I had to collect 5 pallets today from Knowles Transport at Wisbech. On arrival it wasn’t good news there were 8 other drivers waiting to book in and 5 other drivers waiting for their delivery tickets in order to leave. Although this was my first time there, it soon became clear that a normal day at Knowles is a wait of at least 3 hours. One of their own drivers told me he only does one load a day from Wisbech to Bury St Edmonds (80 miles) because the delays are so bad. After a 55 minute wait I was duly booked in and told the 5 pallets I needed hadn’t even been picked yet. Again a regular occurrence at Knowles.
The Transport Office was full of staff, but only one woman, referred to by all as the “she dragon”, was doing any actual booking in. The others were in fear of touching anything in her domain. Even worse the “she dragon” was actually the least efficient employee I’ve seen in a long time. She had the attention span of a two year old and kept flitting from job to job, but not actually completing any of them. Every time anyone came in from the yard to ask a question she disappeared to sort it out for 10 minutes. Whilst I was waiting she spent 20 minutes trying to print the tickets off for a load that didn’t seem to have any. In that time all the loading bays were empty and the forklift drivers were hanging around waiting.
What’s the point in telling you this? Well big companies, like Knowles, get haulage and distribution contracts, but all those staff, trucks and goods waiting around all cost money and their inefficiency gets added on to your shopping bill.