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!
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 in the courier/freight exchange marketplace.
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.
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.
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 exchange 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.
by Mike George
Shed 5 courier exchange will be moving to a bigger and faster server next weekend (20 March).
Shed 5 is committed to continued improvement and enhancement to provide the best value service to its members, and the upgrade is part of the ongoing investment and development programme. The new server will enable more features to be added and service to members will be faster.
The move (from Hostroute to a Bytemark server) will take place over the weekend to minimise disruption of service, and the site will be back online and ready for action in good time for Monday 22 March.
by Mike George
Shed 5 freight exchange is aiming for 50% growth in membership in 2010.
Since launching in its current form in 2008, Shed 5 has been building up a core membership, offering extensive courier exchange features at a competitive price. We are now aiming for steady growth in membership and the volume of work traded.
The focus for Shed 5 so far has been on building up a core of loyal members and providing them with a top-quality exchange at an aggressively competitive price.
This strategy has paid off and ‘The Shed’ is now established as an essential business tool for many couriers and hauliers.
Top priority now is to build on this solid foundation, and in the coming months Shed 5 aims to bring many more couriers on board, to make our position even stronger and to enable our members to realise the full potential for increasing profits and improving service to their customers.
Around 25% of current Shed 5 members are renewals, which is high for an industry which sees large numbers of businesses failing during hard times.
With increasing numbers, existing members should see a noticeable increase in activity and new members will be joining a busier site.
by Mike George
The courier work exchange Shed 5 is a ‘nearly free’ exchange, using a unique rewards system to extend couriers’ membership every time they use the site.
By combining a reasonable membership cost with a ‘rewards’ system, we provide a service at a much lower price than our competitors but we avoid the problems associated with free and very cheap sites.
Free sites often find they attract members who are not committed and are not active. Expensive sites find their members are generally more committed but are not happy about the high price.
The price to join Shed 5 is set at a realistic level to avoid time-wasters, but members are rewarded with extra free time for things like posting loads or vans available, posting on the forum and referring new members. This means a busy courier can quite easily get two years membership for the price of one.
Combined with the Shed 5 ‘price promise’, the rewards system ensures couriers who are in the business for the long term get a serious exchange at pocket-money prices.
by Mike George
Shed 5 members now have even more control over the goods to move alerts they receive from the site, following an upgrade to the popular courier freight exchange today.
Members can choose to receive alerts by SMS texts, free GPRS messages or emails. They can set preferences for each type of job (express, sameday, non-urgent, multi-drop etc).
This new feature extends the already impressive range of controls over alerts on the site, which lets couriers tailor the way their account works to fit in with the way they work and their availability. A Shed 5 courier can now choose to get – for example – instant alerts for express and sameday work, emails for non-urgent work, and even turn off alerts completely for types of work they are not interested in.
Shed 5 exchange is a favourite with owner driver couriers because of its low cost, no-frills approach to finding and sharing work, and extra features like this are helping to consolidate its position as a valuable tool for drivers who are on the road and need quick and easy mobile access to work.