CitySprint News

CitySprint is the UK's largest privately owned SameDay Courier business offering SameDay Courier, NextDay Courier, International Courier and Specialist Services. It operates a national network of over 30 wholly owned ServiceCentres enabling it to provide a truly local and national service to each of its customers. The company has a fleet of over 1500 vehicles comprising delivery vans, cars, motorcycles and largest pushbike fleet in Europe. It also has a number of environmentally friendly vehicle options including Smart Cars, and electric vans and bikes.

CitySprint has two sister companies, WestOne Cars and Burgundy Cars which offer passenger transport services across the UK. WestOne Cars has considerable heritage in the passenger transport business having operated in it for over 30 years and Burgundy Cars is the only chauffeur company to hold the Royal Warrant.

THE CHALLENGE
Usually drivers communicate with head office and receive job information via two-way radios.  But this has limitations.  It takes time for a controller to provide a driver with job details.  Drivers have to pull over, write down the details on paper and then check the information.  Mike Timlett, IT director at CitySprint, says, “Imagine a cycle courier on a wet Friday afternoon trying to write down the details of a complex job on soggy bit of paper.”  During 2007 CitySprint delivered over 6 million jobs so it is not unusual for each controller to be handling up to 30 drivers at a time; making a mental note of their location so they could decide which drivers were best located for each job.

CitySprint saw the introduction of technology as an opportunity to improve efficiency, accuracy and increase the level customer service as well as an opportunity to maximise its fleet.

THE SOLUTION
Although CitySprint had an existing mobile phone service provider, it chose O2 to help develop its mobile data solution.  Timlett says, “Three things were critical to CitySprint – coverage, price and customer service.  What really attracted me to O2 was the feedback I got about excellent customer service and reliability.  And this has been borne out in practice.  O2 is good value for money, its customer service is excellent and network reliability has been very good.  Usually I find telecom companies a nightmare to deal with and I’m not often effusive about any suppliers, but I’ve got to say that O2 is the exception.  I rate O2 very highly.”

The O2 solution comprises 1100 O2 Xdas and an O2 data tariff offering up to nine gigabytes per month.  It is used in combination with a job management system, CityTrak, from O2 business partner Cognito.  When a job comes into CitySprint, via phone or online, details are entered into CityTrak and then automatically sent to a driver’s O2 Xda.  The driver gets an audible alert, and when they open up the job a message is sent to controller to indicate the job has been accepted.   CitySprint offers a 20 minute courier service, making confirmation of a job’s start time very important. Each vehicle has a GPRS device which uses the O2 network to communicate with head office so vehicles can be tracked on an electronic map.  Not only do controllers know where drivers are located with real-time, pin-point accuracy, customers can also track a delivery and or book a private hire vehicle online. 

The O2 solution has significantly increased staff efficiency and productivity.  Controllers can now handle up to 45 drivers – a 50 per cent increase – because managing and issuing jobs is faster and more efficient.  Job processing time has been halved to one and half minutes because job information is delivered to drivers without the need for voice conversation.   Drivers can also do more jobs in a day which, because they are self-employed, increases their earning potential.

Customer service has also been improved.  Complete transparency is now offered to all of CitySprint’s customers. This solution, in partnership with CitySprint’s CourierLocator technology, enables each customer to view a real-time map location of the courier doing their job. Customers of WestOne Cars and Burgundy Cars also get instant text messages to their mobile phones to let them know their private hire car has arrived and detailing the vehicle type and registration; thus significantly increasing passenger safety.

Providing customers with instant information is enhanced by features such as digital sign off.  When a parcel is delivered the recipient signs for it on the Xda.  This triggers an alert which is sent to head office and the web so customers can see the delivery has been completed within seconds of its arrival.

Timlett says, “The O2 mobile data solution is now critical to the business, without it we would struggle to achieve the number of jobs we currently handle. The combination of a reliable and robust technology solution and excellent customer service, delivered by real-people, has further differentiated CitySprint as the market leader.”