Posted:13-January-2021
Interview with Peter Boulton, XDP, Stoke-on-Trent
Peter Boulton is the Franchisee owner for the Stoke-on-Trent depot and has been with XDP for 17 years.
1. Why did you go down the franchise route, and why did you choose a XDP franchise?
To be in the parcel business you need to be part of a network, all the networks work in the same way, it’s a hub and spoke operation and that means being part of a franchise. For myself I was already in the business as I had done 8 years at ANC which is now FedEx, I then took a franchise on with another company which wasn’t successful and I wasn’t pleased with the service so I was looking around for a new franchisor and the main criteria for that was service. I was introduced to XDP and the things that attracted me were:
1. Service - consistently 98.5% delivered on time and in full.
2. Reputation - they have got a good reputation in the market place and other benefits were the central invoicing so XDP invoice the customers directly, whatever you collect this week you’ll get a cheque for 25% which is your proportion of the collection commission in two weeks’ time. This obviously helps massively with cash flow which is very important so you’re not chasing money all the time.
3. Manual Sortation - another feature was the manual sortation system that XDP use, so there’s no automated system with a warehouse and big spider conveyor sat in Birmingham that could break down. If the machine were to break down then the sort doesn’t happen and the parcels don’t go out. Because you’re doing a manual sort, you control the quality; you’re wrapping the parcels onto the pallet which reduces the damage and the miss-routes. Once I changed my franchise and went over to XDP, that gave me a solid basis to build my business and I went on to expand it from there.
2. What training and support did you receive initially and ongoing?
The initial training included visiting the XDP head office in Curdworth (near Birmingham) for the week and we were introduced to all the internal systems, locations of the depots and regional center, how the sort works and given an over view of XDPs operation.
Once we started we were assigned an area manager that stayed with us for a fortnight and after this as and when required. Obviously I’d been in the industry before, I probably didn’t need anywhere near the support as some other people but the support is there as long as you need it until you’re confident to carry on, on your own. The XDP team is always on hand though as and when you need them.
3. What is a typical day for you as a XDP franchisee?
A typical day? There’s no such thing as a typical day, this is one of the things I like the most about working in the Industry, and every day is different. But an average day might start with me coming in as and when required to help the morning staff to unload the vehicles, scan the parcels and load the vans. I’ll hit the office about 9 o’clock and go through my emails and respond to them as and when required, go through last night figures to see what the collection commission was, go through the trunking and staff reports from the previous night.
I’ll then perhaps have a meeting with the operations manager and we’ll do any forward planning for the week, from that ill possibly go out and see a customer or two, go to the bank and in the afternoon I’ll do supplier check runs, reconcile my bank account, do my VAT if its needed, accounts and then perhaps a couple of letters and emails.
Obviously while doing all of this, you are constantly being interrupted with phone calls from customers, operational problems, emergencies that happen etc. so the day tends to go very fast and you never know what problems are going to occur that you might have to solve. It hasn’t always been like that, when I first started I had to do long hours to make the business a success but the vast majority of days now I can come in at 9 o’clock and leave at 6.
Watch this video to see a day in the life of Peter and to find out more about the XDP franchise business opportunity:
4. What challenges have you faced?
There are a number of challenges; you’ve got your everyday day challenges which are staff, vehicles, the road network, weather and you’re always going to have them and they will always be presenting you with problems on a day to day basis and you’ve got to do deal with. In terms of business and the big picture, one of the main challenges that I’ve seen is time and how you manage your time.
The operation will demand your attention and you’ll have vehicle break downs, you’ll perhaps have a day where a driver doesn’t come in, you’ve got to arrange agency staff, a vehicle will break down or get stuck in traffic, you might be late for a collection from a customer, and while you’re dealing with all that the danger is that you get stuck in the office dealing with operational problems and you’re not doing any selling. While you’re not doing any selling, you’re not growing your business and if you’re not growing your business, you’re not going to expand and get to the next level.
So I think one of the main challenges is to extract yourself from the operation and make sure that you put the time aside to get out there and sell and gain new business, because you’ll feel the benefit of that in two weeks’ time in your collection commission.
5. Has becoming a XDP franchisee changed your life, if so how?
Yes it has changed my life, in a positive way. I probably work harder than a lot of people that I know that are employed but I enjoy the challenges of business and solving the problems that other people can’t solve. The most exciting part of the business is that the effort that I put in today in terms of going out and getting business, and maintaining the business I’ve got, I can feel the benefit of quite quickly.
