By Ian Walmsley
Pan Up
It’s a sign of the times when the biggest refurbishment job in town is stripping the seats out of a ‘321’, but this isn’t the Department for Transport’s dream optimised capacity commuter train. The ‘321’ standing outside Wabtec’s Doncaster workshop is being optimised for parcels traffic, or what is now called ‘logistics’ or even ‘fulfilment’. The pandemic has brought a 50% increase in parcels traffic, with next day delivery a big selling point, so reliability is essential. As most customers are paying a set delivery fee tucked away in Amazon Prime membership delivery, costs are straight off your bottom line, and the cheapest way of shifting the products of mouse clicks around is by road.
