How Sodexo Uses Parcel Tracker for Northumbria Student Accommodation

Sodexo, the global leader in food & services, began its Student Living initiative in 2016. What started as a response to university dropout rates evolved into a comprehensive global accommodation framework. Today, Student Living by Sodexo is partnered with hundreds of university campuses and private PBSAs across the globe.

One of those partnerships is with Northumbria University, where Student Living by Sodexo manages student accommodation across multiple residences in Newcastle. Sodexo's services include a broad range of facility management, campus dining, and student wellbeing programs designed to support daily life. One part of their student living operations is parcel management.

The Challenges Before Parcel Tracker

Student Living by Sodexo is one of Parcel Tracker’s longest-standing clients, with the system implemented in 2018 at Northumbria University. Before that, however, parcel management looked very different.

• Manual Processes: Parcel management required a lot of manual input. Staff relied on spreadsheets, handwritten notes, barcode systems, and physical parcel logs.
• Lack of Standardized Flow: Staff lacked a standardized workflow. Each team member had their own way of inputting and reviewing data, which resulted in increased admin work.
• Greater Risk of Human Error: Because of the lack of a standardized workflow, these manual systems created opportunities for mistakes and delays.

Parcel management required significant staff involvement at every step. Teams used spreadsheets, handwritten notes, barcode systems, and physical parcel logs to track deliveries. At one point, some sites even manually delivered parcels to student floors using paper slips.

One of the biggest issues was inconsistency.

Without a centralized platform, every staff member had slightly different methods for recording recipient information, managing collections, and tracking parcels. For a company operating across multiple accommodation sites, maintaining consistency became increasingly difficult.

The Process of Setting Up Parcel Tracker

Jack D., presently an Accommodation and Soft Services Manager at Trinity Square and Gateshead, joined Sodexo around the time that Parcel Tracker was implemented. 

The software was intuitive from the beginning, allowing staff to quickly adapt to the new workflow without lengthy onboarding sessions. If anyone encountered issues, Parcel Tracker’s support resources made troubleshooting straightforward.

Parcel Tracker also assisted Sodexo with account setup and recipient imports through CSV uploads, helping teams transition smoothly from manual systems into a fully digital workflow.

The Solution

• Improved Visibility & Security: All parcels are accounted for from arrival to collection.
• Scalability: With daily volumes of up to 200 per site, Parcel Tracker is able to adapt seamlessly.
• Efficient Standardized Workflow: Teams now have a standardized workflow for parcel management across multiple sites

Today, Parcel Tracker is deeply integrated into the day-to-day operations of Northumbria University's student accommodation team. Every resident has access to the platform, while Sodexo's frontline staff use the mobile app daily to scan parcels in and out. For Jack and his team, Parcel Tracker has become the operational standard.

One of the biggest improvements has been visibility and accountability throughout the parcel journey. Every parcel is tracked from arrival to collection using timestamps, collection history, signatures, and photo verification. This makes it significantly easier to resolve disputes while protecting both residents and staff.

Data-Driven Operational Decisions

Though Jack no longer physically handles parcels, he finds that Parcel Tracker’s analytics dashboard has become a huge asset to his role.

The analytics dashboard shows Jack information like peak delivery and collection periods, average parcel volumes, courier trends, and much more.

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Analytics help Jack make decisions around staffing hours, workflow changes, and reception operations. Additionally, he’s able to showcase this data in monthly reports shared with clients. This data helps him showcase how much work staff handle behind the scenes, especially with tens of thousands of parcels processed yearly.

Key Results

With Parcel Tracker, parcel management has become a seamless part of daily operations at Student Living by Sodexo.

Because Sodexo operates across multiple industries, including government and corporate offices on top of universities, teams regularly share best practices between contracts. These internal conversations have influenced how other Sodexo contracts think about parcel management operations.

For Jack and his team, Parcel Tracker is no longer viewed as an additional tool. It’s simply the standard.