Traditional delivery model struggles at Olympic hurdle

The weaknesses of the traditional delivery model will be exposed during the Olympics as extra costs are passed onto customers who happen to be located in the wrong postcodes, an industry figure has warned.

Stuart Miller, Chief Executive and co-founder of ByBox warned that traditional carriers are struggling to meet the Olympic challenge of working around onerous traffic restrictions without passing on extra costs to customers.

Many roads around Olympic venues in London will be closed during the day, with massive ramifications for day-time deliveries in many postcodes. “Companies which through no fault of their own are situated in areas affected by the road closures will find themselves paying surcharges for deliveries as carriers are bound to incur extra costs,” said Mr Miller.

“The Olympics presents an almost insuperable hurdle for carriers who traditionally deliver during the day as those are the times the roads will be closed. Some routes will be impossible and others very restricted.

“They will have to change rosters, put on extra vans and take on extra staff in order to make the most of the times when the roads are actually open during the day – and all that comes at a considerable cost.

“Customers will soon be asking if there is not a better way to receive their deliveries – and there is. Here at ByBox we have always believed the traditional model of delivery has its limitations  - the Olympics is really going to show these up.

“We are anticipating a surge of interest from new customers in our drop box solutions that will side-step many of the difficulties presented by this summer’s pinnacle of sporting excellence for day-to-day deliveries.”

ByBox’ innovative approach is to deliver overnight, 365 days a year, including Bank Holidays, to an expanding network of more than 18,000 drop boxes at 1,400 locations in the UK, ready for collection by 8am the next day.

This approach has proved so popular that in the space of 12 years ByBox has captured most of the field services market, with a roll call of blue-chip customers including Coca Cola, Fujitsu and Konica Minolta.

Operating 365 days a year, including all Bank Holidays, ByBox is reliable and secure, achieving an impressive 99.77% pre 8am delivery rate.

Mr Miller commented: “While the Olympic Games are very exciting and a huge coup for the UK, they are undoubtedly going to interrupt everyday life in London and other host cities.

“ByBox gives people a shortcut for Olympic deliveries. At a time when many companies will be busier than ever before, ByBox will help ensure that vital parts will get to them in time.

“Engineers won’t have to waste time waiting for urgent spares – as ByBox will deliver before the start of the day’s work, freeing engineers up to concentrate on what they do best.

“As we routinely deliver through the night already, we won’t have to make such major adjustments as the traditional carriers will. In any event, we have been planning for the Olympics for months to make sure we have a winning formula.”

Among its careful preparations ByBox is planning to double the number of vans on some routes and bring forward the collection times of goods from some of its customers whose premises are in the affected areas.

It is also aiming to avoid some of the collection problems by holding stock for these customers at ByBox’ network of Forward Stock Locations outside London. Deliveries to the ByBox dropboxes within the Olympic disruption route will be at earlier times of the night than usual to avoid difficulties with early road closures.

Founded in 2000, ByBox has rapidly grown to become a £44 million company, winning a host of awards along the way, including being listed in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 and Sunday Times International Track 100.