Road transport is essential for businesses and delivers everything we rely on in our day-to-day lives. Just how essential has never been clearer than in the run up to the nationwide lockdown in March.
Panic-buying was in full swing, shoppers were bulk buying soap, hand gels, pasta and toilet roll like no tomorrow, and soon limitations were being placed on bulk-buys as supermarkets struggled to stack shelves fast enough to replenish stock.
With instantaneous and unforeseen challenges being very obvious in the supermarkets, it was a stark reminder to all of the impact a slight chink in the supply chain has on our lives.
Lorry drivers delivering critical goods to supermarkets, hospitals, pharmacies, people’s homes were soon given “key worker” status in order to continue deliveries.
Driver Hire – as the UK’s largest logistics recruiter – supplies staff to customers through over 100 offices nationwide and in order to continue supporting critical deliveries, we had to plan ahead and adapt quickly. From the very earliest signs of a pandemic, Driver Hire began contingency planning for the impact of Coronavirus in February 2020.
The need for social distancing was just one of the challenges for Driver Hire to deal with as a recruitment business – how do you conduct a rigorous job interview when you can’t meet face-to-face?
“We invested in IT and technical support, and developed a temporary remote candidate registration process, to enable our franchisees to continue to recruit, and to deliver the quality service that their customers still need” comments Jeremy Neale, Managing Director.
Offices remained open throughout lockdown and a series of steps were taken to support the network so offices could continue supporting their customers;
- Investing in IT and technical support, to ensure offices could continue to operate remotely
- Changes to business processes and regular updates on compliance to ensure that the company’s services could continue to be delivered to the very highest standards
- Development of a temporary remote candidate registration process so offices could still recruit
- Extensive marketing support to communicate key, consistent messages with customers and candidates
Although none of us can know what the business landscape will look like when life returns to normal, or even what normal will be, Driver Hire has continued to support its customers during one of the most toughest economic challenges of our lifetime, and we are still here now, playing our part in the recovery.
If your business needs staffing support, contact your local Driver Hire office today.