Type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Logistics |
Genre | Corporate Histories |
Founded | London, UK (2003 ) |
Founder(s) | Jay Bregman, Tom Allason |
Headquarters | London |
Services | Same day courier services |
Employees | 230 |
Website | ecourier.co.uk |
References: Number of employees includes self-employed sub-contractor drivers |
eCourier is a UK courier service.
Courier positions are tracked by GPS and an intelligent despatch system assigns orders via GPRS, improving efficiency in a traditional industry.[1] A computer algorithm distributes orders to couriers in real time based on location, traffic, weather, and demand. The algorithm was developed by a team of academics in Italy.[2] The company warehouses the historical GPS positions of its couriers, and donates this information to OpenStreetMap, an open source project with the aim of producing a royalty-free GIS suite.[3] This information is also offered to the public via an API under a Creative Commons license. As of October 2008, their data set included over 252 million historical positions.[4]
The company was founded by Jay Bregman and Tom Allason after event tickets were lost by a motorcycle courier.[5] The business won Allason recognition as a Growing Business Top Gun 2007[6] and from the BT Business Club;[7] Bregman from the British Computer Society as 2005 IT Director of the Year.[8]
Investors in the company include Esther Dyson and Stuart Wheeler. Venture Capital firm Logispring also owns a minority stake in the company.[9]
In 2007 the company won the Evening Standard’s Most Inspirational Business award.[10]
In 2009 eCourier reached 6 on Deloitte’s list of UK’s 50 fastest growing technology businesses.[11] and 53 on the Sunday Times Tech Track list of Britain's fastest-growing private technology companies.[12]