Mel Gabitas / MPC Excell

Mel, aged 42 has worked for MPC as a van driver for 10 years, having joined our sameday night operation “to fit in with his commitments to his band”. Mel, always courteous, always polite and nothing is too much for him. He cut his teeth sweeping up for our international courier side one night when a major City client had 27 very urgent shipments ready at 2.30 am that needed to be packaged, airway bills raised, manifested and delivered to 7 agents at Heathrow by 4.30 am – Mel made it with 2 minutes to spare and all shipments made their delivery deadlines. Mel was quickly promoted to days, handling the sameday operation for MPC international department. That entails making time critical collections from clients and delivery back to our international operations centre in London Bridge. Though a sameday driver, when Mel delivers back to our international operations centre, he often ‘mucks’ in in busy times, helping our international staff prepare airway bills and packaging consignments. He has received particular praise from clients, one specifically telephoned to thank him for helping one of their partners who was struggling with her own case files which were spread over the pavement, not even a job for him, he just went to help a damsel in distress, collected her files and delivered her to her meeting. Mel has also proven completely reliable when it comes to on-board couriers. On-boards are particular stressful, incredibly urgent and always come through at the last minute. Mel, passport at the ready, is prepared to drop everything and go. His latest delivery was to Serbia where he slept with his head on the shipment, scared it might have vanished by the morning. Mel truly has taken sameday couriering to a new level, changing his 4 wheels for wings to meet sameday courier requirement overseas. I am told the original band has disbanded due to Mel’s work pressures but a new band is about to “go into the studio” Watch this space.

Harry Holland / TNT

A previous National Courier Award winner, Harry continues without a doubt to be one of the most professional drivers within TNT. Performance profile Harry achieve 94.4% out of 100. An amazing achievement. Harry stands out from the rest because of his positive attitude, no matter what time of day or night. He shows enthusiasm, dedication and professionalism in everything he does. He is always extremely smart and well presented in his uniform. He is easily identified when out and about with a personalised TNT number plate. Harry was given some batch of parcels for delivery to a different clients branch when he came across one item that was not address for that branch. Harry brought this to the attention of the Centre Manager and upon further inspection, the package contained a large amount of South African currency (£340). Because of Harry’s actions TNT were able to notify the customer and get the money returned safely back to them. This incident highlights how the integrity and honesty of Harry represents TNT. Another example of Harry’s willingness to go that extra mile is when another courier broke down and Harry volunteered to drive 40 miles to bring in the packages on board resulting in minimising any negative impact on the customer, delivering the clients work on time. Another occasion whilst Harry was out on the A1 he spotted another TNT Van broken down on the roadside, he noted it was a lady driver. With no packages onboard he called into his control and informed them he would wait with her until the RAC came out. This is typical of Harry putting others before himself.

Anthony Rudder / eCourier

Anthony portrayed the courier industry on national TV, he has been with eCourier for the past 4 years. Certainly the most helpful, polite and courteous on our team. Anthony has been with eCourier from the beginning and is a great ambassador for the company. Anthony and his vehicle are smart and clean, on time and keen to help the company grow. He sometimes gets sent the work that no one else wants but he just knuckles down and gets on with it. He was the subject of a prank for a Channel 4 TV programme called “Balls of Steel”, it was by chance that Anthony was the victim of the prank but it proved his patience and customer services skills. The idea behind the prank was to see just how far someone can be pushed before they react. Thankfully the patience of the production team ran out before Anthony’s and they blew their cover long before the Anthony blew his top. It is just one of the examples that emphasizes Anthony’s personality. Patience and care, helpful and persistent, smart and presentable to the customer face. He is liked by the customer, receives praise from all client levels and his is popular with the fleet. He has shown the world of television that he can’t be shaken from his professional task.