It’s everyone’s worst nightmare when you’re about to catch a flight: discovering that you don’t have your passport.
A recent JamVans customer went into a panic when he realised the night before a 6am flight that he’d left his passport among the belongings the firm was shipping to Germany for him the following week.
Company directors Justin Yates and Matt Williams jumped into action, arranging for staff to go into their warehouse at 3am to find the passport and deliver it to the airport in time for the customer to catch his flight.
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Service-led company
This dedication to customer service was one of the factors that helped the young entrepreneurs from Hertfordshire to clinch the Trader of the Month Award this month.
‘It’s great to win because we are a service-led company,’ Justin told us. ‘It’s another unique selling point to show that we’re doing things differently from the competition.’
The two school friends started the business in 2010 after finishing their A levels, doing removals themselves with a single van.
They became Trusted Traders just a few years later. ‘It’s a brand that everyone knows, and if you’re endorsed by Which?, everyone knows what that means. It’s a trust boost,’ Justin explained.
The company now has 32 employees and a fleet of vehicles, and serves customers across Greater London. The team regularly help people move property to Europe, the USA and Australia, and Matt and Justin are planning to expand the international side of the business.
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Back to school
Justin and Matt have been using their experience to inspire their local community by heading back to their old school.
They were invited to give out the prizes at an annual presentation evening for pupils, and give a speech about how their time at the school helped to shape their careers.
Justin said: ‘It was quite humbling. We won the awards ourselves when we were there, and we remembered the guest speakers. Now we’ve become the speakers.’
Their efforts to reduce JamVans’ environmental impact also caught our judges’ eyes.
They’re currently refitting their warehouse and offices with efficient lighting and air conditioning to cut CO2 emissions, and have a strict policy of reusing and recycling their moving boxes.
This month they’ll add electric vehicles to their fleet for the first time, as their surveyors start using small electric vans. ‘When bigger electric vehicles come out, we’ll be jumping on that too,’ Justin added.
Congratulations to JamVans, the winners of March’s Trusted Trader of the Month.