT an ethos of safety in logistics, presented by Seb Goldin IAM Fleet Director

Services to the industry

John Scott FFIoC of GLH, past chairman of the DA, a founding fellow of the IOC, key supporter to courier NVQ development, top man in private hire too. Presented by former winner Jeffrey Ritterband FFIoC of Lewis Day.

Top Brass judges for the 2008 job find the Best of the Best in the Sameday

Twenty one short-listers will be laden with Champaign

Billed the courier event of the year companies large and small, national, London and network have booked up for an evening to remember. The National Courier Awards for 2008 gala celebration dinner will be at the Institute of Directors, Pall Mall. Tracey Worth co-ordinated nominations and chairman of the judges Marc Cheauveux held the meeting of the panel on Tuesday September 9 th in the presence of Steve Norris former transport minister and Vice President of the Institute.

Decisions and discussion covered most of the day for a run of short-listers that drew the highest quality seen in the history of the awards. Lunch was an opportunity for the top brass to take on thoughts from Steve Norris that covered transport, green issues & push bikes, congestion and business needs for same day transport. There was no easy answer to find the winners who remain a secret until the evening, Don’t miss the results, 2008