The Directors Desk:
I am sure you all know that this has been a bumper year, with several sites opening across Scotland, North of England, and Ireland.
This is in line with our growth strategy and highlights some of this year’s progressions, such as taking over a UPS site and moving into depots like Jarrow, Inverness, Portadown and Sunderland.
As part of our plan, we are revising systems in various departments within the business to become more effective and efficient.
This led to us identifying areas of improvement, and in doing so, we have paid specific attention to sectors such as fleet management, finance, recruitment and more.
As part of our initiative to achieve excellence, we continuously look for various ways to improve.
One undertaking that has already had excellent feedback is the new accounting system, which has seen a more accurate driver payment schedule.
The new fleet management software we are designing will also ensure that all the vans are kept in prime condition.
These are just some things to look forward to in 2022 as the company evolves and grows.
Finally, as the year comes to an end, I would like to thank everyone for their hard work and dedication throughout the year.
Our success is 100% down to our fantastic team of drivers and managers across all our sites. Through hard work, loyalty & commitment we have earned a brilliant reputation with our customers as we deliver an excellent service to them.
That is what drives our success and our growth.
I am genuinely humbled by the hard work, dedication and commitment shown by everyone on the Pegasus Couriers team.
I would like to thank each and every one of you for all your hard work throughout the year.
Without such dedication and focus, we would not have been able to overcome the stumbling blocks in our path.
I hope everyone has a blessed festive season, and I look forward to catching up in 2022.
Facts
In three months we have:
- Made over 14 000 phone calls to new candidates
- Sent 12 500 emails to candidates
- Hosted 650 drug and alcohol tests
- Our fleet travelled over 5.5 million miles
- Opened a UPS site in Warrington
- Opened sites in Jarrow, outside Newcastle.
- Opened a site in Portadown, in Ireland
- Embarked on several advertising campaigns
- Upgraded our accounting, payment, marketing and
recruitment platform
Pegasus Couriers opens another three sites as demand for speedy delivery services surges.
The announcement came in late 2021 during the countrywide truck driver shortage.
Despite the shortage, online recruitment websites saw a spike in applications for drivers.
Recruitment website Totaljobs UK said they had seen a rise in driver job requests between February and October.
Data shows that in July 2020, about 5 561 delivery driver search queries online were performed compared to almost 20 000 similar search queries in 2021.
A spokesman for the site said that these figures were more than four times higher than in the same period in 2020 and three times higher than pre-pandemic levels.
During the week 16 to August 22, over 4 000 driving or delivery roles were advertised on the site.
According to Google Trends, the week of August 30 to September 6 saw a spike in driver job search queries.
Pegasus Couriers operations manager Phil West said that the driver shortage had impacted most businesses in the logistics industry. “We were fortunate enough to be able to flex our recruitment approach and adapt.
However, the entire industry is feeling a shortage of drivers. It is a concern for all in the sector. Year on year, we have seen an increase in deliveries but a decrease in drivers for each job.
Pegasus Couriers Director Martin Smith said that all logistics businesses were scrambling to find drivers, mostly picking staff from the same shrinking resources pool.
Smith added that several hospitality and retail workers signed up as temporary delivery drivers during the lockdown, but several left to return to their pre-pandemic jobs.
“The recruitment websites figures prove our point. Our recruitment teams are seeing an increase in applicants from the end of August; however, we have also embarked on a more multi-platform advertising campaign.”
Make a Child Smile this Christmas
As part of our efforts to give back to the community,
Pegasus Couriers pledged a cash donation to the hugely
popular Cash for Kids campaign.
The campaign was launched on November 15 and aims
to provide disadvantaged children with presents for
Christmas.
Cash for Kids Charity Manager Victoria Hendry said that
the donation would help supply several children with
more than one gift each.
“Mission Christmas is in full swing. We are grateful for all donations and will be using them to bring some much-needed cheer to those in need,” she said.
In Scotland, last year, the charity raised over £250,000 and assisted more than 15 000 children. The campaign will run until December 23.
If you are keen to donate to the children, go to this LINK.
Meet Our Resource Manager
In this edition asked the Pegasus Couriers Resource Manager, Vanessa Durney,
to tell us a bit about herself
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Gosh I couldn’t possibly say.. 🤦🏻♀️ No seriously, I am a total bed slug and have at least two
snoozes per day, much to my husband’s annoyance.
How would you describe your day job to a child?
I find drivers to deliver presents to people.
What is your biggest achievement to date – personal or professional?
Doing a HR / Business Management degree at the age of 46. I was totally fed up and decided I
needed to challenge myself and boy was it a challenge! I gave up my full-time job, went part-time
and crammed a 3-year degree into 1 year. Hard work was not the word, turns out I am not a
natural Academic, but I got a 2.1 of which I am extremely proud.
What does a typical day look like for you?
No day is the same in Pegasus, it all depends on what time of year it is, the demands of the depots,
but I generally set my team up with a plan for the day and then do my reports for the day, look for
trends and issues and try and capture / deal with anything prior to it becoming a barrier to
recruiting drivers.
What are your hobbies and what do you do to relax?
So, my hubby and I are very organic and like to grow our own veg and salad. We tried growing
Sweetcorn for the first time this year and it was awesome! So tasty and worth the effort but our
onion crop was a bust and we had to fight off the deer that were intent on eating our Raspberries!
Weeds are my enemy…
To relax I like to read and socialise, we entertain quite a lot when Covid permits and my favourite
entertaining is in the garden in nice weather, BBQ alight and some niece seafood being cooked.
Where were you born and how long have you been in the recruitment industry?
I was born in York and have only ever lived there and Edinburgh. I have worked in the recruitment
industry for around 25 years covering Drivers, Fish factories, Amazon (Warehouse), Kettle Produce
(don’t ever buy posh veg as it literally comes from the same field and is more expensive because
of the packaging and label) Government Personnel, Insolvency Service, and the Midwifery Council
to name but a few.
What was your first job when you left school?
I had a job from being 14 in a posh Café called Browns, I left there when I left school and went to
another restaurant called Poppins. I was fired after two weeks because a poor pensioner ordered
fish and chips and the Chef threw the fish on the floor to break it off another fillet. It went under
the freezer and came out with; well, I can’t actually name what it was that was stuck all over it and
he was totally going to give it to my customer so I went out and said we “were out of fish and
would she like to order something else?” My pinny was handed in 5 minutes after.
What was your last job?
Project Managing a Reconciliations team / project for Lloyd’s banking group. Loved it!
Need help? Email a manager directly:
• Operations: Phil West
• Fleet: Chris Buckley
chris.buckley@pegasus-couriers.co.uk
• Pay/Finance: Scott Jamieson
scott.jamieson@pegasus-couriers.co.uk
• Marketing: Gareth Wilson
gareth.wilson@pegasus-couriers.co.uk
• Recruitment: Vanessa Durney
vanessa.durney@pegasus-couriers.co.uk
- UPS Manager: Daniel Whyte danielUPS@pegasus-couriers.co.uk
- Scotland head: Michal Zwierzynski michal@pegasus-couriers.co.uk
- North of England head: Martyn Fenwick martyn@pegasus-couriers.co.uk
- Ireland head: Alex Magee alex@pegasus-couriers.co.uk
-
DPD Operations head: Mal Whorlton mal@pegasus-couriers.co.uk
