Renee Turns 40
Renee Howison is DSE Transport’s Customer Service Manager and also the company’s longest serving employee.
When DSE was first established, Renee was turning a mere 10 years old.
And this month, Renee TURNED the BIG 4-0!
We thought we’d share a brief history about how Renee’s journey at DSE unfolded.
Renee’s early life at DSE
Back in the day, Renee would walk to the roundabout down from her high school to meet staff from the NSW office in Arndell Park, going to work for a few hours until her mum and dad were ready to go home.
From this moment on, Renee started her paid employment with DSE.
We will tell you on the down low that Renee and Daniel (Ryan’s older siblings) both helped count books and apply stickers to books when they were as young as 11 and 9 years old.
Her early adventures were all admin related – data entry, collating invoices, making a tonne of photocopies of consignment notes and – of course – using a fax machine! (Remember them?)
Renee grows with the company.
As the years moved on, Renee’s role changed a lot.
Renee was always kept moving within the business; running the administration, the telemarketing, running her own franchise within DSE, taking over branches within different states and overseeing the management of major accounts nationally.
It would be very safe to say that Renee has dabbled in (nearly) every single section of DSE Transport. Renee will be the first to tell you that she never received her manual driver’s licence or forklift ticket, as she would have been encouraged to pitch in with driving or warehousing if she did.
Renee takes on DSE’s longest serving client.
In the early 2000’s, the DSE office was being run out of Dural, New South Wales.
Around this time, Renee inherited an existing customer, “Sebel Furniture”. Renee was required to operationally manage their fleet, oversee all deliveries being completed across the Eastern Seaboard, complete and check all their billing, on top of recruiting, settle any issues with the customer and or the driver and ensure Sebel Furniture’s customers were happy with their deliveries.
Renee managed to do all of this, on top of overseeing administration nationally.
Over the years, Sebel Furniture had transport issues with their carriers in Western Australia and South Australia. Given their strong relationship, they reached out to Renee to see if DSE Transport would be interested in starting new offices within these states. Within a few months Renee sent her mum and dad to Western Australia to set up the office, while her and her siblings remained in New South Wales, keeping the rest of the country up and running.
It is thanks to the relationship between Renee, DSE and Sebel Furniture that DSE Transport was established in Perth and Adelaide, which has played a huge role in our growth as a business.
Renee’s relationship with Sebel Furniture transforms DSE entirely.
In 2010, the Federal Government announced the start of the BER project.
Renee, alongside Sebel Furniture, had to grow extraordinarily overnight. Our two-teamed vehicles had to grow from 9 trucks a day to close to 30.
Renee was able to contact past drivers of DSE Transport and encourage them to return, showing DSE again how remarkable this woman could be.
Last month as Renee was visiting Sebel Furniture – something she has done for over 20 years, she realised although the goal is the same, to supply a good driver/team(s) to the customer – the industry, the IT development and every part of the experience has changed.
Thank you, Sebel Furniture, for putting your continual support in DSE Transport.
2024. What a year!
Renee’s 40th birthday,
Over 25 years of Sebel Furniture and DSE working together,
And DSE Transport’s 30th birthday,
All make this a year to remember.
Happy birthday Renee!