Ecourier

Type Private
Industry Logistics
Genre Corporate Histories
Founded London, UK (2003 (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]

References

  1. ^ Michael Trick's Operations Research Blog, 23 June 2006, http://mat.tepper.cmu.edu/blog/?p=81. Michael Trick is a Professor of Operations Research at Carnegie Mellon. See also articles from The Economist and Financial Times.
  2. ^ Real-Time Fleet Management At Ecourier Ltd http://www.springerlink.com/content/v41525296n068264/
  3. ^ Partners - Open Street Map http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Partners
  4. ^ eCourier Location API http://api.ecourier.co.uk/
  5. ^ Moules, Jonathan: Couriers Have High-Speed Connection, Financial Times, 18 March 2006
  6. ^ Award http://www.growingbusiness.co.uk/06959143451303647930/young-guns-2007.html
  7. ^ BT Business Club Entrepreneur Profile- Autumn 2006- Tom Allason http://businessclub.bt.com/talking-business/002-talking-business-autumn-2006/entrepreneur-tom-allason.php
  8. ^ Medallists of the Individual Excellence Awards 2005
  9. ^ "eCourier - Parcel Delivery in Color" Alarm Clock, 18 October 2006, available at http://www.thealarmclock.com/euro/archives/2006/10/ecourier_parcel_deli.html
  10. ^ "The Winner: eCourier", Evening Standard, 2007 http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/itsyourbusiness/article-23383010-details/The+winner:+eCourier/article.do
  11. ^ "Winners List 2009", Deloitte, 2009
  12. ^ "Britain's fastest-growing private technology companies", Sunday Times, 2009 [1]