A successful transition with Wincanton

Off By Ed Hanna

Wincanton is a leading British supply chain solutions company, providing business critical services for global brands across the UK.

Wincanton is active across a range of markets including food and consumer goods, retail and manufacturing, e-commerce, the public sector, major infrastructure, building materials, fuel, and defence.

With almost 100 years’ heritage, our 20,300-strong team operates from more than 170 sites across the country and is responsible for 8,500 vehicles.

Read about Lee’s experience after leaving the British Army and making the transition into Wincanton.

Lee Buckland, Royal Engineers, 1994 to 2017

“After completing a full and engaging Military career, the time finally came to engage in the transition back to being a civilian. In the same manner as all other Service-leavers, this process was through the local Army Education Centre and Career Transition Partnership.

Having attended all the mandatory briefs and resettlement courses that I felt would enable a successful transition, I began to search the jobs market for something that would suit my work-life balance moving forward. At this point, I decided that the logistics industry would be where I would start the search.

The construction supply chain is where I decided that my future lay and after a little research, it became clear that the market leader in this area is Wincanton. After a successful telephone interview, I was offered a position working to deliver construction logistics to construction sites across the UK.

Within the first weeks of this new career, I was enrolled on an in-house training course to obtain my lorry mounted crane licence. It was at this point that the Veterans network came to light and with the instructor on the course also a Veteran, who identified I had a similar background and skill set as himself, asked if I would be interested in a potential move to the Regional Driver Training Team.

Following a successful interview and practical training session delivered to the National Driver Training Manager, I was offered an opportunity to join the Regional Driver Training Team. Here I would deliver classroom based and practical training sessions to drivers within the central region of the UK. This was a skill that came easy to me, as for part of my Military career I was employed as a phase one training instructor.

After a successful two years delivering training, an opportunity arose to apply for the National Operational Training Manager position. After another successful interview, I was offered the opportunity to become responsible for the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (Driver CPC) programme, where I wrote the course content which would be delivered to all Wincanton drivers. I also managed the internal quality assurance process, to ensure training delivery would be consistent across all 100 driver trainers within Wincanton.”