Irish parcels carrier Nightline has announced a new scientific solution for providing perfectparcel deliveries to cope with changes in the parcel industry.
Over the last year, Nightline has seen a significant increase in the number of home deliveriesthanks to its partnerships with leading internet retailers. It already handles one-quarter of allparcels in Ireland.
Now the company claims that a research project with Dr Tom Sawyer, a student on the ExecutiveMBA programme at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, has enabled it to forecast how bestto manage such additional volumes in balance with existing business parcel traffic.
Sawyer came up with a mathematical model able to direct the resourcing of parcel deliveries bothbetween business clients and to consumers. He described how the system could forecast the volume ofparcels needing to be delivered and the resources needed to do the work months in advance,something which could be of crucial importance at busier periods of the year, Nightlineexplained.
“Different types of parcel traffic place different demands on the resources of a deliverybusiness. That is, in turn, because of the way in which the parcel industry is having to adapt tochange,” Sawyer said.
“Most parcel companies used to carry a majority of business parcels but internet shopping isgradually changing that. Being able to meet the respective demands of both those types of trafficeffectively is key to whether you can maintain a good level of service or not,” he added.
John Tuohy, Nightline’s CEO, commented: “We believe that, after undertaking the research, wehave something that no other delivery business currently has at its disposal – a means ofaccurately predicting what resources are needed to service the changing and seasonal nature ofparcel traffic.”
“Historically, no matter how good your planning is, the process of managing deliveries issubject to circumstances. Unfortunately, last December’s extreme bad weather and the huge increasein internet shopping illustrated how conditions can adversely impact on services.”
Tuohy added Sawyer’s model was already up and running, and would be constantly updated with newdata during the peak festive period to ensure that Nightline’s deliveries were able to cope withconditions.
The project is in line with Nightline’s expansion of its operations. This year, it announced a€5.5 million redevelopment of its Dublin headquarters and a trebling of the size of its operationsin Belfast.
Nightline was founded in 1992 and has seven wholly-owned Irish depots as well as a UK regionaloffice at Altham in Lancashire. It works with leading mobile telecommunications, games consoles,fashion, pharmaceuticals and food brands.
