Autumn 2008

Home delivery of big or awkward items can cause real problems, says Marcia MacLeod. Fortunately, some fulfilment companies have made it their speciality. She hears more about the pitfalls, and how they deal with them

Imagine the excitment. After the days you spent trawling the stores – and the internet – and weeks waiting for the sofa of your dreams, your three-piece suite is being delivered this afternoon. To your delight, the van arrives as promised, the well-dressed, polite two-man crew get out, look at your doorway, walk into the lounge É and say 'I'm very sorry, but your suite will never fit into this house.'

Something out of a horror story? Well, yes – but, according to Brian Austin, general manger business development at Kuehne & Nagel, even readers in the business of home delivery would be surprised at how often it happens.

'One result of internet sales is that people buy things without touching them or seeing them,' agrees Becky Young, group sales and marketing manager at Direct Home Delivery. 'On top of that, furniture is getting bigger and homes are being built smaller, with smaller doorways and turning circles.'

 

So how do carriers – and fulfilment companies – manage to store, pick, pack and deliver the outsized and awkward orders – the things that won't fit on a conveyor? The three-piece suites, flat-packed kitchens, garden furniture, swings and slides, treadmills and home gyms and trampolines? And what about fragile items that need special care, like mirrors and lamps?

For a start, most of these outsize, awkward or fragile goods can't be stored in normal racks, so special areas have to be set aside. Sometimes stillages (collapsible cages) are used.

'All our furniture is stored in stillages,' says Becky Young. 'This allows us to change the layout of the warehouse, depending on what goods we are expecting.'

Picking has to be done by hand, too: washing machines and large televisions don't fit on to a conveyor. iForce, for example, may have five packing benches out of 60 dedicated to outsize and fragile orders, along with dedicated, experienced staff to handle them.

However, as Zendor's business analyst Karl Harwood explains, sometimes one order contains both ordinary items and what the company calls 'non-collates'. 'We use different pick lists, with non-collates handled by dedicated staff using larger trolleys, special packaging, and so on. But if one order contains items from collate (ordinary-sized goods) and non-collate, they have to be loaded together for a single delivery. We have had to put procedures in place to identify these orders and make sure everything goes together.'

Special equipment may be needed to move things about, too. Wincanton, for example, uses clamp trucks for white goods. Home Delivery Network relies on 'banana' forklifts for moving upholstered furniture; these have longer forks to take bigger items, and often allow the operators to drive from a sideways position to manoeuvre their way down aisles and gain better visibility, as they could not see round something like a long sofa. DHD also uses a variety of forklifts, but as it specialises in the out-of-gauge order, all warehouse activities are carried out on a two-man basis.

Special equipment used for delivery includes sack trucks (two-wheeled devices that people push around); slings for lifting; flat-bed trolleys to hold mattresses and similar items; straps and ties; and stair steppers to facilitating moving items up or down stairs.

Packing is vitally important, too. Most fulfilment companies and carriers rely on their retailer customers to ensure goods are properly packed, but this, in turn, often depends on good communication between service suppliers and retailers.

'Packing is crucial to everything,' emphasises Peter Louden, managing director of Nightfreight. 'If retailers skimp on it, they'll regret it. There can be up to twelve 'touch points' in the network, and each time the goods are touched, they are subject to damage.

'Packaging has to be robust enough to stand up to this treatment,' he adds. 'Even if the goods themselves are not likely to suffer, they could damage other items, so have to be packed in a way to prevent this happening. Retailers aren't always aware of what packaging is suitable and what isn't.'

HDNL takes the same approach. 'We work with customers on our packing,' explains Andy Hill, director of new business. 'It's part of our proposition. Sofas, for instance, need to be over-bagged with dense polythene sheeting; corners need extra protection; and seats have to be removed and packed separately.'

Wincanton finds protective sleeves combining board and sandwich wrapping ideal for packing work tops, although edges need extra protection. Fabric covers are placed over furniture, not only to protect the it, but also to stop it damaging other goods.

iForce takes a more active role where packaging is concerned; it sits on Birmingham Trading Standards' committee to review packaging for home delivery. 'Something that works well at low-priced selling points on the high street may become too expensive to sell online because of the packaging required,' explains Phil Tingey, operations and strategy director. 'There is, for example, little point in selling a £3 glass bottle online if it costs 50p to package it.'

'We look for ways to make packaging more efficient: bubble bags to fit the size of glass items, for instance, or boxes that are automatically sealed on the bottom so only need taping at the top.

'Many online retailers share stock between channels,' Tingey adds, 'but may not package them differently according to the needs of each channel. Goods are often packed in whole cartons for delivery to the store, and we have to break down the cartons and take out (and pack) single items.'

He adds: 'There are only so many types of box you want to have in your warehouse. If you have more than twelve different designs, the situation becomes unmanageable. But some things, like ironing boards and curtain poles, may need bespoke packaging.'

Most carriers unpack articles at the consumer's premises and remove the packaging, but HDNL claims to be the first to have introduced cardboard balers at two depots to separate plastic from cardboard and turn cardboard into bales for recycling.

