Analysis of Fast Track Couriers Business Plan
Question
Review the fast track couriers business plan.
Answer
Introduction: Accelerated shifts throughout the economic environment and the rise of globalization compel businesses to plan for the future with regards to business growth in consideration of rolling out new services and products and geographical expansion. Also, this highlights the projected costs and income generated by a given expansion of the company. The following paper outlines the Fast Track Couriers ' market and interaction strategy in the New South Wales area.
Background of the company: Fast Track Couriers is a family-owned business and for the past 15 years, Fast track couriers have occupied major market share in the New South Wales region. Most of the customers of Fast Track couriers are small and medium enterprises, almost 80%. They have developed a good reputation in the market for 12 years since they began and have shown a consistent increase of about 5% every year in their profits and sales.
Products and Services: The company specialises in the on-time delivery of products of varying sizes. They have established their presence in the market in Sydney and are trusted by many.
Marketing Activities: Since fast track couriers have a finite market, only in the New South Wales region. They utilise conventional methods of marketing and advertisements to promote their products and services such as direct sales, internet advertisings, telephonic sales and mail outs. The company tries to get regular feedback from the customers through following up on the telephone. Thus they provide attention to individual customers and have built long-lasting relations with their existing customers. By adopting this method they have generated impressive customer retention rate of 87%.
Business Operations: From a strategic standpoint, the primary motive of the company is to maximize its business profits by extending its distribution routes in the next three years beyond rural New South Wales. Also, the company plans on starting the expansion of its delivery services in the New South Wales region within the next year. The company has projected an increase of 40% in its sales over the next three years. A factor in their success thus far is that the company depends on its small yet experienced team. This team is well familiar with their system and are experienced in maintaining the best customer relationships by offering their services at a reasonably low cost. The company mostly consists of a team of male employees and a team of 20 male drivers ranging from the ages of 25 to 65 years. Due to the small size of employees, they have the chance to take part in numerous development and training programs which keeps them motivated owing to the success of the company.
Organisational Structure: The organisational structure of the company consists of the board of management, human resources, sales, administration and accounts. The team of 5 employees handle the office and they have a team of 20 experienced truck drivers who are managed by the logistics manager. Since fast track couriers is a family-owned company, the management board consists of a managing director and three family members who are authorized to make all the major decisions related to the business.
Proposal: As per the current situation the company allows two certified drivers per truck, as the whole process of driving, loading and unloading heavy items from the truck throughout the day could not be performed by a single person without proper assistance. A proposal has been made for the installation of an automatic lift gate on each truck. This will allow a single driver to handle all the loading and unloading process with ease and thus enabling the company to accommodate the rest of the drivers to other trucks. This up-gradation of installing the liftgate costs $10,000 per truck, in addition to that the company is planning on buying 10 more new trucks for the driver for are now available. The cost of buying a new truck after installing the liftgate would be $60,000 per truck. This will allow the company to easily expand its territory and explore new routes of delivery.
Financial Background
Risks: The company is faced with several threats. A significant number of accidents and injuries occur in the workplace and due to the presence of payment issues, employees and drivers are not satisfied with their jobs and compensations. These issues have caused discord from the employees which might hinder the business operations in the future. Also, due to the current fast track couriers business plan, they do have the required financial backing or experience to expand their routes throughout the Australian continent provided that there are no major companies in Australia currently who are operating on such large scale. As a result, the company is failing to meet the market demands due to the above-mentioned problems and thus have to bear the loss of a major potential client base.
Conclusion: Due to the absence of a solid business plan and financial issues, the fast track courier company could not target a huge portion of potential customers in the Wollongong, Central West and Newcastle regions. But with the proposed up-gradation and expansions, the company is set to grow in the coming three years. After the installation of automatic lift gates in the existing and new trucks, the drivers would need to undergo a development training program for smooth functioning. There is a requirement of changing and adoption of a new and improved fast track couriers business plan so that the company can flourish.
Communication Strategy: Since fast track couriers is a family-owned company, the majority of stakeholders and management board members are related to each other. The remaining department heads and managers can be contacted through emails for passing down important information. The managers are then responsible for communicating with their respective team members. Newsletters and manuals are issued by the company which contains all the policies and procedure which the company follows. Copies of these newsletters and manuals should be present at the office and with each employee.
In a product delivery company such as this, regular communication among the various levels of the office employees and the customers is of the utmost importance for proper functioning. For this purpose personal digital assistants or PDA, trackers can be installed in each truck to as to track the productivity of the employees and to ensure that the drivers are getting proper information about the locations, date of delivery etc. about the customers.
Therefore, by establishing proper channels of communications both inside the company and with the customer, the probability of human errors due to miss-communication can be brought down by a significant level. Thus regular communication of details and information between the management, employees and customers help an organisation to function smoothly. This is another aspect which could be implemented in the fast track couriers business plan. Fast Track Couriers business plan assignments are being prepared by our management assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable best assignment help service.
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