Exel has been awarded a two-year contract by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), to manage the storage and distribution of one million composting bins in the UK. The contract follows a successful eight-month trial.
The project forms part of the largest-ever household composting initiative, instigated by WRAP, which is designed to reduce levels of garden and kitchen waste going to landfill. Since June 2004, some 165,000 households in 24 local authorities across England and Scotland have ordered the bins.
Now an additional 18 local authorities are joining the scheme, and the quantity of bins delivered is expected to reach 400,000 during 2005, with an estimated further 500,000 in 2006.
Exel is the principal point of customer contact for the project. Its call centre in Leeds receives, processes and schedules householder orders and payments for the bins – which range in price depending on type and the local authority involved. The call centre can handle a peak of 5,000 calls daily from members of the public.
The centre takes a wide range of bins from international suppliers and stores them at a national distribution centre at Leigh in Greater Manchester. Bins are then sorted and transported to nine Exel regional distribution outbases for onward delivery to households.
The company's transport scheduling systems match supply and demand and plan the most efficient routes for delivery of the bins. Additionally, Exel provides WRAP managers with regular updates on sales figures, as well as relevant information to develop strategies for the programme's future.
Exel uses its shared-user European Managed Transport Services roadfreight consolidation operation to handle the movement of bins into the UK, and provides logistics support for one-day sales promotions.
According to Gary Hilder, head of Home Composting at WRAP, Exel's performance during the trials was excellent, and WRAP is now well on the way to achieving its target take-up levels for home composting in the UK and meeting the government's objective of diverting at least 400,000 tonnes of garden and kitchen waste away from landfill by April 2006.
