Company: Wincanton
Role: Operations and Data Manager
I joined Wincanton in September 2019 on the graduate programme. I had a variety of roles during placements with Sainsburys Northampton, Pullman Fleet Services and Defence 4PL Transport. The graduate programme was great for experiencing lots of different areas of the business and help me find the area that I wanted to grow and develop in. After completing the graduation programme, I started my first non-graduate role as a Transport Operations Manager at Weetabix. I then went on to support our Middlewich site, again as a Transport Operations Manager. It was from here that I moved into my current role as Operations and Data Manager within Transport, where I’ve been based at our Data and Reporting Centre of Excellence in Derby until our recent move to The Hub in Nottingham.
Over the past year, I’ve worked closely with our planning teams and wider network on the development of processes and ways of working. Following the businesses purchase of Zeus (our digital platform to help us manage road freight), I’ve become an operational lead for the development and roll out of the digital market place of EyeQ, our transformative digital transport product. This has been the most exciting project that I have worked on to date as it has given us exclusive access to market leading technology in the UK that will be integral to our overall EyeQ product offering. The technology delivers a better experience for our partners and will help us to drive savings for our customers through better route and load optimisation. This is a very exciting time and a new opportunity for us to further use tech and automation to enhance the services we provide and support our customer’s net zero goals. It’s been a real privilege to be part of this project, alongside helping with the relocation of the team to our new bespoke Transport hub in Nottingham. Our new home is not only a new space for our colleagues but also a dedicated EyeQ space to share with customers and stakeholders to develop the product further.
The graduate program provided me with professional development and exposure to the wider Wincanton network. Being a graduate taught me a lot around resilience and managing change. Placements changed every six months, meaning lots of new teams and new faces. This helped me develop within myself. Whilst I was at Weetabix, I took my national and international Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC), a qualification that enables professional drivers to carry certain goods. I managed to pass first time! This has helped me in my role and development within Group Transport. I was also lucky enough to be selected for the 2023 cohort of Wincanton NextGen emerging leaders. This has given me a further opportunity to develop my personal and professional skills such as presenting, my own learning agility, professional networking, development and self-awareness. As part of NextGen, I’ve been able to network with a fantastic group of colleagues who have all supported my development and achievements. Being in this environment has provided me with a further opportunity to challenge and push myself in a really impactful learning space. The teams I work with are always my inspiration – I want to ensure I can provide the best leadership to my teams for their own development.
Thinking about what’s next for me, my current role is focused on developing the Supplier Support team to ensure we can offer our suppliers and hauliers the best customer service. I’m also focused on rolling out the EyeQ platform to the wider business, as well as ensuring our customers and colleagues receive the best benefits as we grow our digital platform to the wider market. I’m looking forward to the future of EyeQ, the rollout of the digital marketplace and how this will grow the business and develop my role further.