R&B Logistics: How their confidence in CX helped them grow 

Overview

In 2004, after almost 20 years of being a successful multidrop driver, Roger Netherwood felt it was the right time to go out on his own and so he founded R&B Logistics.

After 5 years of operating as an owner-driver, in 2009 Roger decided it was time to take his business to the next level – and that’s when he turned to the Courier Exchange. 

Today, R&B Logistics has become a successful freight forwarder, from earning a 99.2% positive feedback rating in the app, Roger has built a thriving reputation among his customers.

Here’s how Roger did it

To stand out from the crowd and grow R&B Logistics, Roger decided to focus on building out a niche customer base.

Drawing on his passion for advocating sustainability, net zero & carbon emissions, Roger started to build up his book of engineering customers.

Before long he had customers ranging from small engineering companies right up to wind turbine blade manufacturers.

As a freight forwarder, Roger knew the key to his success would not only be promising his customers a good service – but delivering it.

Thankfully, Roger’s customers quickly came to realise “they could ring me, and I could get a vehicle to them. Anything from a bike ride up to a four-meter sprinter within an hour, sometimes sooner.  Sometimes it could be 10 minutes.”

“I always say to them, if it’s going to be any longer than that, I will let you know.” 

Incredibly, in 20 years, he’s only ever had to do that twice. That’s how ‘on it’ CX is, Roger says referring to the “good driver base”.

That’s why Roger has found the feedback feature on CX so helpful for his business.

“What I look for in a quote is obviously the first thing is feedback. Also what they put in the notes as to how soon they can be there and what vehicle size it is. It doesn’t always come down to price” 

Results

His hard work, entrepreneurial spirit and confidence in the Courier Exchange has helped him build a “very profitable and very successful business” all on his own.

In the past year, whilst posting over 800 loads, Roger has upheld over 200 positive reviews on the platform, with not a single negative review.

It’s safe to say the numbers really do speak for themselves. 

Reflecting on everything he’s accomplished, Roger attributes the success of R&B Logistics from the trust and confidence in himself and the Courier Exchange.

Conclusion

Much like Roger’s confidence in himself, his confidence in CX has allowed his business to thrive.

“If one of your customers is like, can you do HIAB work for me? And you’ve in the past said no… You see, I won’t do that. I’ll say, leave it with me…because I know what’s in CX”

Ultimately Roger says:

Overview

AK Transporters began with the Courier Exchange (CX) in May 2023. In just three months, their start-up has grown into a thriving business on CX.

Thanks to exposure to big-name logistic companies (and with the power to network their business) they’ve expanded their fleet. And they’ve made an ROI of 1054% in their short time on CX. That’s 10 times their initial investment.

Managing Director, Mohammed Khan, talks us through his business’s growth.

Approach

Starting as a small team, AK Transporters faced scaling challenges during the early stages of their business.

Mohammed explains, “As a new courier company it was very hard achieving our growth targets, reducing our cost per mile and being at the level that we would have liked.”

Joining the Exchange exposed AK Transporters to a broader client base. They built a robust network. And they got to build something they never had before: brand recognition.

Results

Remarkably, AK Transporters made their money back in less than ten days – with just a single van and two drivers.

Since then, it’s been nothing but brilliant results.

“We’re more than happy on our ROI,” Mohammed reports. “I think in the last two months, with adding CX to our operations, we’ve almost doubled our revenue whilst cutting our costs.”

AK Transporters elevated their name by collaborating with top-end logistics companies. They were soon able to invest in efficiency-enhancing tracking software to keep score of their metrics.

Conclusion

In just three months, AK Transporters have really made a name for themselves.

“The Exchange is an exceptional platform,” Mohammed states. “If you’ve got the people, willpower and are willing to spend a bit of money it’s very easy to make the money back on CX.”

Networking also played a pivotal role in AK Transporters’ success, reinforcing Mohammed’s ethos: “The more people you know, the more money you’ll make.”

“But you can’t have everything put on a plate,” he points out. “You have to put in the work. Persistency is key. So, keep bidding for jobs until you get one.”

When asked, Mohammed’s advice to new start-ups is simple. “If you want yourself to be a big courier company in the future, if you want to grow, CX is necessary.”

In just six months Mohammed and his partner Afaq have built their company from the ground up. For AK Transporters, this is just the beginning.

Overview

Red Rocket Couriers began its journey seven years ago. Back then it was just Lee delivering loads in his trusty van.

7 years later, Lee’s transformed Red Rocket into a UK-wide courier empire.

