Meeting with Hervé Street, President of the Star Service Group, the expert in last mile logistics and specialist in home delivery.
Hello Hervé Street. You are a major and historic player in last mile delivery. How do you see the development of urban delivery, especially in terms of consumption, the associated constraints and the innovations that are emerging?
To begin with, I always start with the consumer and work up to what we, as Supply Chain professionals, can offer them. In my opinion, the consumer is increasingly protean, because our generation, the current generation and the next generation, are totally different, as are their ways of consuming.
So, what is a consumer today? In my opinion, there are several and we are all likely to move from one state to another depending on the situation. The first type of consumer resembles what we were a few years ago, the one who walks into a store, looks and buys. The second enters the store, buys and takes advantage of the features and services offered to them (home delivery for example). Here, the emphasis is on shopping for pleasure and getting rid of the chore of bringing home your purchases, by taking advantage of the delivery service. The third benefits from what I will call here, “full service”. This is the consumer who does not have time or prefers not to go to the store. He orders online and has it delivered. It is part of the “full service” here. Finally, the last type of consumer, whom I would describe as "nomadic", wants to have their goods delivered to the boot of their car while they are away at the weekend, at a holiday destination or on the way to their country house, for example.
“It is becoming essential to offer consumers the services appropriate to their needs and therefore to emphasize the service offering, in the same way as the product offering. »
In my opinion, delivery professionals must be able to address these different services to adapt to each moment of the consumer's life. And this is how customers will build loyalty to the delivery services offered to them. This customer loyalty is essential: professionals in the sector will all agree that it is less expensive to keep a customer than to contact a new one. It therefore becomes essential to offer consumers the services appropriate to their needs and to emphasize the service offering, in the same way as the product offering.
As an expert in urban logistics, what do you think the delivery methods of the future will be, and what kind of business model do you see for the sector?
The first observation is that our cities are old. In fact, they were not designed or built for today's urban logistics. We must therefore adapt to multiple constraints, narrow streets, forests of poles, ceiling heights. The delivery professional must constantly adapt. We must think about customer satisfaction without neglecting the working conditions of our employees.
This problem of urbanization must be taken seriously. There is a huge paradox when the delivery person is asked to be friendly and represent his brand, while he is subject to multiple constraints and considerable stress on a daily basis. Let's quickly talk about traffic jams, parking problems, carrying heavy loads, stairs, etc. It will not be illusory to say here that the work of a delivery person is not recognized at its true value by the community, although COVID has revealed the necessity of this profession.
But why promote work that has no value since the consumer does not pay for it? Unfortunately, the act of delivery has been completely trivialized in everyone's minds. It’s destructive for the industry and also for all these everyday delivery workers. Things should change.
In this, I strongly believe in Urban Logistics Warehouses (ELU), provided that these spaces are designed for modern use of logistics in the city, in all its forms. Thanks to the deployment of ELU in sufficient quantity, it will then be possible to create an organization by neighborhood, a real local service where the delivery person is no longer a person lambda whose act has no value, but where the professional becomes a known face whose regularity of service is appreciated. The delivery person would then become, like the guard or concierge, a familiar person in an ultra-proximity environment.
“The company vehicle fleet will fundamentally evolve in the coming years to diversify”
Means of delivery? I think that all delivery methods will have their place in the city of tomorrow, as long as they are adapted. Firstly the pedestrian, then cargo mobility, then electric, hydrogen or zero-emission vehicles and finally vehicles adapted to large volumes – because there will always be a need for them. I am convinced that the company vehicle fleet will fundamentally evolve in the coming years to diversify. This is already the case at Star Service where we are continually deploying smaller, less bulky vehicles, low-carbon vehicles, and vehicles more suited to operational delivery needs.
When we talk about “sustainable logistics for all”, we obviously consider the environmental impact but it is important to take into consideration the social aspect as well. What are the challenges in terms of human resources (recruitment, training, retention)?
At Star Service, we have chosen people with a precise and organized social model guaranteeing the proper monitoring of processes from end to end.
Despite this, recruiting new delivery employees is difficult and the turnover remains important. This is explained by the difficulty of the job. Generally speaking, we lose a large portion of new recruits during the first month of training. However, when the training is over, we know that the hardest part is done. This is of course a significant investment for the company. For example, to recruit 3,000 people over the year, we analyze more than 50,000 CVs. However, we see that all the efforts to retain our staff are not in vain, and that many of them stay and grow at Star Service. Their development is a source of great pride for our company.
To deal with the difficulty of recruitment, our Human Resources department is firstly very mobile and travels to large cities, suburbs or provinces: we must recruit employees as close as possible to their homes. Our approach is constantly evolving, as are our tools to capture and develop the interest of candidates. At Star Service, we capitalize on training, internal development (90% of managers come from internal promotion) and on stable jobs with 90% permanent contracts. Likewise, the evolution of our vehicle fleet and our service offering (delivery vehicle, bicycle, pedestrian, etc.) makes it possible to address a larger number of candidates. Naturally enough, those who hold a driving license choose the delivery vehicle, but not only that…! In fact, we mathematically address more candidates.
To conclude, what is your vision of the logistics city of the future?
In my opinion, the community must urgently realize that the term “CSR” contains the “S” in Social. This is an important concept and perhaps even more so in our professions. Without this awareness, our society will remain in a logic of creating “small jobs” without any recognition. There will be an ever-widening gap between these “jobs” and professions considered “noble”. From a purely personal point of view, this vision of the future does not make me dream because it does not allow professional development, nor capitalization on know-how.
“The community must urgently become aware that the term “CSR” contains the “S” in Social. »
In this, I try to infuse my own vision of the more “social” logistics of tomorrow into the strategic axes of Star Service. This requires restoring value to our professions and giving meaning to employees. To do this, we focus on value-added deliveries for brands that have a real strategic and responsible vision of what the delivery service should be.
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