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27 Apr 2016

AKW’s Transport Revolution

- Written by Ash Bath

Here at AKW, we are always striving to improve our services, both internally and externally so we can offer our customers the best possible experience. This includes our delivery methods, which saw a drastic overhaul back in January 2013.

A recent feature on BBC’s The One Show revealed that more than a quarter of people who had bought products online had stated that they’d had a problem with delivery, much of which is being blamed on large delivery companies trying to undercut each other on price and cutting corners by using self employed delivery drivers and not full time staff. This begs the question… how can these companies be sure that all delivery drivers are delivering to the same standard?

Pre January 2013, we offered an external courier service, which although had its benefits, it also meant that our customers experienced some negative issues that we were keen to iron out.

We wanted to:

  • Cut the amount of damaged and lost items in transit
  • Reduce the amount of deliveries that were made late or were for some reason delayed
  • Reduce complaints
  • Manage all complaints internally rather than acting as middle man between customer and courier
  • Reduce costs for the customers and AKW as a business

… so the time came for a change.

Transport-Banner1The simplest solution seemed like it would be the best for everyone, why not create our own dedicated transport network? We can set it up to make sure that all of our customers get their deliveries on time and in perfect condition, also meaning that if the unfortunate did go wrong, we would have total control and traceability and therefore could handle the complaints procedure ourselves.

So we partnered with a well established transport company called TDL who have over 30 years experience in the transport business. Within a year we had replaced any requirement whatsoever for external couriers, meaning we could now offer our own nationwide delivery service using a fleet of fully CRB checked drivers decked out in a smart uniform, satisfying the requirements of both AKW as a business and our customers. This overhaul meant that within that first year, we were able to reduce handling damages to zero, meaning we got to reduce the amount of packaging we used to ship our products, saving us and in turn the customer, money.

Thanks to our live GPS tracking systems we have in place we can now offer an online, real time Track and Trace facility, which means our customers can obtain highly accurate information about where their order is on its way from us to them. This reduces the amount of time wasted whilst waiting around for a package or delivery. We also complete a full audit of products, meaning they are scanned onto the vehicle and then scanned off at the other end, then upon delivery one of our drivers will offer you a product induction, so we can be 100% sure you got everything you ordered and you know everything you need to know about what you’ve received.

This new service changed the face of AKW’s delivery network over the first year of its existence by travelling over 1,200,000 miles… meaning we can now boast these incredible figures:

  • 100% delivery completion
  • 100% on time delivery
  • 100% damage free

Along with these great figures that delighted over 50,000 customers in year 1, as a business we managed to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint and saving the company a great deal of money, savings we are now passing on to you, our customers.

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