With CX’s support, Red Rocket gained a new purpose – getting drivers loads. Earning accolades along the way, and consistently generating substantial revenue year after year.

In the past year they’ve made 16 times their initial investment.

Now the managing director, Lee talks us through his success story – one job at a time.

Approach

In the early days, Lee started by using his van to find loads and expand his network. “To be honest with you,” he states, “when I first joined, I just needed the money.”

Then something shifted a few years on. And Lee began to get his friends jobs off the Exchange.

Results

Lee’s proud to report that Red Rocket ranks among the “top 10 out of 4491 courier companies that offer jobs on the Exchange – and that’s in the past year.”

This comes as no surprise. Red Rocket has collaborated with big names like the BBC, NHS, ASOS, Boohoo, and more.

Conclusion

Lee’s more than proud of how far he’s come. And we don’t blame him.

During the course of the past year, we’ve written several posts on ‘smart professionalism’. Many of you will already be familiar with the phrase, but if you’re not, it’s one that sums up our vision for the future.

While we’re very passionate about technology, we don’t believe that machines will take over. Not any time soon. Perhaps not ever. Instead, we should think about how human beings and technology can work together collaboratively to achieve greater productivity and profit.

By utilising collaborative logistics, Quickline Couriers, which started trading in 2016 from a 16 by 18-foot makeshift office, now provides over 400 customers with a 24/7 dedicated same-day delivery service. So how has this winning combination – which blends human experience and know-how with next generation technology – helped them to compete and thrive in one of the most crowded and competitive sectors in the UK?

Co-founder Andy Martin explains, “To create a successful business you have to have a niche. Before starting the company, we had spoken to a range of different-sized businesses in the north west and discovered that most had grown tired of increasing prices and poor service.”

“In particular, companies fed back to us that a lack of communication was the biggest bugbear. It meant that they were losing money every day and, in the worst-case scenario, valuable customers. We realised very quickly that if we could solve this issue by providing them with greater transparency, there was scope and a clear gap in the market to create a very successful business.”

Prior to starting their own business, Andy and his business partner Stephen Doran had already amassed a powerful network of contacts. But with only three vans, the most pressing challenge was to find a way of scaling up their fleet before they could make good on their USP. They found the answer by joining Courier Exchange, the largest freight exchange platform in the UK.

Mr Doran recalls, “Courier Exchange gave us instant access to a skilled, experienced, and most crucially, a compliant fleet of over 6,000 drivers.”

Almost overnight we could satisfy customer demand. In the space of six months, our order book quadrupled in size.

Made in the armed forces, born to be a courier. Mike Puplett, an owner driver from East Yorkshire, reveals how a career in the military helped open doors in logistics.

“Hi. I’m Mike. Some of you may know me by my trading name, ‘The Courier Guy (UK)’. If we haven’t already met, let me introduce myself. I’m an owner driver based in East Yorkshire. I run a same and next day delivery courier operation, which covers the whole of the UK.

While I’m fairly new to same-day logistics, a 20-year career in the Royal Navy and a further two decades spent in maritime search and rescue has prepared me well for my new career. In fact, you could say it’s the perfect training ground in many ways. Why? Well, in the Navy and the Coastguard, whether you’re working on your own or as part of a team – you have to be able to coordinate a coherent and effective plan of action under great pressure. Sometimes lives depend on it.

Logistics, which is closely linked to the just-in time manufacturing sector – has many parallels. Okay – I’d be exaggerating if I were to say that the pressures are as acute. But to be successful in same-day freight, I’ve had to draw on all of my 40 years’ experience of advanced planning and strategy.”

How I expanded my client base

“When I first began operating as a courier driver a couple of years ago, the big challenge was getting in front of a big client. Why would they choose you when they can give the job to someone who has been operating all of their working life?

To gain experience, I began working for a logistics company. Whilst I was happy to do the work, I had little control over my work/life balance. Some weeks the work would come in thick and fast, but there were also times when I could go a day or two without a job. As I was being paid on a job-by-job basis, no work meant no money.  I thought there must be a smarter way.

That’s when I found Courier Exchange. I’d never heard of it, and back then, I must confess that I didn’t even know what a freight exchange platform was, but I decided to look into it. I did my own in-depth research, talked to other couriers, and then called the customer services team. They provided a demo. While it seemed too good to be true, I realised that I had nothing to lose and I signed up. Two months on I haven’t been disappointed. I only wish that I’d found CX sooner.”

