Today Excel outlined the steps it is taking to ensure it
provides the best possible service to its customers during the Olympic
Games.  2012 Olympics ‘What we can do for you’ is available on the
company’s websites and is included as a link in the company’s emails.

As Head of Customer Services, Nhadine Mascoll comments “Our
customers have told us that whilst they have taken steps to reduce the volumes
of consignments and journeys during the Olympics’ their businesses will still
require a consistently reliable courier and passenger car service.  We
have taken into account all the available information regarding the impact the
Games will have on traffic and we have designed new services as well as
adapting our existing ones.”

Managing Director Gregory Hoy recognises the unique
challenge that the Olympics presents, “When your business is based on providing
consistently reliable transport, an event such as the Olympics presents a
unique challenge.  The question we have asked ourselves is: How can we
continue to add value to our clients when, as is widely predicted, much of
London will be severely congested?  The Olympic Service Plan sets out to
answer this question in a direct, simple and clear fashion”

Excel are pleased to announce the renewal of the courier and transport contract with
one of London’s leading digital print specialists – Tangent on Demand. After four
successful years of providing couriers service to TOD, Excel have been
appointed as preferred suppliers once again, to work in partnership and meet
the courier needs of a busy print specialist. Nhadine Mascoll, head of Excel
Customer Services says “We are delighted to continue our working relationship
with TOD where our services perfectly compliment their requirements”. Andy
Davis from TOD commented “We work across many business sectors and
are recognised for our outstanding service and require a courier company to
mirror this and I’m pleased to say we have that in Excel. We specialise in
working with retail, fashion brands, creative agencies and corporates,
providing anything from small ‘but perfectly formed’ print such as leaflets or
business cards to things on a grander scale such as a large format display
graphics and timely deliveries are essential to our service”

For further details on Tangent on Demand click here http://www.toduk.com/

IAM chief executive Simon Best said: “This change will improve congestion and journey times for motorcyclists, and responsible bikers should find it safer being in a bus lane. Safer motorcycling in busy cities will encourage more moped and motorcycle use which can only be a good thing for traffic flow. But the evidence does show two of the most vulnerable road user groups – motorcyclists and cyclists – will be at more risk. IAM conclude their advice for motorcyclist by confirming bus lanes tend to have uneven surfaces.

With the forthcoming Olympic event this decision will assist with congestion and traffic ease during a very busy period for road users.”

Excel launches LIVE REPORTS an online reporting dashboard that gives customers a unique insight into how their courier and car spend is being used.

Implementing cost efficiency strategies, without reducing key service requirements has become a top priority for Facilities and Finance Directors.  At Excel we see our ability to provide our clients with the tools that enable them to achieve their objectives in this area as an integral part of our service provision.

One of the problems with monthly management information is that it doesn’t allow Contract Managers the ability to effectively manage or prevent ‘out of policy usage’ on the account. The LIVE REPORTS solution does just this.

Key functionality of LIVE REPORTS

• Reporting modules that can be tailored to meet your exact specifications, so you can see exactly the type of information you want to see in the way you want to see it.
• Users can drill down to view the data behind all the graphs shown within the dashboard.
• LIVE REPORTS can be provided to different cost centre managers within your company enabling them to ‘compare and monitor’ their teams use of the account resource the company is providing.
• Users can download the data directly from LIVE REPORTS in a range of formats in order to interrogate it off-line.

We are delighted to be working in partnership with the London Library Consortium, the UK’s largest public libraries consortium, providing delivery and storage services for Libraries throughout the Capital.  

In 2004, long before the recent austerity measures made it a necessity, 4 of London’s libraries decided that by working together they could provide better and more cost effect services to the Public.  Seven years later, The London Libraries Consortium (LLC) now numbers 15 London Boroughs, almost half the Capital’s 32 Boroughs and covers over 3.6 million residents.

Thanks to increased buying power afforded by consortium membership, LLC is at the forefront of technology; 10 of its 12 members are already offering e-books to library customers and all use the latest library management systems to manage their stock.

Library resources are shared across London and library members can borrow from and return stock to any library within the consortium – giving them access to over 100 libraries in London.

Along with all public services library budgets are being dramatically reduced which looks set to result in Library closures throughout the capital. The LLC hopes that by all London boroughs working together they can reverse the decline in use of public libraries.

“The logistical challenges presented by the 15 London Boroughs that make up the LLC are considerable, however they are challenges that Excel is ideally placed to meet.  Following a careful analysis of the delivery requirements and having met with and understood the needs of the relevant Contract Managers, we are able to offer each borough a range of delivery options, all of which represent a significant saving in cost and match or better the service they had been previously been receiving”.
Gregory Hoy, Managing Director

Whilst we are excited and proud that London will be hosting the 2012 Olympic Games we are also aware that it will have a major effective on transport within London and restrict our ability to provide reliable courier and passenger car services to our customers.

We recognize that we have a responsibility during this period to provide our clients with the best possible service and have set up an internal management team make sure this happens.

