BLOG 5

news, information and resources for all couriers

11 June 2010

Freight exchanges? Don’t waste your money!

by Mike George

Would you pay for a mobile phone contract and never turn your phone on?

Of course not – you’d be wasting your money!

So why would you pay good money to a courier exchange site, then never use it? To get good value from your freight exchange and make it work for you, you have to ‘work’ the site and get every penny’s worth of value from your membership.

Here are my top five tips to make sure you make the most of your favourite courier work exchange site:

1. Fill in your profile
Fill in all the details about you and your business, your vans, your services, insurance, contact numbers.

2. Say hello
Say hello on the site’s forum/chat pages, let people know you are there and tell them something about yourself so they will remember you. Most of the work on exchanges sites is direct between members, and you stand a much better chance of getting courier work if other members feel they know you and can trust you.

3. Set up your alert options
Check all your options are set – so you will get the right alerts for the right type of work in the right area. If there is an option to receive SMS alerts to your mobile phone use that so you get the alerts quickly and beat the other members to the work!

4. Bid bid bid!
Keep an eye on your alerts and check the loads/GTMs page on the freight exchange, and contact the posters for every job you are interested in. If you don’t get the work you will still get to know the other members and they will remember you.

5. List your van
Most freight exchange sites have a list of “return journeys” or “vehicles available” where you can tell members you are available for work. Every time you go out on a job, post your details on the list – even if you don’t get a backload that time it will put your name in front of other members.

So when you join an exchange site you know what to do – and if you’ve already joined, do it now!

Filed under: exchanges and transport, for new couriers, the courier business
Tags: ,  ,  , 

18 April 2010

Get courier work on Shed 5 for free!

by Mike George

From now until the end of April 2010 new members can get free trial membership on Shed 5, the leading ’small’ courier exchange site that’s big on features.

New members get completely free and no-obligation use of the full site and all its features (subject to provision of GIT), and 25 free credits for SMS text alerts, so they can see for themselves how Shed 5 can help boost profits for all couriers.

Filed under: News
Tags: ,  ,  ,  ,  , 

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 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.

Filed under: Articles, News, Plans, Shed 5 Features, Shed 5 news, exchanges and transport
Tags: ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  , 

12 March 2010

Shed 5 courier exchange is upgrading

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.

Filed under: Shed 5 news
Tags: ,  , 

7 March 2010

Shed 5 plans 50 percent growth in 2010

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.

Filed under: Shed 5 news
Tags: ,  , 

The nearly-free exchange for couriers

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.

Filed under: Shed 5 news
Tags: , 

Freight exchanges: the next 10 years

by Mike George

What will happen in the wold of courier freight exchanges in the next 10 years? What will they look like in 2020? Here’s my vew…

There won’t be much visible change in 2010 – there will be a slight increase in demand for sameday dedicated work because of the upturn in the economy, and this will make the exchanges and their members a bit busier.

During 2010 there will be a few small advances in exchange technology, with mobile access being improved and better integration with other online services, and at the same time more couriers will become more comfortable using mobile technology. And a few exchange sites will work together to standardise some APIs and agree XML microformats for things like GTMs, con notes and vehicles available.

By 2011 this will pave the way for a new approach where third-party applications (including mobile phone apps) are used to interface with the back-end services provided by exchanges.

This will bring about a change in the way exchanges are used. It will be common for couriers to be members of 3 or 4 exchanges, using different services from different ones depending on their preferences to meet all their business needs. New exchange owners will wake up to the fact that they don’t need to be “the next CX”, they need to focus on keeping their members happy and finding their niche in the market. If the micro-payment providers get their act together and set realistic transaction charges it will be feasible to charge for services on a per-use basis.

After that my crystal ball is looking a bit hazy so I’m not sure how things will go, except that by 2020 the UK economy will have a bigger manufacturing base than it has now, or perhaps just a final assembly and integration specialisation, with smaller businesses and a convergence between digital/electronic technology and mechanical/engineering technology to supply a growing demand in a few growth areas in consumer products. With a healthier economy JIT will be back in fashion, combined with local storage and distribution centres (a bit like Unipart), and there will be a continuing demand for short-distance small item delivery.

But in England there will be a nationalised freight infrastructure using an improved rail network and a new smaller type of container (a Europod?) being transported by driver-less bots on purpose-built tracks alongside motorways, or in tunnels under them, with trans-shipment yards at key points around the country. The whole thing will be 99% automated under computer control and with door-to-door journey times from London to Edinburgh under 3 hours.

Freight exchanges will not be needed.

From an article originally published on the Courier World forums.

Filed under: exchanges and transport
Tags: ,  ,  , 

5 good reasons to join a small exchange

by Mike George

1. price
Not always the best reason, but worth looking at. One of the smaller exchanges could cost just 10% of a big exchange so you can be pretty sure of covering the cost, and you can afford to join a few different sites.

2. flexibility
Most small exchanges are keen to listen to their members and if you make suggestions there is a good chance they will be adopted, so you will get an exchange that suits your requirements.

3. a smaller network
On a small exchange it is easier to get to know the other members (and get yourself known) so you can quickly build up your network of trusted contacts.

4. a different network
Many members of small exchanges are not on the bigger sites, so you will make extra contacts and have access to more work by joining them.

5. more competition
If there were only one or two big exchanges there is a chance they could get complacent and take their members for granted. With more small exchanges competing for your custom, all the exchanges have to work harder to keep their members, and everybody ends up getting a better service at better prices.

From an article originally published on the Courier World forums

Filed under: exchanges and transport
Tags: , 

Powered by WordPress