RCS Working in Partnership

Steve Gray, Commercial Director RCS Logistics

RCS Logistics operates in excess of 50 vehicles to meet the delivery needs of its clients, from e-commerce fulfilment to transporting goods for large blue chip companies such as Asda and the NHS. It also works in partnership with Parcel Force to deliver packages, is part of a pallet delivery network and runs half a million square feet of warehouse space. Its main operating centre is in Corby with a sub depot located in Wakefield.

“The company is family owned and started life basically as a coal merchant 40 years ago,” says Commercial Director Steve Gray. “That business evolved into a small transport company, which then built a few warehouses.”

The company enjoyed massive growth in the 80s and 90s, but by the early 2000s had stagnated. Operations Manager Darren Beaty has been with RCS for 14 years, so remembers the time well. “I think we’d grown complacent and had got to a point where we’d grown outwards rather than upwards,” he says.

The decision was taken to go back to the company’s core activities of distribution and warehouse solutions. The company was streamlined and some basic changes were implemented, such as turning the warehouse lights off at night to save money. “That was five or six years ago,” says Steve. “More recently we’ve actually benefitted from the economic downturn because we’re always happy to sit and discuss with customers where efficiencies can be made. We’ve actually got a nickname now of ‘RC Yes’ because we say yes to everything and work out how we’re going to do it afterwards.”

That’s not to say the company are back to resting on their laurels. One of its key initiatives has been to hone its environmental policy. “We’ve been looking at electric vehicles and we recently fitted a PV solar station on top of one of the warehouses. But I’d say our biggest asset in this regard is the Shell FuelSave Partner.”

Shell FuelSave Partner is a fuel management system that can help commercial road transport operators reduce their fuel usage and CO2 emissions by monitoring driver activity and performance via a ‘black box’ fitted inside the cab, which is linked to computers back at the depot. The system can track whether an engine is idling, if a driver is making unplanned stops, can help to identify potential fraudulent activities, and see whether a driver is speeding or could be driving more efficiently.

Darren oversaw the influx of data when the system was first fitted to RCS vehicles. In the first month, just by monitoring idling alone, we saved 1,000 litres of fuel, he says. “Idling and speeding were the quick wins. With idling, it was simply a culture change that was needed – a lot of our guys have been driving for 10 or 15 years and still thought you had to let an engine warm up and cool down at the beginning and end of a shift.

With the technology now, they can see we don’t need to do that, so once we’d explained that to them we saw the improvements. Speeding was a harder conversation,” he continues. “Some of our smaller vans go pretty fast and it was harder to get the guys to buy into the idea of driving slower, but once we’d talked about our duty of care with them, things improved.”

The system provides the company with the tools to achieve real savings and also impressive statistics to show to potential clients. “The key question potential customers ask is about sustainability,” says Steve. I showed one guy what Shell FuelSave Partner is enabling us to do, regarding better fuel usage and driver awareness, and what could have been a difficult conversation turned out well.

Steve also made the decision to employ somebody full time to monitor the flow of information from Shell FuelSave Partner, and to feedback to the drivers.

“We had a busy spell after we’d deployed the system and Darren stopped checking it on a daily basis. Our Shell account manager Kevin Schaefer contacted us, not knowing we’d been busy, and said ‘what’s going on lads? Your figures have started to increase’. That’s a testament to him and to Shell that he’s not just out trying to win new customers. And it also brought home to me the need to employ someone full time. It pays for itself.”

For Steve and Darren, Shell FuelSave Partner isn’t just a passing fad. “I see the benefits,” says Steve. “We’re not the most favourite industry out there; we’re seen by people as clogging up the roads. But for companies who promise customers they’ll get their goods by the next day, we’re indispensable.”

“We’re committed to environmental changes and we’re working hard to make them. To be able to work with a partner like Shell, well we just wouldn’t be able to do it on our own. We’re not a big enough company. But if we can be a small part of what Shell is trying to do, that’s also great for us as a business.”