Klicka Courier



Klicka Courier, the trading name for The Business Services Group.com Ltd, is an on-line courier business established in August 2002.

Best practice in: 	Broadband
Sector:			Transport and distribution
Size of firm:		12 employees (plus between 750 - 1,000 owner drivers)
Location:			Bristol
Website:		www.klicka.com


Objectives: 

Klicka was established with the aim of becoming the first truly on-line company offering a nationwide same-day courier service to blue chip companies in the UK.  Founder and Commercial Director Richard Swinscoe saw an opportunity in the market as a result of the increase in demand for a same-day service and the higher costs being incurred to provide this level of service.  His idea was that by using appropriate technology the commercial viability of providing a same-day service could be improved.

"Our business model shows that once the technology is fully implemented we will be able to achieve a net profit margin of 15%," says Managing Director, Paul Grice.  "This is considerably higher than the national average."  Paul estimates that they are already achieving a net profit margin in the order of 10%.

Broadband is a fundamental requirement for the company to meet its objectives.  The bandwidth is necessary to deal with the volume of business that they handle and being always-on is critical in order to offer its real-time service to customers.  


Solution: 

Klicka has a BT ADSL 2mbps broadband connection.  Its servers are based at a data centre in Swindon.   Klicka currently operates from two locations in Swindon and Peterborough.  They have a Virtual Private Network that connects these locations and links to the data centre.  

The second leg in the company's technology is the use of mobile GPRS-enabled devices by each of the owner-drivers which Klicka employs to undertake the delivery side of its business. Klicka has chosen to use the XDA (a type of smartphone) provided by O2.  GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is a mobile internet connection that is "always-on".  It enables a mobile device such as a smartphone to be permanently connected to the web without being charged for the connection time.  Charges are only incurred when data is sent and received.

Orders placed by customers via the web site are automatically routed through to the drivers via their smartphones.  Software developed for Klicka enables their servers to sort the allocation of courier requests via their web site.  This software is then linked to the smartphones with mapping software and the GPRS network to locate the nearest five couriers.  The first courier to reply is given the job confirmation.  At the same time navigation details for his pick-up destination and the delivery destination are automatically given on the smartphone.  On delivery the driver obtains a signature on the smartphone from the person accepting the delivery which is transmitted directly to the Klicka web site in real-time. A copy of the signature is then emailed to the customer with delivery confirmation.


Results: 

The use of broadband combined with mobile technology therefore enables Klicka to provide a high level of service to its customers.  It also enables them to minimise their own internal administration costs through the automation of these tasks.  It avoids for example the need to contact a number of drivers to establish which is able to accept the job.  This in turn enables Klicka to provide its services to customers at a competitive price.  

The company's back-office systems are also integrated with the web site enabling the automatic generation of customer invoices etc., reducing administration costs further.  "The technology enables us to increase efficiency and reduce costs which are real benefits to our clients."

Klicka has recently been awarded a contract with Royal Mail which Paul believes is a result of the technology it is implementing.  "We will be the main partner in Royal Mail's same day delivery service.  We would not have been able to achieve this without our use of technology."


Challenges: 

One of the main challenges faced by Klicka was that initially the mobile technology in their area did not meet their full requirements.  This has now been upgraded and Klicka is currently in the process of rolling out smartphones across their operations with roll-out scheduled for completion by mid-2004.  


The last word: 

"We are a volume operation so broadband is essential.  We need to deal with thousands of jobs a day.  As well as providing same-day delivery, we also guarantee to collect parcels within 30 minutes of the order being placed.  That means that an always-on connection is essential."

Klicka's future plans include licensing the technology to other companies and also extending the service it provides to other business areas such as taxis, haulage and hotels.  "Klicka courier is the first brand.  We are looking to extend the technology to other brands now that we have proved the concept."