Yesterday, we had a distressed call from a customer, they needed some urgent help in sourcing some work wear, to secure a specialised contract that they had been working on.
Our customer (I’m sure they won’t mind me saying) J O Transport, are based in Little Lever in Bolton and provide all kinds of haulage solutions throughout the UK and Europe. They are very forward thinking and are always looking to progress into new areas of distribution.
This new contract is to distribute (through a number of single pallet drops) traffic cones down a busy motorway. Yes, very specialised and dangerous work. And, as its motorway work, their drivers need to be dressed in orange hi-vis work wear from head to foot, otherwise they wouldn’t be allowed on site.
Initially, the contract was due to be awarded next week and they thought, they had plenty of time to get the required work wear together.
Out of the blue though, yesterday morning, they got an urgent call from their potential new customer. It seems the motorway repairs had been moved forward, and they required the cones to be delivered in the early hours of the morning (today). And, if they wanted the contract they had to commit to doing it in the next few hours.
Worryingly, they had all the equipment, except the orange hi-vis work wear, as they wear yellow as the norm. So, they called their customer to ask if yellow work wear would do. It was a flat no, get the orange stuff or it’s no contract.
It seems, full orange hi-vis work wear is difficult to come by quickly, as the most common is yellow. J O scoured the local area, but they couldn’t get what they needed that same day.
In a moment of desperation Paul (J O Operations Manager) called us directly and explained the situation.
Without thinking, we called in a few favours, travelled a few miles to a number of wholesalers and even a few competitors, in a bid to get our hands on everything that J O required. Money (within reason) was not the issue here, securing this contract was.
We got the call from J O at 11am, by 2pm we were pulling in to J O’s yard, with all the work wear they required to secure the contract, in the boot of our car.
It was a great result all round. J O secured their contract and we secured all their future orange hi-vis work wear.
Hopefully, with a little more notice on their next orders!
