Since its inception only a few select associates have received the prestigious Spirit of Service award. However, Paul’s outstanding performance in Australia has earned him a second Spirit of Service Award.

This time Paul received the award in recognition of his tireless efforts in Australia and, more specifically, for his stellar work in the State of Perth. Perth is an extremely difficult market to deliver. Paul, with his Aussie acquired “never say die” attitude, persisted and carefully guided the last four Perth jobs to successful outcomes.

Working 13-hour days seven days a week, Paul brought the jobs in on time and under budget, and with record low complaints. Whether it’s a question about procedure, process, history, or policy – the PDC Australia Team can always count on Paul's advice, experience, and expertise.

Lesley Hall, Distribution Coordinator - PDC UK

Lesley has worked as a distribution coordinator in the York head office since 2000. Her commitment and passion to her job is outstanding. She is exceptionally loyal to the company and her colleagues, and she continually goes out of her way to ensure that everything is in place for each delivery.

In assisting the Area Manager team, her enthusiasm and understanding of the job, means that she thinks ahead, anticipating logistical issues and needs, such as in the area of haulage and book collection.

Her negotiation skills are exceptional and she has a voracious appetite to hunt out a better deal when searching for haulage, storage, sites, and distributor adverts. As a result, she has saved PDC UK thousands of dollars over the years through her hard bargaining!

Tracy Townsend, Manager of Information Systems

Along with his IS team members, Tracy worked with Ed King to establish the PDC regional office in Toronto serving the provinces of Ontario and Quebec for our client, Yellow Pages Group (YPG). Tracy had just 30 days to implement a new telephone system, telephone service PRIT1s, Internet T1, alarm system, Local Area Network, Wide Area Network access to PDC, Internet firewalls, 35 workstations, call center telephone system routing, computer backup system, and hire a local LAN Administrator.

Working with more than five vendors, he successfully cut industry standard timeframes from 45-60 days down to less than 21. To make this even more of a challenge, he had to complete all of this work in a pre-existing facility which was currently housing the previous distribution vendor and their operations.

The outstanding efforts Tracy performed provided our operations team with a sound infrastructure for future success.

Carolynne Mycock, Commercial Operations Manager - PDC UK

Carolynne was recognized as a result of her dedication and enthusiasm toward the aim of increasing new business for PDC in the UK. Carolynne has applied her wealth of knowledge of the UK delivery market into both targeting new customers and adding value to growing accounts. With the support of her colleagues, this has resulted in annual increases of new business of 18%, 34%, and 39% over the past three years.

Carolynne is always willing to share her experience and help others improve their knowledge. She has a tenacity of approach and has maintained a strong determination to continually increase our success in the ‘new business’ sector.

2008

Garry Turner, Field Supervisor - PDC UK

Garry is an all-round team player who has made significant contributions to PDC over the past 10 plus years. Garry will do anything within his capabilities to make targeted objectives. If required, Garry will work early, late, and on weekends, often of his own initiative. He has the respect of and a good rapport with all the York office admin and data prep team members that he works with. He also has an excellent working relationship with the regional office team.

On many occasions Garry has been out checking areas for a good delivery at 5:00 on the morning of a final research call then at 7:00 at night he will turn on his heels and drive in the opposite direction to deal with a complaint.

He treats the company money as if it was his own and will always try to keep costs down to a workable minimum with regard to storage, allowances, etc. Garry has often lent his hand if we are short staffed or a member of his team is ill. He’s willing to help on any aspect of the job including delivery, auditing, recruiting, and even cleaning out containers at the end of the job!

Keith Hall, Initial Operations Manager - Illinois

Since 1997 Keith has been providing PDC customers with first class service. Keith and his team have always strived to offer operations that are keenly focused on the needs and expectations of our clients. Keith and the Midwest team worked for many years on the AT&T account and have continued this high level of customer support with RH Donnelly, when they acquired the Illinois directory business from AT&T.

Keith’s successful approach can be summarized by saying that he has always believed in 100% dedication to a job well done and in meeting or exceeding the customer’s expectations, no matter the challenge. Keith has coordinated the very difficult downtown Chicago Yellow Page delivery through truck and crew operations for multi-unit buildings, exceeding door-to-door deliveries goal (an incentive target with the client) in each of the last four years.

Keith is often consulted by his peers in the Midwest region for his valuable experience and knowledge of the telephone directory distribution business. Recognizing Keith’s expertise is the ultimate compliment and testimony to his value to the organization.

2007

Dave Luckenbach, Operations Manager – Independent East

Dave brings to his position a very high level of customer service and focus, to the point that the customer has publicly complemented his efforts, on several occasions. His focus and dedication to this client goes beyond his service to the Initial Distributions.

Two situations highlighted his dedication to PDC and our clients. The first involves a competing Supplier failure to complete a delivery within the publisher’s Pub Month. The client, with one week to go prior to missing the Pub Date, called Dave to see if we could help complete this delivery. Dave, working very long hours and on the weekend, pulled together a distribution plan and executed it personally. Dave personally reloaded books from the supplier’s building into our storage trailer, because he could not come up with loaders in time. The plan was so effective that 3 days before the delivery completion, the client asked if we could handle even more work, and Dave’s team did this, and still completed the delivery before the Pub Date.

The second situation occurred when a competitor’s delivery carriers were discovered by PDC to be hiding directories in self-storage units, from a client's delivery not assigned to PDC. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, David assisted the client in the recovery of the directories and tracked down the carriers responsible.

Dave was instrumental in the ultimate recognition of superior service, that is, the renewal of our business with Yellow Book, in 2007. PDC not only managed to renew the business, but was able to grow the amount of work we do with Yellow Book by over 50%

JB Howerton, Field Supervisor – Independent West

JB provides the highest level of customer service to our client, ensures his deliveries are on time and within budget and exemplifies PDC’s highest standards.

During the past year when faced with numerous scheduling changes and a lack of trained Supervisors, JB went above and beyond by simultaneously managing multiple deliveries, while serving as the lead supervisor on major markets and is the “de facto” Coordinator when the Manager is on vacation or involved in others aspects of the region. JB never shies away from taking on the added responsibility of managing the region when asked to do so.

As the “trainer” for all newly hired supervisors, potential supervisors spend at least one delivery with JB. When they go on their own, there is no mistake they are knowledgeable of PDC Policies and Procedures; BBA procedures; and are capable of managing a delivery that is on time, on budget and represents PDC in a highly professional manner and is respected and trusted by the client.