Fastway Couriers has been delivering business opportunities in Australia for 20 years.
Fastway Couriers began in New Zealand 30 years ago when Bill McGowan saw potential for a cost effective parcel service.
“It came from very humble beginnings,” says Australia’s general manager, Richard Thame. “It was based on a need to send low cost parcels between the twin islands.”
There were not a lot of alternatives to a pricey postal system, he says, reflecting how things have come full circle. All the talk in the press at the moment has been about the high costs of Australia Post.”
The New Zealand business was up and running for a couple of years in typical courier fashion with contract drivers before the franchising model was embraced. And before long there was a very noticeable difference in productivity.
“Small business is the bulk of our business base, and they enjoy dealing with business owners,” says Thame. “The franchisees would go out of their way to tailor their services.”
Ten years later the brand moved into Australia, a sizeable marketplace with great opportunities and the challenge of geography. But the regional courier set up (a hub and spoke model) particularly suits Australia, says Thame. Regional couriers are responsible for recruiting courier franchisees who enjoy a perpetual franchise agreement.
“It’s interesting that 30 years on the subject of end of term agreement is being discussed. Courier franchisees do genuinely own their own business. That level of certainty has given them some comfort.”
Increasingly online trade is replacing the traditional business, so what was a business-to-business service is becoming consumer-focused. “This has meant that increasingly our business customers have never met the end user and their first interaction is with the courier. So it’s important for us to be focused on the brand.
“Any brand that’s 30 years old wants to protect what the customer love and is good, but at the same time make it more contemporary,” explains Thame [pictured below].
To this end Fastway underwent a total re-brand that was completed last year, with a focus on where the future of its business would lie. Much of that is seen as online.
“We’ve laid our bets on online retailers and we’ve been helped by a strong Australian dollar and because franchisees believe in the brand and take ownership.”
Regional Australia offers lots of opportunity through the growth of online retailing. “We think there will be an enormous uptake, particularly with the national broadband network.”
There are a lot of inbound freight opportunities too, with Fastway partnering with distribution firms to deliver packages sourced overseas.
NEW SERVICE
The latest development is Parcel Connect, a service linked with small independent businesses such as service stations, newsagencies and convenience stores that are open extended hours, have parking and sufficient storage space and can host a parcel drop-off service. Fastway has trialled this with about 100 outlets across Australia and will be rolling out a branded service soon.
Thame sees the benefits for the customers who won’t be constrained by post office hours, location and costs. Customers can print off a parcel label at home, scan and drop off the parcel which will be picked up next day by the local courier franchisee.
He believes it’s a good differential for small businesses too. “It drives additional foot traffic to these stores and it embeds Fastway and the business in the local community.”
The franchise set up is integral to this system, he says. Regional franchisees will drive the partnerships, but courier franchisees will be the “eyes and ears”, says Thame. It’s another step to providing an alternative to Australia Post. “Our guys are in the area every day, twice a day, and our pricing includes the pick-up.”
This latest development is a real break from the business to business deliveries the company was founded on. A focus on in-store merchandising and highlighting the delivery option online for e-retail customers will help spread the word.
It’s very simple, says Thame. “Customers want goods delivered intact, on time and at a good price.”
TECHNOLOGY
There’s no doubt the biggest change over the life of the courier business has been technology. And this is ongoing. In May the company will roll out a courier franchisee intranet which allows the franchisee access to their earnings, sales performance and KPIs, and means they can benchmark their business against the local depot and the network nationally.
The profile of the courier franchisee has changed from the traditional transport operator to a small business individual who is very sales focused, says Thame. “We’ve got a strong IT literacy rate across all groups. We recruit for attitude and teach the skills.”
Thame specifies two types of franchisee: those who come in to the system to build a business and sell on for capital gain, and those who stay with the business for 10 or 15 years. There are numerous career paths at Fastway, with franchisees scaling up from courier roles to regional, and then taking up corporate opportunities.
As a case in point, the very first franchisee in Sydney is still with the company 20 years later, now responsible for freight sorting operations at Homebush, overseeing 40,000 packages being delivered by 200 franchisees daily.
To keep the operation rolling smoothly there is essential investment in logistics, with semi-trailers running between depots.
However, too much technology can be a bad thing says Thame. “It’s essentially a manual process so we make sure the systems don’t drive the business. Increasing the mechanical elements could compromise our twice daily pick ups, and that’s always been our competitive advantage.”
So what has been the key to sustaining and growing a business over two or three decades? Thame says “The fact we’ve been franchised helped us weather the GFC storm because the franchisees care. That’s number one. Number two is we’re smaller than the typical post or transport company and can be more nimble. That’s underpinned our success.”
Australia still has plenty of potential, according to Thame, with one hundred more franchisees in new and split territories, for instance, and opportunities in the regional areas as online retailing grows.
“There are always competitive challenges. We have to ensure we don’t sacrifice quality, and stay faithful to our belief in franchisees, invest in them and recruit the right type of people, and not become too big to be agile.”