Sophie has completed her apprenticeship and is now a fully fledged Load Planner at A.G. Barr. Her role is to......

• plan the most efficient delivery routes of up to 9 vehicles a day

• minimise vehicle distances making a combined total of over 100 drops

• ensure the best use of labour delivering of up to 4,500 cases of soft drinks.

• improving fuel efficiency and carbon emissions by comparing fuel costs with routes and loads.

All this whilst handling the pressures of a busy traffic office and she still manages to save the depot money from its own budget.

“I’m now really confident in my job that the apprenticeship helped me get, I am earning money and I now drive a car which I can afford to run.”

The company was so impressed with the contribution that Sophie is making to the business they also gave her experience working in other departments in the business so she could further develop her skill set.

In her early days Sophie was frightened to answer the phone and now, Sophie is confident in dealing with customers and communicating with all departments. She has had additional training to help with driver invoices, handling cash, closing the loads and even re-packing in the warehouse. Being too small to pick the cases Sophie learnt to operate a powered pallet truck just in case they need her help in an emergency.

“A.G. Barr is a really good company to work for and I plan to stay there, I am looking to do further learning and development skills in team leading and logistics management.”