Top Logistic Service Providers 2011.

Logisticmangers.com have just released and published a survey of the top logistics service providers 2011. It has been a busy year for the 3PL sector, with a number of mergers and aquisitions changing the landscape of the market in the UK. This fundamental data when looking for a logistics partner is needed in ensuring the right choice is made. The top 50 have all been ranked on their annual turnover, which is different to the original format of the alphabetical placing. The survey was compiled by asking companies to supply all relevant facts as well a staking their account information lodged at Companies House and Data from Perfect Information. [Perfect Information is the sister company of LM].

The top five are as follows.

1.DEUTSCHE POST DHL

Ultimate owner: Deutsche Post DHL

International headquarters: Bonn, Germany

Total sales: £46.5bn (51.5bn euros)

Total number of sites: 120,000 destinations worldwide

Number of UK sites: 811

Total number of vehicles: 83,800 (excl. trailers, swap bodies)

Number of UK vehicles: 9,363

2.UPS

Ultimate owner: United Parcel Service of America Inc

International headquarters: Atlanta, Georgia UK headquarters: Middlesex

Total sales: £30.2bn ($49.5bn)

UK sales: (UPS Ltd, 2009) £601m Total number of sites: 1,000+

3. FEDEX CORPORATION

Ultimate owner: FedEx Corporation

International headquarters: Memphis, Tennessee

EMEA headquarters: Brussels, Belgium

Total sales: £21bn ($34.7bn)

UK sales: (FedEx UK Ltd, May 2009/10)

£182.1m Total number of vehicles: 80,000

4. DB SCHENKER

Ultimate owner: Deutsche Bahn

International headquarters: Berlin, Germany

Total sales: £16.6bn (18.9bn euros)

UK sales: (Schenker Ltd, 2009) £232m

Total number of sites: 2,000

5. KUEHNE + NAGEL

Ultimate Owner: Kuehne + Nagel International Ag

International Headquarters: Schindellegi, Switzerland

UK Headquarters: Uxbridge, Middlesex

Total sales: £13.9bn (20,261m CHF)

UK sales: Undisclosed

Total number of sites:900

Number of UK sites:130

Total number of vehicles: undisclosed

Number of UK vehicles: 2,000

Total warehousing (sqm): 7m

UK warehousing (sqm): 1m

to see the full list and article click here.

Entering the recruitment industry by Lauren Darwin.

Having worked at RKSC for over a year now, this is the first time I’ve really talked about what I do online. This blog is something that we’ve decided to start up together, so we can tell you guys wanting to know about us, exactly what we do and what we’re like. We’re going to keep this updated with anything we find interesting, and we’re not just going to talk about work!

I’m Lauren and I’m the Team Administrator for the branch. This means, probably more than anyone else here, I get to know the guys in the office pretty well.

A couple of years before I undertook this role, straight after uni, I was working as a Resourcer for an IT Recruitment agency. This was to save up for the obligatory post-university travelling that most people do when they’re not sure what else they should be doing. Having been on the other side as a candidate, working there gave me a view of recruitment that I had never seen before and it wasn’t necessarily the best impression. After returning from my travels and undertaking a long run of temp roles, I saw a job as team administrator posted on one of the jobsites to work for a boutique recruitment company. At first I was hesitant to apply as I had had bad experiences working in a similar environment, but after a few grilling interviews and meeting the team, I decided to take up the opportunity. Once here I realised that it was a totally different environment to the one I had previous experience with and any fears I may have had were allayed.  

The team were really friendly and always willing to help me with picking up new systems and new terminologies. The guys have great industry knowledge and I picked up a lot just from sitting with them and listening to their conversations with clients and candidates. Now over a year later I think that the tables have somewhat turned and I’m always trying my best to help out the team, whether it’s with a technical issue, streaming the traffic of the busy phones, simply adding CVs and keeping the database up to date or making copious cups of coffee, it’s a great, enjoyable environment to work in and has showed me that despite what I first thought not all recruiters are the same!

The broad job of Job Boards by Colin Costello.

A shift towards direct candidate sourcing has gathered pace in recent years (online job boards, Linkedin, Twitter and databases) and the larger organisations especially, with the brand profile and financial and human resource to capitalise on it, are increasingly advertising themselves and using their own methods of attracting talent.

At RK Supply Chain we find ourselves typically engaged for those harder to fill, specialist supply chain and logistics positions, operating as a search organisation, engaging our own networks and various other candidate attraction methods.

The days of recruiters just banging out an advert and sending CVs across, ultimately for a fee, are long gone (and rightly so). As the shift continues towards a specialist search outfit for supply chain roles, some have questioned the relevance and benefit, now and in future, of job board advertising altogether.

Do we advertise a role we’re working on because it’s a proven method of attracting the best talent out there, or is it more useful as a brand awareness exercise to show both candidates and clients that we have a strong presence in that recruitment space? Either way the quality of our adverts is important.

There is a strong argument that the quality of adverts written by Recruitment Consultants (and, indeed, direct employers themselves) is generally poor. I know I’m leaving us wide open for any number of criticisms of the ads we’ve currently got posted on our own web site or supply chain job boards! The usual suspects are poor spelling and grammar, lack of structure, a weak (or non existent) message. Take your pick.

What’s the ROI for posting a vacancy on a job board though? What is the point in applying you might say? If we invest as little time in writing adverts as David Cameron does in listening to Nick Clegg then do we not just get what we deserve? Well, yes we do.

But the argument of some of my colleagues is that no matter how much time and effort they have put in, the quality of response remains depressingly poor, with people applying for roles they must know they are not right for. You should hear some of the groans coming from one if my colleagues (who will remain anonymous) when they go through their ad response.

If you’re applying for a role, make sure you’ve got at least some of the key criteria the advert is highlighting. Remember – my client is most probably working with me to find the person that they’re struggling to identify through their own connections/advertising/web site. If I’m advertising for an experienced Logistics Manager in the retail industry it’s because that is what my client has engaged me for. If you’ve got one year of logistics experience in the construction industry and you send me your CV I’m unlikely to call you about that job.

By all means send me your CV through the RK Supply Chain web site, follow it up with a call, I’ll be happy to speak to you and see if we can help with other roles. My point is, if you read the ad (have you even read the ad?) and you haven’t got the right experience, then don’t waste your time and mine by hitting ‘apply now’.

The truth is, the way we operate as a business and the wide range of talent attraction and assessment we employ, advertising on job boards is only a fraction of our approach. But it remains important for several reasons to us, our candidates and our clients so let’s all make an effort to do things properly and try to cut out some of these frustrations in the future.