Appropriate packaging, handling equipment and processes in the warehouse are only part of the fulfilment story. The fun really begins when the comes time for delivery. Not all carriers will accept outsized, awkward or fragile goods. HDNL, DHD, Wincanton, Nightfreight, NYK Logistics and Kuehne & Nagel are the main specialist carriers.

Specialist vans are needed, too. Instead of 3.5 tonne vehicles, most rely on 7.5 tonne vans. But, as Hill points out, even though the vans are bigger, they don't carry as many orders. 'A Transit van can complete 100 drops or more in a day, and drops are loaded in order, with the last drop going on first. But vans delivering large and awkward orders only complete thirty to forty drops a day – and planning the load is complex.

'It's not just about weight. Patio furniture, for example, is not heavy, but you can get cumbersome plastic chairs that don't fit in a square box. You can't put other goods on top of them, because they're not very robust. And the table and parasol have to go in the same van.

'We need to load product in the safest, securest way, regardless of the order of drops. The only thing we do ensure is that the first two drops are at the back, so when they are delivered, the crew have room to manoeuvre on the vehicle to find the next order. Where we run into trouble is if the first two customers aren't there, but this doesn't happen very often.'

Two vans

Most large and awkward deliveries are carried by two-man crews, but even two people may not always be enough. For particularly large orders, Wincanton arranges for two vans, each with two men, to meet at the consumer's premises. Of course, this requires a lot of planning – and careful planning is the one thing carriers claim is indispensable.

'We have a closer contact with the customer than the retailer does,' claims John Webster, managing director home delivery for Wincanton. 'We go through a process to prepare for delivery because we don't want to turn up and not be able to complete the delivery – which would be bad news for us, our customer and our customer's customer.'

Wincanton's process is typical. When the company receives the order from the retailer, it calls the consumer and arrange a delivery date. At the same time, it tells the consumer the type of vehicle that will be delivering to ensure it can access the house.

The most common way to express this question is to ask: 'Can a dustbin lorry get down your road?', because if it can, then the delivery van will have no problem. If not, the carrier has to look at alternatives – which could mean delivering at a time when most cars aren't there, or parking some distance away and moving the goods by specialist equipment.

Wincanton rings the consumer the day before delivery to confirm this is still convenient, and provides a time slot at the same time. Access questions are asked again, and consumers are reminded that they need space for the goods Ðwhether in fact there is room in the lounge for the sofa, or somewhere to store the flat-packed kitchen until it can be installed.

All consumer phone numbers are stored in the drivers' handheld terminals, so that if the recipient is not in, the driver can ring the consumer and say 'I'm here'. Drivers are not allowed to leave without calling Wincanton's driver support centre, which has more telephone numbers it can use to contact the consumer.

Most carriers also discuss the product range with new customers and any new products launched by existing customers, as Austin emphasises. 'If a customer brings out a new range we want to know what it looks like. Will it be in one piece or two, and does it need assembling at the consumer's home? We can then see if, for example, a wardrobe is too big for two men to lift and needs to be split into three, which we can then assemble on delivery.'

Nightfreight takes photographs of new products, obtains all relevant information (size, weight, likely volumes and so on) so that it can provide a quote – or turn the business down. All contracts are reviewed four times a year to see if there have been any problems with delivery, if the goods were subject to damage, and so on. But while carriers often install washing machines and TVs, some draw the line at assembly.

'We are not joiners or upholsterers,' HDNL's Andy Hill points out. 'We're a delivery company, and that's where our expertise lies. Sometimes we are asked to deliver something in pieces and put it together on delivery. We've even been asked to set timing on a grandfather clock. We won't do anything like that. And we won't accept oversized furniture. But our drivers do assess the house and the room in which the item is meant to go, to make sure it will fit, and to ascertain the best way of safely getting it into position.'

DHD drivers carry out the same procedure. 'People order things without checking if they will go through the door,' Young explains. 'Although we try to ensure consumers are aware of the size of their goods, sometimes our drivers realise the items simply won't fit – and they have to tell the frustrated consumer. We won't remove door frames or windows.'

Drivers have to be well trained to cope with this sort of operation. Not only must they learn the safest handling methods, but they also have to be trained to respect the consumer and their home – which could include learning how to tell them their order won't fit in their lounge.

Returns

HDNL drivers are also trained to deal with returns – which, for fragile goods in particular, can be a real problem. 'Consumers forget that a broken mirror can be dangerous, or that petrol-operated equipment such as hedge trimmer or lawn mower can't be carried unless the petrol tank is emptied,' says Hill.

Kuehne & Nagel even has a mock-up house at each distribution centre so that staff can be trained in a real-life environment. 'It's all about technique,' says Brian Austin. 'But planning plays such a big part. You have to plan and check and check again – and always have a plan B in your mind.'

'We have to train our people to understand the challenges of dealing with the out-of-the-ordinary,' adds Louden. 'But you have to have a *can do' mindset when you're dealing with this type of freight.'

No wonder some carriers prefer to stick to iPods and T-shirts.