We’ll take any excuse for a road trip here at Allied Vehicles. So, when our Aberdeen Parts Hub Manager, John Forbes, agreed to talk about his team for a Department Spotlight, we immediately got on the road and made the three-hour drive from Glasgow to the Granite City. Read on to learn more about the team that serves Allied’s customers in the north of Scotland.
Mission and Purpose
Aberdeen Parts aims to make a great impression with our customers through every interaction because we know that the impressions we make with customers are key to building relationships and growing the business. We also aim to make budget every month because the budgets have been set for a reason and obviously also help to grow the business.
Team Members
John Forbes – Parts Manager: I’ve worked with Allied since the formation of the Aberdeen Parts hub.
Neale Hunter – Assistant Manager: Has been with me since day one and helped establish Allied Parts in the region.
Scott Bowie – Parts Advisor: Has been with us just over three years but brings decades of experience in the automotive sector with him.
Aaron Rennie – Parts Advisor: Who joined us as an apprentice and has just finished his apprenticeship. We’re all proud of the journey he’s been on.
Dave Rae – Goods Inwards and Outwards: He organises the vans and makes sure our parts get to our customers. –
Greg Howell – Driver: Drives vans locally to Aberdeen city and keeps our customers there happy
Callum Farquhar – Driver: Drives up towards Inverurie and across to Deeside and Banchory.
Kevin Mitchell – Driver: Covers Ellon, Peterhead, Fraserburgh and back. So, between them all that’s a really large area we cover.
Day-to-Day
Dave and Neale start early at 7 am to do the orders. They pull the reports off to see what’s due that day with the invoices sorted into piles waiting for Jamal who comes up from Glasgow. He arrives and it’s all hands to the pump to get everything out. Phones go live at 8 and the vans go out at 9 so that’s a busy period getting it all ready.
Then the rest of the day you’re dealing with customers through calls and emails to get orders. Emails have really taken off with that recently. Once the two town vans come back, we send them back out. We also go to the boat every day for Shetland, so we do lots of parts for Shetland. We deliver up to the ferry terminal before three pm and they load it onto a big transporter and head onto Shetland.
Outwith day-to-day, we have marketing, stock management and a whole load of other work to get on with too!
Notable Achievements
Supporting Aaron through his apprenticeship was a huge success for the branch. Getting the right people is difficult and keeping them can be just as difficult. He’s a cracking lad and first-class parts person.
Turnover is also up which is fantastic. We’ve seen sustained growth in the past year and we’re aiming for even more this coming year.
Challenges and Solutions
We cover a large geographical area and there’s more distance between drops off than Glasgow or Edinburgh. We want customers getting multiple things on the one drop. Encouraging people to increase orders and getting them to recommend us to their neighbours helps with that.
Why It Matters
We work with so many departments to make things work. We tie in with IT which is so important. Facilities as well is so important to look after the building. We work with Glasgow parts as all our parts come from there. We also work closely with Accounts to do budgets. The purchase ledger edger team, Stef, Jade, Nicole and Sophie, chase up so much work. That helps me so much and without them it would be so difficult.
Our work is part of the broader effort of the Allied Vehicles Group, and we work as part of a team to further that in Aberdeen and beyond.
If you’d like to contact the Allied Parts Aberdeen Hub, then call 01224 085 115 or email parts.ab@alliedvehicles.co.uk
