Shiels focuses on fleet policy and strategy rather than the day-to-day running of the fleet.

“I’ve been at GeoPost 18 years,” he says.

“The first five or six years I was operating the fleet, but now I spend about 15% of my time on fleet and 85% of the time on other areas like logistics.”

Preparing for the Olympics

His next logistics challenge is the London Olympics.

A project team of 20 people has been created with Shiels as project sponsor. A project manager has also been appointed on a nine-month contract.

“We’ve mapped out deliveries and looked at the postcodes that will be impacted, but there are still holes in our knowledge,” Shiels says.

GeoPost is also in the process of talking to customers with stores in the affected areas about twilight or early morning deliveries.

During the Olympics a command centre will operate at one of GeoPost’s London depots to tell drivers and customers about blockages and road closures. The centre will operate 18 hours a day throughout the Games.

“You start with 0% preparation and hope that by the event you will be 100% prepared,” Shiels says.

“We’re about 60% to 65% prepared now. Will we reach 100%? Probably not because you don’t know what will happen, you can only plan for worst case scenarios. But we will do what we can to keep moving.”
 

From the workshop to the boardroom

Charlie Shiels has worked his way “from the workshop to the boardroom”.

He started as a teenager as a commercial vehicle mechanic, progressing to managing commercial vehicles as a fleet engineer (the equivalent of being a company car and van fleet manager) in his 20s.

He worked for brands such as British Airways and Argos as fleet manager before joining GeoPost in 1994.
He progressed from fleet management to the boardroom by “taking on things”.

“The business asked me to take on security, health and safety and insurance,” he says. “Then I was appointed to the board as director of risk and transport.”

Shiels collected the fleet risk management award at the 2003 Fleet News Awards.

As executive director – central operations, Shiels now has about 1,500 people working for him and runs big operations, including transport.

“Generally speaking fleet isn’t a board role,” he says. “If you want to get into the boardroom you need to do more. You need to grow your portfolio.”

He says a good fleet engineer or fleet manager is “worth their weight in gold” and will save the company money as well as keeping the fleet legal and safe.

But he adds the caveat “you need critical mass”; a fleet manager isn’t necessarily required for 10 vehicles.

Although Shiels hasn’t undertaken fleet management training he has an ONC and HNC in engineering
management as well as a business degree.

“I am more comfortable finding my way round a balance sheet than a commercial vehicle these days,” he says.