The Australian Bureau of Statistics lists that 78 per cent of the workers in the transport, postal and warehousing industry are male.
Against this figure, 56 per cent of the senior leadership team at CouriersPlease are women, including three of its five state managers, one of whom is Queensland State Manager Tracey Baldwin.
Tracey is the company’s first female state manager. She directs a team of ten operational managers and is ultimately responsible for over 220 franchisees and 75 staff across five depots.
The female leaders at CouriersPlease are proving they are more than well equipped for their tasks in a challenging and complex industry in which they ensure the swift delivery of millions of parcels to households and businesses across the country, while also keeping essential workers safe.
Prime Mover: What got you interested in transport?
Tracey Baldwin: I virtually fell into transport after I moved from Sydney to Brisbane in 1996 and got a sales support role with a large freight forwarder. I’ve stayed in transport ever since.
PM: What are some of the challenges in operating a large courier provider such as CourierPlease?
TB: The unpredictability. It’s the curve balls that get thrown at you and you must be ready to flex with them. As an example, linehaul may run smoothly for months then suddenly you’ll have a late arrival, breakdowns or weather events such as the recent floods, which will create service delays. Leading up to last Christmas our linehaul volume increased by 55 per cent on the Melbourne to Brisbane leg which limited linehaul availability. In instances such as these I work together with my operational leaders on structuring a plan to minimise delays. Safety is our Number One priority at CouriersPlease and is a large focus for me in my role. I regularly visit our five depots across the state to ensure we’re identifying any potential hazards and we are implementing process improvements to help reduce accidents. For instance, we have been able to remove ‘shared’ zones and moved to ‘total exclusion’ zones for employees in most depots where forklifts and other machinery are being used. With the onset of COVID over the past two years another challenge we were presented with has been the rules and regulations changing almost on a weekly basis, so we had to adapt and pivot quickly. We had to ensure that clear communication was sent to our five depots, so everyone understood why and what was changing, and then making certain the same message was delivered to the fleet. Overall, it worked very well.
PM: CouriersPlease appears to encourage gender inclusiveness. Is this a deliberate company culture?
TB: Gender inclusivity is an organic part of the culture here, supported by policies such as paid parental leave and flexible work arrangements. From the ground up we have a high level of diversity. In the three and a half years I have been here, there have been many changes which have happened for the better and it’s demonstrated in the number of branded customers that have partnered with us. In any transport company things continue to change and you’ve got to keep agile and continue to prioritise safety, KPIs, and enhanced reporting so we can better manage the fleet. At the moment we have 12 key projects we are working on. That level of commitment comes with a good support team in head office. They are very engaging, very accessible and work as one team. Although we’re owned by Singapore Post and we are a corporate entity, we still have a family culture about us.
PM: What are some of the other factors you’ve had to address?
TB: The lockdowns stopped us from being able to visit existing and potential customers to gain new business, as well as retain and increase new business. This did not deter my sales team who showed that working from home did not restrict their goals, with my Business Development Manager and Account Manager both ranking number one in the country, showing we can work from home and the productivity doesn’t drop. The floods have been another challenge. Fortunately, no employee has lost their home or been injured, but there was a number of staff and franchisees who simply couldn’t get into the depot because of the road closures.
PM: CouriersPlease operates on a different business model to many others in the industry. Has that contributed to the overall success?
TB: Being a franchise model it’s their own business so our franchisees are invested. We’ve had some franchisees who have doubled the value of their run and we’ve had one who actually tripled the value of their run because they’ve worked hard with our sales team to gain additional customers. Knowing their run is an asset, some build their run so much they’ll put on a second driver and van to manage the volume they have gained.
PM: What have been some notable recent changes in the parcel industry?
TB: It wasn’t an unexpected change but I think the B2C (Business to Consumer) deliveries have just gone through the roof with Queensland volume alone increasing by 35 per cent year-on-year. Consumers want to know when to expect their parcels, so we’ve improved scanning to enable them to rack their parcel through every step of the journey. This visibility for our customers gives them a better experience and reduces the calls to our call centre because they can see where their parcel is. Another change is the size of our vehicles. Previously, CouriersPlease generally had been one tonne vans, however with the increased volume the fleet has moved to two tonne vans for larger capacity with the exception of our Brisbane CBD and Surfers Paradise vans where low roof car parks can’t accommodate a two tonne high top van.