A Day in the Life: Every day brings new challenges and opportunities. For Sophie Yorke, managing director of Xtra Express Logistics at Brackmills in Northampton, that variety is the spice of her working life.
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THE DAY religiously starts with a very strong black coffee. That’s the first thing I do, a convenient stop off at the kitchen for a caffeine hit to set me up for whatever the day entails.
It’s hard to know what’s coming as no two days are the same, but in many ways that’s probably one of the best things about the role, because it is so varied.
By nature of the sector that we operate in there can be various unforeseen challenges, for example vehicle issues, traffic incidents and many other factors that need to be managed quickly to ensure we meet our customers’ expectations.
As such my start to the day can really vary depending on what we face each morning. Every morning without fail I have a catch up with group managing director Edward Grant-Salmon either by phone or in person, depending on our whereabouts.
We run through what’s scheduled for the day across both operations, review volumes to establish allocation of resources needed and review any other matters that need to be addressed for the day ahead.
I then meet up with the operations team – the guys who coordinate and plan drivers and vehicles for the Pallet Track and APC pallet and parcel movements – generally spending a couple of hours with them.
Mid-morning, once everything is in place, I’ll check in with the wider management team: Martin, our warehouse manager; commercial manager Claire, who looks after the customer services team; Nathan, who manages all site compliance and vehicle maintenance. We have a quick catch up (or as long as needed) just to check through the running of each department, to identify and resolve any issues and to finalise plans and actions for the remainder of the day.
Depending on where else I’m needed, I’ll move around within the business as required. Some days I’ll go out on customer visits, either to existing customers or to support the sales team with development of new opportunities.
My email traffic sees a constant flow so I’ll keep checking those throughout the day (and night), either on my mobile or on my laptop, which I carry around religiously.
There’s also integration throughout the day with the APC and Pallet track network depots, of which we are proud to be shareholder and founder members. This is key as, along with other depots across the UK, we have a voice that enables the service offering to be further developed and improved to meet our customer changing needs.
Sophie had been working for logistics company Action Express Northampton for 20 years, latterly as general manager. She joined the business aged 17 as an accounts assistant, rising through the ranks to become operations manager in 2015 and general manager in 2022.
She became managing director of Xtra Express Logistics in August last year, following Action Express Northampton’s acquisition by Crisis Logistics and a subsequent rebrand to Xtra Express Logistics.
Directors Charles and Edward Grant-Salmon and Roman Stajila saw Sophie as key to the company’s future. “We knew straight away that we wanted Sophie to be a part of the company at a senior level,” said Charles.
Roman added: “Xtra Express Logistics parcels and pallets network is in great hands. Sophie knows the business inside and out and knows the Brackmills site better than anyone.”
As part of my wider role and as a director of the group, part of my time is allocated to group matters – which includes strategy, planning and a range of areas that combined and working with my co-directors helps to shape the future of the business – and the smooth running across all operations.
As such I often head over to our same day and haulage operation based at Hannington near Wellingborough – so, a short hop on the A43.
Whenever there’s an issue that could cause a delay, I’m very hands on (as are all of our senior team) because ultimately if you don’t recover that time in the morning, it has a knock-on effect through the whole of the day.
Being part of a wider group proves very handy as it gives me extra resource in terms of vehicles that might be needed quickly to resolve an immediate challenge.
I’ve also been known to help with the sortation or if we’ve had delays to our vehicles arriving back at base so that we can run them out ourselves in vehicles, just to make sure that it’s not impacting on the high levels of service that our customers expect.
This reflects the work ethic and culture across the group at all levels in terms of getting stuck in and the job done.
It’s important that I understand the challenges behind the scenes. A multitude of situations can arise, with our aim being to not trouble our customers unless essential. Having a team well equipped in terms of knowledge and problem-solving skills in how to deal with them is key so it doesn’t have a knock on to the customer experience.
If there’s a crisis (which isn’t too common, thankfully), I love getting right into the middle of it. There’s a real sense of achievement when you resolve an issue that may have seemed impossible when initially presented. It’s what we do.
There are days when it’s very pressured and can be very stressful. But I think the fact that we all get on as well as we do really helps.
If my team are having a bad day, I’ll be down there having a bad day with them. I think it’s important that we get through the challenges together and take what we can from the issues experienced, to learn from them for the next time.
I’m primarily based at our Brackmills operation so I’m lucky as I get to see everybody most days. As I said earlier, I’m very hands on within the team in all areas, from training to general support or in any way that I can make the team feel appreciated and supported.
I have full overall responsibility for the Brackmills site and, having been within the business for 20 years, I’ve worked within most of the departments. Nine times out of ten, I’ll know the answer to any questions the team may have. It’s personally rewarding to know that I can help.
We have a fabulous team of people across the business, from our warehouse staff to our driving team and the guys in the office. They’re all absolutely fantastic and I love spending time with them.
I’m passionate about growing and developing the next generation, particularly with the younger members of our team. As a board, we’re very keen to progress this area and have already identified some shining stars across the group who we think will be the future in years to come.
As you can probably tell, I’ve got a real passion for what we do. It’s funny really as I sort of stumbled into logistics when I was 17, not really sure what I wanted to do but instantly fell in love with it.
The variety and the pace aren’t for the faint-hearted but I think that’s actually what drives me. I absolutely thrive on the buzz of this company and the amazing people that I work with – it’s like an extended family. I want the business to do well and continue the growth journey, always mindful that customers are key.
I’m very proud of what we do and equally proud of our service. The future will be exciting.
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