Algunas consideraciones históricas relevantes

Agents / Drop off points

Nationwide New Zealand Couriers have agents / drop off points where our freight can be left for pickup or delivery. This is a significant extension of hub & spoke system, which increases the flexibility of New Zealand Couriers networks. Customers can have the items left here, couriers will collect the items regularly from these places, and the main difference between the Agents and Drop off Points is Agents could provide some courier services to individual customers. Most New Zealand Couriers’ agents and drop off points have been established on existed businesses in residential areas, such as petrol stations, dairy shop and supermarket.

Agents

x Pickup and delivery point where freight is left, but also are a cash sales agent. Agents will also ring receivers and advise them freight is there for uplifting.

x Provides limited courier services, such as ticket sales, parcel collections and drop off.

Drop Off Points

x This only acts as a pickup or delivery point. No ticket sales.

x Unmanned depots, normally truck drivers manage everything there.

5.3.6

Couriers in NZC

Couriers (otherwise known as Contractors) are one of the key elements in New Zealand Couriers. They are NZC’s face to the public. Couriers start their day generally from 5.30am to 7.30am and finish between 5.30pm – 7pm each evening.

116 They have two numbers allocated to them:

x Contractor number This number stays with the courier throughout their employment with the company e.g. 04-599 (this is the fourth courier to start on run 599).

x Run number Each branch services various areas of New Zealand. Each of those areas is broken up into small sections. Each of these sections is called a run. The runs have a number allocated to them e.g. #050. The courier allocated to that area is known as the run number.

The size of a run can vary e.g. a small run may cover ten streets in an industrial area; another may cover three suburbs. The size of a run depends on the customer demand for that area. The dedicated services allow the couriers service to be flexible and customized. The reverse logistics, many people know that as return is one of the dedicated services in New Zealand Couriers.

Couriers do not only deliver mails, parcels and items, but also pick up from the customers either individual or business customers; they have two main delivery jobs.

- Pick up

There are two different types of pickup in New Zealand couriers so far. One is the casual pickup. Couriers received the pager messages that contain the pickup address and contact detail; couriers only go to pick up when they received the requests from customers. The other one is regular pick up, courier go there regularly such as daily or every two hours during the day, normally the regular pick up service is designed for business customers, and the frequency of pick up is negotiable.

- Delivery

During the each cycle, courier will deliver the items that they received from the hub, every courier has separate cage, which was sorted in hub and distributed to spokes. Normally, residential area couriers have a greater number of deliveries than industrial area couriers, for industrial customers, due to the volume of freight; they dispatch freight to their customers by using couriers rather than receiving from Courier Company.

117 Different Types of Couriers in NZC

There are five different types of couriers work in New Zealand Couriers’ system; each type of courier plays an essential role in the day to day operations. These different types of couriers will be involved in the return/reverse logistics activities. Therefore it is necessary to view each type of courier in NZC.

Fleet

These couriers are the main source of picking up and delivering of prepaid freight. They drive only vans and cover an allocated area (Run). These couriers meet at their closest depot each cycle, where they have approximately 10-15 minutes to unload and reload freight. Fleet couriers pick up the freight phoned in through the 0800 line to either Customer Services or VAN. This information is then sent to the couriers’ pager. Generally their day will depend on how many pick-ups are called in for them, and what volume of items they receive to deliver from other couriers, however they have some automatic pickups from customers.

Contract Fleet

These couriers (otherwise known as the Point to Point Fleet) are the main pickup and delivery agents for contracted movements (otherwise known as Dedicated Services). They specialize in the movement of Contract bags that predominantly contain documents only. They are not required to meet each cycle and work on a different network to the Fleet drivers. They drive either vans or cars. These couriers have pre-arranged pickup and delivery times with their customers. They are not allocated into any one particular area like Fleet; these couriers may travel quite a distance to move contract bags from one customer to the next.

118 Company/Wage Runs

When a run has become vacant because the previous courier has left the company or transferred to another run, the branch will supply a Company/Wage Driver to work on that run until a replacement has been found.

Relief Drivers

When a courier has annual or sick leave they supply a relief driver to work on their run in their absence. These relief drivers are selected, trained and paid at that courier’s discretion. All couriers are responsible for providing their own relief drivers.

Shuttle Runs

New Zealand Couriers contract work to couriers to line haul freight a short distance from one depot to another, or from a depot to couriers who may work in an Outer-Area.

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5.4

Analysis Return/Reverse Logistics Services in New Zealand