DriveTech has been working with Sainsburys for five years - this case study looks at the Sainsbury's Heaton store where the results of their risk management strategy have been reaping dividends. The risk management strategy was developed in conjunction with DriveTech.

When Sainsbury’s joined the home grocery delivery revolution the company embarked upon a programme of support, training and monitoring of its drivers that set a new standard for the company.
Mindful that the operating costs of home delivery have a direct bearing on profitability, Sainsbury’s, and its chosen risk management provider DriveTech, together evolved a package of measures to safely and efficiently manage both the vehicles and those who drive them.

Driver Training

All drivers complete a full day, in-vehicle, practical, defensive driver training session, which is tailored specifically to the needs of Sainsburys home delivery environment. This training is supplemented with a specialised manoeuvring course, recognising that the majority of damage is caused at low speed and in confined space because of the nature of the job.

A DriveTech trainer is then allocated to each store to deliver any additional or remedial training that is required, for example after an at-fault collision. 

Sainsbury's Heaton Store

The success of this programme is exemplified by one store in particular – the Heaton branch in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Heaton is one of 169 Sainsbury’s stores in the UK that deliver to customers’ homes. Although well outside Newcastle city centre it is nonetheless in a busy urban location. The Online Manager, Mike Hill, has nine drivers at his disposal, the majority of whom have been at the store since it started home deliveries in 2006.

Operating seven days a week between 09.00 and 23.00, the team handles about 1800 orders per month, which translates into between 450 and 500 deliveries per week across a delivery patch of about a twenty mile radius of the store north of the Tyne.

“My drivers encounter just about every kind of road condition imaginable,” says Mike Hill, “from crowded city centre residential areas, with vehicles parked on both sides of the road, to remote cottages across the border into Northumberland.”

Own Vehicle Damage Cost

As with all Sainsbury’s home delivery operations, success is measured in a number of ways, one of those being the fall in ‘Own Vehicle Damage Cost ’. Although damage of some sort is inevitable, outgoings have been dramatically falling since the driver training and risk management programme was implemented.

In fact the ‘Own Vehicle Damage’ costs for the Heaton operation in 2008 was only 21% of those of the previous year. Analysis of the year to date (2009) shows that currently ‘Own Damage Cost’ per order delivered is just 10% of that predicted and allowed for in the operational budget.

“We make every effort at the recruitment stage to identify those that have the required aptitude and physical capabilities for the job. The fact that they already have a driving licence, which we of course check thoroughly prior to taking them on, doesn’t automatically qualify them to drive for us. There’s no getting away from it….it’s hard, physical work. The driving itself is challenging enough but there’s also the loading up at the store and the unloading at the point of delivery to contend with.

“Once the drivers are recruited they are obliged to complete DriveTech’s DATA online risk assessment, which, if they emerge with a satisfactory score, assures me that they have the correct attitude and approach for the job. I also make a point of spending lots of one-to-one time with the guys going through all the paperwork and procedures early on. This is time well spent I can assure you.”

So Sainsbury’s Heaton store is clearly a shining example of how to make a vehicle fleet perform cost- effectively for you, whilst at the same time minimising environmental impact.

See other case studies.