CX promoting sustainability

CX also ensures that I rarely travel home empty by providing me with regular return journeys. Okay – I’m not going to lie to you. Sometimes the backloads I get don’t always take me all the way home – particularly on longer trips. But, if for example I’m in London and looking to come home to Hull, it’s nearly always possible to pick up a return load to Leicester, Derby, or Nottingham and then another one to East Yorkshire. Before signing up with CX, I never got a single backload opportunity in the two years I worked there, which meant travelling back empty, wasting fuel, and letting a potential job slip away. In a small way, I also see getting a ‘backload’ as environmentally friendly. Why? Because prior to using CX, both I, and another vehicle would travel the same journey. The other vehicle would get the job, and I would drive home empty and unaware. I subscribe to the saying ‘Every little helps.’”

Stephen Nicholson, on the challenges of juggling a successful courier business and fulfilling his ambition of becoming a professional cricket umpire – and how Courier Exchange is helping him achieve his dreams and a balance.

“Hi. I’m Stephen. I’ve been working as a courier for around five years now. I run my own same-day courier business, Salix Courier Solutions, from the south coast. During the last few years I’ve grown my customer base and now serve clients not just in the south east and west of the country, but in the Midlands, the north and Scotland too.

Before I go any further, some of you reading this may be wondering how I came up with the name Salix. Well, for any curious minds out there – it’s not an abbreviation, nor is it a product or material that I transport. It’s actually the Latin name for the willow tree, which as any cricket lover will tell you is the wood that’s used to make a cricket bat.

While I don’t specialise in transporting sporting equipment or even cricketing paraphernalia, I spend much of my spare time umpiring following many years playing the game, and am currently a member of the south coast umpiring panel. I’ve been officiating now for 15 years and really enjoy the challenge of doing so in one of England’s most traditional sports. For me though, cricket is more than a sport. The tradition and history of the game coupled with the continual development and new approaches to keep it current often make it the lifeblood of many a village. It’s where people congregate on a Saturday afternoon. They do it now and they’ve been doing it for hundreds of years. It also completely contrasts with our busy working lives – where everyone is connected to everyone by mobile technology. There’s something comforting and reassuring in knowing I can escape all that for a few hours on the weekend. That’s why on a Saturday – come rain or shine – you’ll always find me officiating on a cricket pitch somewhere.”

How mobile technology powers my business

“But that’s not to say that I’m not a fan of digital connectivity. I am.  But just not when I’m officiating. After all,  it’s real-time technology that has given me the opportunity to do what I love best.

Logistics, as we all know, never stops. Serving the just-in-time manufacturing sector is a 24/7 business. It’s very hard, therefore, to find a job in same-day couriering which doesn’t require you to work weekends in the summer.

But Courier Exchange, a freight exchange platform, which uses real-time smart matching technology to find me a constant supply of loads, has solved this problem. Once you have paid your subscription, you’re free to network and trade with the 6,000 plus professionals who are also members. CX sets no minimum monthly loads quotas too. So you have the power to decide to work for who you want, where you want. In short, it means that I can still pursue the things that I’m passionate about in my spare time. But more importantly, CX has given me the confidence to strike out alone and build a successful same-day courier business.”

How CX has helped my business

I joined CX in November 2017. During that time I’ve developed my business using CX. I use CX to build loads. On average, I get around 15 loads from CX each week. I’d like to tell you that my previous career as a sales manager has given me an edge over many of my rivals. After all, you’d think that a role that schooled me in advanced communication and negotiation skills, would give me a natural advantage. It hasn’t. The truth is that the Exchange’s technology is so effective that anyone using it only needs to know the answer to one question which is: “What’s the cost you are prepared to do a job for?”

Industry-leading features

“I use several features on a regular basis, but for me, the best one is the ‘view on map’ feature because it provides me with all the information I need in real-time. It’s really handy when you’re close to delivering your current job. My aim, like every other driver, is to seamlessly pick up the next load without waiting. The ‘view on map’ makes this exceptionally easy. It tells me where I am in relation to a load match, how long it will take to arrive there, the number of miles from pick-up to drop-off, and how long the assignment will take to complete. This gives me all the intel I need to make an informed decision as to whether it’s a job worth quoting on. If it is, then I submit a quote for the job using either the ‘Quote Now’ facility or by phoning the customer directly. The final stage of the process is to cross my fingers and hope that my bid is successful.

David McBride speaks to Courier Exchange about how ‘thinking out of the box’ in terms of asset utilisation is key for expanding freight forwarding operations.