We have attended meetings with TFL with regard to the effects of the Olympic Route Network (ORN), as well as a private consultation with other industry members at the House of Lords and the Commissioner or Surface Transport at TFL, Peter Hendy, we will continue to monitor and assess the information provided by relevant official bodies

Whilst forward planning is important it is clear that we will be required to make decisions on a day by day and hour by hour basis. TFL have already advised us that they will close areas of congestion to traffic at short notice. 

The following points identify our commitment to planning;

• We will hold daily meetings of our operations control and customer service teams so that everyone is aware of specific events that are likely to cause disruption and that we can manage your collection and delivery expectations in the most efficient way.
• We will ensure that we have sufficient mobile and office staff on hand to meet with the demands and needs of the business and our clients.
• Where possible we will carry out deliveries in the silent hours to the affected areas.
• We will maximize the use of two-wheeled vehicles, wherever possible, inside the affected areas
• Throughout the whole event, we liaise with our customers and where necessary our key account managers will be available to provide special planning and preparation to ensure that the impact on your deliveries is kept to a minimum.

Main areas of Disruption
During the Games there will be a number of extremely congested areas; amongst those will be the routes that link central London with competition venues and the major interchange stations.

The main areas of disruption will be:

• The West End
• Westminster
• Bank
• The South Bank, from Waterloo to London Bridge
• Canary Wharf
• Stratford and Canning Town
• Liverpool Street
• King’s Cross St. Pancras

During the Olympic and Paralympic Games, a total of 34 venues will be used to host the events. The two biggest clusters will be in east London: the Olympic Park, which will include nine venues; and ExCel exhibition venue in E16, which will hold five different arenas.

 In central London there will be events held at Earls Court, Horse Guards Parade, Hyde Park and Lord’s Cricket Ground. In addition there will be events at Wimbledon and Wembley Stadium and three venues will be used in the London Borough of Greenwich.

Live Sites

Throughout the Games, people will also be able to view the live sporting action during on big screens, known as Live Sites In London, Live Sites are proposed at Hyde Park, Victoria Park and Potters Fields beside City Hall

These sites are expected to attract large numbers of people – up to 80,000 at some – and will have an impact on activity in the adjacent streets.

There will also be non-competition road events, notably the Olympic Torch Relay, which will also road use across the UK.

The Olympic Route Network (ORN) and Paralympic Route Network (PRN) will also affect the use of roads during the Games.

It’s 5.30 on a Friday afternoon and most people are thinking of what they’re going to be doing at the weekend. The Excel International department were no different last weekend, until they received a phone call from a client in distress.

“We’ve been badly let down by one of our suppliers, they told us point blank that they can’t do anything to help. Can you get 500 kilos to New York by 9am…..by the way the consignments won’t be ready until Sunday morning!”

The Excel answer – “YES WE CAN”.

International Manager Paul Guerrier instantly set the wheels in motion to prepare nine    on-board couriers with the consignment packaged as excess baggage to fly out from Heathrow on Sunday evening in order to meet the New York deadline demanded by the client. You can be sure there was no shortage of volunteers and after collecting the numerous boxes on Sunday morning, they began their whirlwind trip to the Big Apple.

A very satisfied client received their goods at 1am on Monday morning, leaving our couriers to have a day’s shopping before flying back home again.

This is a very good example of how, when something goes wrong Excel is able to provide and implement solutions that large national and multinational courier companies can’t match.

There is no question that the global logistic companies have developed extremely efficient routing networks, we know this because on occasion we have used these to fulfil our clients’ deliveries. However, their success has come at a price, they are slow to respond and lack the flexibility needed to resolve problems quickly.

My International manager was able to give the client an immediate decision because he didn’t have a long complex chain of command that he needed to go through.

He was then able to gather the resources needed to solve the problem quickly, because at Excel we have the ability and the desire to ‘stay late to get the job done’ and ‘go the extra mile’ for our customers. This is simply not possible in large organisations which are built on offering standardised approaches and solutions.

We apply the same positive service ethic and approach to Sameday couriers and Executive car hire services

The final word goes to the customer:

“Wow! Service above and beyond the call of duty… Paul was excellent and the all the people at Excel inspire supreme confidence in their abilities.” Peter Slade: ADP

Danny Nicholson (left) Winner Office Manger 2011, Steve Grant (right) Winner Contract Driver 2011

We would like to congratulate Fleet Manager Danny Nicholson and contract driver – Steve Grant, were successful in winning awards for their nominated categories in the Institute of Courier, National Courier Awards.

The event was held in mid-September at the Institute of Directors and was attended by many of the country’s leading courier companies as well Mike Penning MP – Under Secretary of State for Transport and Viscount Falkland a longtime courier advocate, keen motorcyclist and member of the House of Lords. The National Courier Awards are now in their 15^th year and Excel is proud to be involved in recognising the people that make our industry special.

Excel Managing Director, Gregory Hoy says, “I’m very happy that Excel staff have been rewarded for their contributions to the industry and most importantly, for their dedication to our clients – for the second consecutive year! Danny and Steve are both long-term employees of the Company and are fine ambassadors for Excel; they’re worthy winners.”