Special Delivery

Home Delivery Service – HDS for short – has no time to waste in Australia’s cold chain logistics sector.

The company has built something of an empire in just seven short years and can certainly attribute this immense success to its adaptability.

When HDS first began in 2018, its target market was meal kit deliveries from suppliers directly to consumers’ homes.

This proved a successful niche for the company, before COVID-19’s sudden world shutdown saw a variety of other industries in need of transport capabilities to accommodate droves of customers quarantining at home.

This presented a unique opportunity for the business according to Commercial General Manager, Ben Hall – so HDS adapted accordingly.

“COVID-19 definitely expanded our chill transport capabilities across different verticals,” he says.

“As more people were home, and many more businesses switched to online delivery, they needed help moving their products. We came in as this middleman and just grew and grew.”

Now, HDS operates on a national scale, sporting 24/7 distribution sites in a variety of states.

The company’s initial transport of meal kits is currently joined by the hauling of pet food, chocolate, fresh produce boxes, pharmaceuticals, NDIS-related medications and other aged care items.

An estimated 100,000 deliveries carrying these items are completed each week in a range of both metropolitan and regional areas.

HDS’ newfound servicing capabilities in 2020 were also greatly amplified by a then-nascent relationship with refrigerated solutions provider, Scully RSV, which has since grown into a strong and tested cornerstone of the company’s operations.

According to HDS Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Cottrill, the two groups see eye-to-eye on every aspect of business.

“We enjoy a very strong relationship with Scully RSV,” he says.

“We’ve done so for over five years now, and there are even people within our business that have positive relationships with Scully outside the confines of our company. We’re in a rapidly changing market and often need to pivot quickly, and Scully’s capabilities greatly support us in doing that.”

This provided flexibility comes in the form of outsourcing. Scully RSV supports HDS’ contract drivers and customers with its cold chain bodies to carry the variety of freight across different transport routes. It’s no small operation.

“We would have at least 20 Scully RSV bodies that our contractors are using at the moment, all across the country,” Jeff adds.

The bodies in question are typically either Scully RSV’s 12 or 14-pallet temperature-controlled rigids, both of which are built with the special capacity to carry products ranging from 20 degrees Celsius to -20 degrees Celsius, and also include helpful features like leading fibreglass technology, optional tailgate loaders and optional side doors on the body itself.

This manufacturing flexibility largely enables HDS’ adaptable approach to the market and is imperative as a result.

Additionally, this flexibility is further achieved by HDS’ ability to apply its own specific technological fittings to each of the Scully RSV trucks that it uses.

“At HDS, we custom fit all our Scully RSV bodies with our own state-of-the-art tracking systems and temperature-running devices to ensure the freight we carry stays cool and gets to its destination at the right time, every time,” Jeff explains.

“The punctuality and performance are further ensured by the age of the vehicles we use. We only use bodies that are less than two years old so that they can stay reliable and perform to their very best.”

The technical abilities of Scully RSV’s bodies to HDS’ business is coupled with an agreed aesthetic to create the ultimate customer experience.

To Jeff and the HDS team, the vehicles’ presentation gives off a strong sense of professionalism and reliability, which they want to be represented by.

For Jeff, this aesthetic is just as important as the delivery itself.

“The brand we partner with is essential to our operations,” he says.

“Having a clean, reliable fleet is integral to providing the best customer experience we can. Their freight is being delivered in a body that looks good, which is what they deserve. That’s a huge part of why we use and need Scully vehicles.”

HDS’ commitment to this partnership with Scully RSV is scheduled to continue well into the future particularly as the logistics company is on the cusp of even greater expansion in the market with new business.

“We’re very happy to continue our relationship with Scully,” Jeff says.

“We’re in a really solid growth phase with significant business coming on board within the next 12 to 24 months. We’ll keep offering our contractors to go and liaise with Scully and give this new business the choice of working with them because of how trustworthy they are.

“Scully RSV’s logistics solutions are new, sleek and equipped with all the right technology to get the job done. It doesn’t get much better than that.”