David Trafford

Background

About David Trafford

As a Vehicle Operations Manager, I spend every day moving around vehicles, parts, and large trucks. I’m the guy that dealerships rely on for their vehicle delivery, and I have a managed vehicle delivery centre for the past 8 years. After logistics roles for Caterpillar (heavy machinery parts distribution) and Coles, I helped Mazda set up their national parts warehouse in Melbourne, Australia, setting out parts locations for storage and picking. I was promoted to Team Leader after 6 months, and managed a team of 15-30 staff. Always on the lookout to find efficiencies, I’ve implemented changes in pick runs and packing to speed up processes and use less labour and ensured that staff were well trained. I pride myself on building and maintaining strong relationships that drive business to become more efficient, eliminate waste and meet budget expectations. During the recent tough times that severely disrupted the automotive industry, the work my team and I completed to lessen the impact was recognised in positive feedback from dealerships and management. This included working overtime to bring ships into stock, process bookings or process vehicles through the compound and attending the wharf to make sure targets and deliveries were met. I have solid 3PL experience and have managed parts inventory and used RF scanning. I have excellent skills in using systems for parts and all processes to do with receipting stock, wholesale/invoicing of vehicles, updating vessel/vehicle ETAs, loading freight rates for transport, setting up dealer delivery points, and procurement. I’m proud of my excellent stock take record of 100% accuracy over 8 years, with up to 2,300 vehicles at any one time. I’ve also participated in site monthly audits of safety checks and have scored in the high 90%s with our external audits on machine and equipment service and register requirements. I currently hold a forklift licence, and also order picker and HR driver licences. I’m keen to connect with others in the transport and logistics industry – please reach out.