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How Repositioning Logistics Unlocked Better Leaders and Better Results

As a leading logistics provider specialising in time critical, overnight and scheduled distribution across a national network, the business set out to build a new Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement function across six regions. With service quality, cost control and consistency under increasing pressure, the margin for error was small.

How Repositioning Logistics Unlocked Better Leaders and Better Results

Client

Logistics Provider

Contact

Mark Atkinson

Sector

Transport & Logistics

Staffing Type

Senior Logistics Leaders
10
Senior hires
6
Regions
90
Locations covered

Recruitment Challenge

The brief was precise: appoint region based senior leaders with the right skills and values, at speed and within budget, to create a high performing team built to last.

Mark recognised a limiting belief: that great logistics talent must already come from logistics. The real requirement was not sector familiarity, but portable excellence in lean, automation, safety and customer critical operations. That shift in story repositioned the sector from “traditional trucking” to “mission critical, tech enabled service operations,” making it attractive to high calibre people from adjacent industries.

Recruitment Challenge

The Results

The process was designed not just to hire quickly, but to hire leaders who would commit, embed and perform over time. Working with the COO and VP of Operational Excellence, Mark implemented a three stage, candidate centred selection process that combined structured assessment, a live business case presentation to the senior leadership team and an on-site final stage. This ensured both competence and cultural alignment, so hires would start strong and deliver sustained impact. 

The Results

Of the ten hires, only one came directly from logistics. The rest joined from sectors with mature excellence disciplines, including manufacturing, technology, financial services, retail, defence and consulting. This mix injected new playbooks in process design, automation, data discipline and service resilience.

The plan filled all ten roles across six regions to cover ninety locations, with an average 2.5 weeks from shortlist submission to offer acceptance and a best case of ten days. All offers landed within the agreed salary ranges, including relocations. Candidate experience feedback was highly positive, including from those not selected. 

The Results

  • Paid claims for damage and loss down 54% versus prior year
  • Labour as a percentage of revenue reduced from 8.4% to 7.1%
  • Dealer survey scores improved from 4.31 to 4.47
  • Overall quality score increased from 94.5% to 97.48%

These outcomes reflect the impact of leaders who embedded quickly, standardised ways of working and stayed to see improvements through.

The Results
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