ABG Couriers
Founded in 2011 by managing director Gavin Francis, ABG couriers provides specialist courier services to some of the largest express carriers in the world, including Amazon, DHL, DPD and UPS. With a focus in the north of the UK ABG has become a partner of choice and has continued to grow year on year with a footprint that is rapidly growing. When Gavin’s brother, Craig Francis, joined the team in 2016 it enabled the company to go from strength to strength whilst bringing a focus on process, quality and efficiency.
Having been a transport manager for over 25 years, Gary Morris joined ABG in the summer of 2020 to run the fleet.
This is operated via individual sites where the need for safe, well-trained delivery drivers can vary daily based upon the delivery schedules.
“We have sites across the whole of the north of England and at any single site we may need, for example, 10 drivers one day and 30 the next,” said Gary, “which is why our model has to be incredibly flexible.
“To achieve this we must always have a strong ‘pool’ of drivers available who will represent our company and our customers professionally, which is why recruitment of drivers is an ongoing process within the business.”
A key aspect of finding suitable drivers is safety, and it was following a recommendation by ABG Couriers’ insurers, QBE, that they began using E-Training World’s online driver profiling system.
“When you interview someone new they will always tell you they’re a good driver, but it makes a big difference to us if they are high, medium or low risk,” continued Gary, “particularly when you are making very high numbers of deliveries each day.
“This is what the driver profiling system does for us very quickly and efficiently. It pinpoints their risk level in approximately 20 minutes, making sure we avoid taking on risky drivers who are more likely to have a collision.
“As a result, we can employ safer drivers from day one which leads to less accidents, a better safety record for our staff, reduced vehicle downtime and our ability to meet our delivery targets.
“Operating damage-free, clean vehicles is also important for our reputation and that of the specialist courier companies that we work for, and by profiling at the first interview sends out a very important message to new drivers that we take safe driving very seriously. It effectively embeds a safe driving culture into our drivers from the outset.”
As well as using the online driver profiling, ABG Couriers also benefits from E-Training World’s e-driver training modules to improve driving standards over time.
“We have access to approximately 20 driver training modules,” concluded Gary, “and we use these to constantly drive up standards. Also, if any driver has an incident, however minor, we immediately re-profile them and place them on web-based training that is relevant to the incident.
“The whole process works extremely well and, in addition, we are also working with QBE to look at other road safety initiatives such as the installation of parking sensors on all vehicles.”
