Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis; Dwain McDonald
COVID-19 crisis and response
All around the world, countries and businesses are facing enormous challenges due to the COVID-19 crisis. At DPD we have risen to this daily challenge – to ensure services continue, the team is safe and essential deliveries reach residents across the UK.
COVID-19 was by far the biggest challenge I’ve ever had to face as a business leader, and I know this is the same for many more CEOs. People expect us to make informed decisions, keep all our stakeholders safe and maintain the high standards that they pay for.
Communication is the biggest tool during this crisis. I have had daily calls with all my teams; planning and evaluating following government guidance.
We have also kept our customers and people fully up to date with changes with regular email bulletins.
Keeping employees and communities we serve safe
My job was to focus on what’s most important to our customers, and the wellbeing of my teams. Delivery drivers are now on the front line delivering an important service: keeping goods, essential supplies and medical equipment flowing. That’s their job – and it was my job during my time as CEO to keep them safe.
We brought in social distancing for all staff including changes to our sortation, loading and unloading processes. We launched a ‘wave delivery programme’, spacing out drivers’ start times to ensure fewer people were on site at any one time. And, despite all the disruption, our services ran normally with a success rate of 99.9% for first time delivery.
The team spirit was fantastic. Behind the scenes other changes have included moving all office-based teams to home working. IT teams built and supplied around 700 new laptops to support this.
The entire delivery service became totally contact-free, meaning that people no longer need to sign for parcels on handheld devices or even open their door.
By adapting current systems, the company was still able to offer customer choice and ensure we complied with social distancing guidelines. People could either use the app to record their preferences, select the Leave Safe option under their in-flight tracking or leave a note on their door with instructions where to leave their parcel.
Staying true to our Values
Strong leadership means staying steadfast in the face of adversity and that means staying true to what you believe in, rather than panicking and falling into short-term thinking and decision-making. That’s why, despite all the operational changes the company stayed true to its distinctive DNA. The DPD culture is built on six core Values: Respect, Passion, Hard Work, Accountability, Flexibility and Honesty. The company rewards and recognises employees who demonstrate these Values and believe me, in the midst of this unprecedented crisis, the team’s behaviour was truly inspirational, in fact my biggest challenge post-Corona could well be finding a way to truly celebrate what they’ve achieved in these unprecedented times.
Supporting the nation
As CEO during this difficult time, the buck stopped with me. With my leadership team, I prioritised our people, our customers and the wider community, and implemented swift changes. People expect fast but considered decisions from leaders, and it is by taking these steps that we can reassure staff, customers and members of the public who come into contact with delivery drivers.
In addition to making sure the core business was running smoothly with minimal disruption, we also thought about other ways we can support the nation during this disruptive time. It’s about innovation and using our resources in a different way.
The company worked with the NHS and the Government to deliver medical supplies to adult care homes, pharmacies, hospitals, GP surgeries and hospices. So far, this has included 6.7 million protective gloves, 10.3 million safety masks and 5.2 million aprons. We also promised to support free collection and delivery of 3D printed additional PPE equipment around the country.
Every year, DPD delivers millions of parcels for food retail outlets, and we have extended this to directly partner with Morrisons and support them in “feeding the nation” by getting essential supplies to the public. The retailer produced two different offerings, one box for meat eaters and one for vegetarians. DPD was proud to be the official delivery partner as part of this scheme.
Moving forward I’ll continue to listen to the team every day and ensure they are as safe as possible. They will remain my number one priority and their efforts will allow us to support customers’ changing needs and the country as best we can.
Keep safe and look after yourselves.