If your employed by somebody and your making £50,000 you’re never going to earn one penny more than that whereas the effort that I put in today, next month I could increase my earnings by £10,000 and that’s the exciting part of being in business.
6. What marketing promotional tools do you use to grow your franchise?
Delivery vans are very important as they are driving around in your local area all day so people are seeing those vans and that’s your image. Then we’ve got brochures and we do direct marketing. We know who we want to do business with and that tends to be the higher volume customers and we’ll actively target those people and try to arrange meetings so we can give a presentation to them.
7.What differentiates your franchise from the competition?
The basis of your franchise is the service you get from the network, so a 98% delivery success rate is really helpful to my business. The weekly delivery rate, on time and in full is the basis of your business and that’s provided by XDP along with a good IT system, full track and trace, online proof of delivery. After that it comes down to the individual franchise and I’ve had customers for 10-12 years, it is a very competitive business and you don’t get to keep them if you’re not good at what you do and what we do is offer a very personal service.
I personally go out and see all the main customers once a week myself, they can ring me on my mobile out of hours and sometimes I get calls at 9 o’clock at night with an emergency. You can ring me at 4 o’clock in the morning, my phone is always on. In terms of the depot, the customer service that we give is top notch and that’s one of the factors that you don’t get from a lot of the big players so we will always answer the phone within 5 rings and take possession of the problem, we’ll deal with it and ring you back, and that is what you don’t get with some of the bigger companies.
8. In your opinion what makes a successful franchisee?
I would say, as with any business the personal qualities that you need are determination and strength of character. In this business you’ve got to be many things, you’ve got to be a salesman, a negotiator, operations manager, HR manager, you’ve got to be prepared to work hard, put lots of hours in and think on your feet to resolve problems. You might have a scenario where your fork lift breaks down and it’s out of hours, you can’t get hold of your maintenance contract guy and you’ve got to find a solution to that because your customers parcel have got to go out so you’ve got to think
“Right, ok, can we get a smaller vehicle with a tail lift and we’ll pallet truck it onto the back of the vehicle”.
You’ve always got to be coming up with solutions to the problems that the operation presents you with. I would say determination, strength of character and being able to think on your feet.
9. What advice would you give to someone thinking of buying their first franchise?
I would say first of all make sure that it’s going to suit your lifestyle and make sure you’re prepared to make the sacrifices that the business is going to demand of you. You’re going to be in early and you’re going to work in till late, there’s going to be a lot of stress involved and you need to make sure you’re prepared for that and you can make these sacrifices. You need to know that you’ve got your family behind you and they’re prepared to support you. After that I would say have a good look at the company, make sure they are financially secure and they’re going to be here next year and the year after that and ongoing.
These are the people that are going to be paying you the money for your hard work, make sure that the service is good and make sure that you’re going to get paid, and find out what the payment terms are. This is a major advantage of working with XDP; the weekly pay is a major advantage and is brilliant for the cash flow. Take advice, don’t rush into anything, quite often we’ve seen in the past people have signed a deal for a warehouse which is far too big for their needs, the payment plan they’ve got ramps up over years and they are tied into something they don’t need.
There’s no break clause, they got into a 5 year van deal and spend far too much money. So take advice from the support of the network and benefit from that and from the people who’ve already been through the loop and that’s what XDP will do right from the off. They will give you the advice and make sure that you’re making all the right decisions.
10.What are your plans for the future?
My focus is always on customer retention, it’s no good going out and finding new business and then losing it out the back end, because that’s a continuous cycle. We are always looking to improve what we do here in terms of customer service and the systems we use to make sure we keep the business that we’ve got and everyone’s happy, after that ill then focus on new business, I want quality business that is profitable.
11.Would you do it again?
Yes, I’d definitely do it again. It’s not easy and there are a lot of challenges and a lot of hard work is needed. I think it’s a fallacy that people think working for yourself means you are your own boss and you can take time off when you want and do what you want. You can’t do this, you’ll end up working harder than everybody else and you’ve got as many bosses as you’ve got customers. But if you put the effort in, the rewards are there and reaping those rewards is very satisfying.
12.Would you say that a XDP franchise has given you the lift style that you wanted?
Yes it has, it’s taken a while, you’re not going to jump in the first year and all of a sudden start making a fortune. I’ve worked hard at it and I haven’t given up, I’ve been through some challenging times but I’m in the position that I wanted to be in and it provides me and my family with a good lifestyle and my focus now is just making sure I look after it and keep growing it
