news and information from Shed 5, the online logistics billboard for couriers and hauliers

24 September 2011

Five reasons to sub your overspill courier work on Shed 5

by Mike George

If you run a courier or transport business you need a good source of reliable subbies to cope with peaks in work, and collections out of your area.

Here are five good reasons why Shed 5 is the ideal place to find owner drivers and ensure you give your customers a quality service.

1. Shed 5 is fast

Shed 5 is designed to make it quick and easy to post  your work, so you can reach the right subbies in seconds:

  • Shed 5 recognises 1.8 million UK postcodes and places, and remembers your favourite places
  • save ’master tickets’ for even faster re-use of your frequent jobs
  • allocate jobs to subbies with consignment notes/PODs for them to print
  • alerts are sent using SMS text messages using a top-quality reliable third party provider

2. Shed 5 finds the right subbies

Unlike some exchanges, Shed 5 tries to control the number of alerts sent for each job so you are not swamped by too many irrelevant calls:

  • all member GIT documents are checked every year, and only members with up-to-date GIT can see your work
  • alerts are carefully targeted and sent to the members with the right size vehicles in the right places
  • Shed 5′s intelligent matching system finds suitable members even before you have finished entering the job details, so you can ring them direct

3. Shed 5 is mobile

Shed 5 has been designed to run on any PC, laptop or mobile phone with internet access. There’s no separate ‘mobile’ site and no extra charge to use Shed 5 so you can post and manage your jobs wherever you are.

4. Shed 5 doesn’t stunt your growth

Every Shed 5 account is the same - it doesn’t matter how many jobs you can post, how many vehicles you have, how many users you have, or whether you’ve got offices. So as your business grows Shed 5 keeps on giving you the same reliable low-cost service.

5. Shed 5 is cost-effective

Shed 5 has a low registration price and free membership for as long as you keep using it. Once you’ve registered you just have to log in at least once a month to keep your account active.

Find more work at Shed 5 logistics billboard for couriers and hauliers.
Reliable owner drivers wanted with vehicles from motorbikes to trucks.

10 January 2011

Tailor your alerts with Shed 5 Hotspots!

by Mike George

Do you want to keep an eye on different parts of the country and get alerts for work that’s available there?

With Shed 5 hotspots you can!

Shed 5 hotspots make it even easier to find backloads, get your work covered, keep up to date with traffic news and network with other members.

As a member of Shed 5 you can set up as many hotspots as you like, in different places around the UK. Shed 5 will let you know about any or all of these events in those areas:

* work available
* vehicles available
* traffic reports
* new Shed 5 members

You can choose to receive free email notifications or SMS text alerts to suit your requirements.

You will find more information about Shed 5 hotspots for couriers on the help page.

This is another free feature on Shed 5, the best-value courier shed.

Find more work at Shed 5 logistics billboard for couriers and hauliers.
Reliable owner drivers wanted with vehicles from motorbikes to trucks.

4 May 2010

PEBLS is learning fast!

by Mike George

Pebls, our unique Predictive Entry Behaviour Learning System, is already helping to speed up common tasks on Shed 5.

Not only does she remember each member’s most-used place names and pre-fills them on Shed 5 ‘tickets’, and remember preferences for vehicle sizes, she now searches for available vehicles while the load details are being typed in and suggests suitable matches.

So, in less time than it takes to post a load on an ordinary exchange site you could have found your subby, allocated the load and moved on to your next job!

Find more work at Shed 5 logistics billboard for couriers and hauliers.
Reliable owner drivers wanted with vehicles from motorbikes to trucks.

18 April 2010

More new features on Shed 5

by Mike George

I have added a Predictive Entry Behaviour Learning System (PEBLS) to Shed 5, to make many common tasks easier and quicker.

Pebls’ first job is to remember where members have previously been available for work and suggest place names when they start to enter a new ‘ticket’ for availability.

Pebls remembers the name, county, country, and latitude and longitude of places so the validation step can be skipped, saving time and improving accuracy, which is especially useful for busy mobile couriers.

Pebls works alongside Wilma (Web Intelligent Load Matching Assistant) to provide Shed 5 members with a simple and easy-to-use system, adding to the high level of automation which keeps Shed 5 at the bottom of the price league but at the top of the features league of courier sheds.

I have purpose-built Pebls, Wilma and all Shed 5 systems in house, using PHP, MySql, XML and Javascript/Ajax on Shed 5′s new Linux server hosted by Bytemark.

Pebls and Wilma will soon be joined by Fred (Feeback Recording with Entropic Display), a state-of-the-art reputation system to give Shed 5 members yet another top-rate feature at rock-bottom prices.

Find more work at Shed 5 logistics billboard for couriers and hauliers.
Reliable owner drivers wanted with vehicles from motorbikes to trucks.

2 April 2010

The Courier List is launched as a free service for Shed 5 members

by Mike George

Shed 5 members how have the option of a free entry on The Courier List

The Courier List is a directory of couriers and hauliers, to help the public and businesses find dependable professional transport for all their goods.

The Courier List only lists Shed 5 members, so is the only public list which checks insurance coverage to help give customers confidence their goods will be properly covered during transit.

For new or occasional users of courier and haulage services, The Courier List also has information to help them choose and use a courier service.

Find more work at Shed 5 logistics billboard for couriers and hauliers.
Reliable owner drivers wanted with vehicles from motorbikes to trucks.

Shed 5 now has HGV coverage

by Mike George

Shed 5 has been upgraded with extra features to cover the full range of vehicles from motorbikes to 44-tonne trucks.

So your favourite freight shed now includes work for 17 tonne, 38 tonne and 44 tonne lorries and you can specify a wide range of extra features such as Moffet and HIAB.

Find more work at Shed 5 logistics billboard for couriers and hauliers.
Reliable owner drivers wanted with vehicles from motorbikes to trucks.

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