What makes a successful freight forwarder?

It’s the ability to constantly deliver a high standard of service to a diverse customer base. But in today’s fast-paced world – one where just-in-time manufacturing dominates – a mark of success is how quickly a forwarder can fulfil the needs of its clients. But if, as is the case for U-TRAK Logistics, most of your customers serve ‘rapid response’ industries – such as aviation, automotive, agriculture and healthcare – then arguably the challenges are far greater.

U-TRAK Logistics is not only meeting expectations, but it’s also exceeding them. In the last two years, it has increased its turnover by 80%. So how has this Coventry-based freight forwarder, which provides time-critical same-day delivery services throughout the UK and mainland Europe, managed to stay ahead of the curve?

U-TRAK’s Business Development Manager, David McBride, explains, “To be a successful freight forwarder, you need to provide a joined-up service. Therefore, it’s vitally important to understand each client, the complex supply chains that they work in, and the markets that their customers serve too. Take our agricultural business for instance. We’re often called out in the middle of the night in the height of summer to deliver a spare part for a tractor or a combine harvester. Our Agricultural Logistics Delivery Service is designed to be fast, far-reaching and flexible. But we can only provide this service by sourcing the correct vehicle for the job. And this would be virtually impossible if we didn’t have an in-depth understanding of the internal mechanics of a tractor or all the other different varieties of farm machinery.”

Technology: an enabler

But Mr McBride, who joined U-TRAK five years ago, also recognises the role that technology has played in boosting his business, which employs 15 members of staff, and has a private fleet of 10 vehicles.

He explains, “In our line of work it’s crucial that we get the most out of our assets. And while we’ve got quite a diverse fleet – which ranges from 2 tonne small vans to 3.5 tonne Luton box vans – it’s simply not large and varied enough to cater for the specialist needs of our clients 24/7, 365 days a year. Therefore, whenever our client calls us, we make use of the thousands of member businesses who belong to Courier Exchange and Haulage Exchange’s 50,000-strong virtual fleet. In this respect, being a member of the Exchange has proved incredibly effective. In fact, I’d go as far to say that we absolutely rely on both CX and HX for jobs which need to be turned around within an hour.”

McBride believes that having CX as a partner has helped every part of their business grow. Take the farming sector, for example, and the agricultural logistics companies U-TRAK serves.

He explains, “The challenge for our clients is to get spare machinery parts to farms as quickly as possible. It’s a race against time because any instance of machine downtime can have a major impact on productivity – especially in the harvesting season. If we didn’t have CX to call upon, it would be extremely difficult to serve our clients.”

Why U-Trak’s partnership with CX is vital

So how does CX help? Mr McBride explains, “CX helps us in three ways. Firstly, by posting a load on the system, we can always get a vehicle from a reputable company to pick up the part within 40 minutes to an hour.

“Secondly, by using CX, we can get the right sized vehicle for the job. The Exchange has such a diverse fleet that we’re able to source five tonne trucks – which is a very rare vehicle spec because of its 5-metre length frame that’s perfect for transporting entire tractor engines, or to combine harvester parts.”

CX: a platform for all industries

But it’s not just U-TRAK’s agricultural business that has benefited. Mr McBride also says that the automotive, aviation and healthcare divisions – all of which require rapid response courier services – “have profited”.

Says McBride, “Our largest contracts are tied to the aviation and automotive sectors, which are interconnected. Often it’s automotive parts which are being transported on planes from the UK, Europe or further afield to Britain’s largest automotive factories – many of which are a stone’s throw away from our HQ. To satisfy our clients, we need to be able to deliver to – or collect from – every large airport in the UK in an hour. But that would be impossible without the Exchange. How for example, could we, a Coventry-based fleet, get one of our vans to Glasgow in 30 minutes? It would be impossible. But with the Exchange, we can assign the job to a trusted local subcontractor trained and certified for airside deliveries. That’s a big difference.”

And McBride says that “the same principle applies to the healthcare sector”. “Okay,” he concedes, “unlike agricultural logistics, we don’t require a specialist vehicle. A conventional one will do. But we rely on the Exchange to provide us with experienced and compliant drivers, who use integrated telematics – a system which synchronises the Exchange’s technology with the driver’s telematics system. This means that we can track the consignment in real-time which – given the fact that the goods could be life-saving machines, spare parts or even medical drugs – is absolutely crucial.”

Terry Price had spent years of his life working in the transport sector, but he wanted more from his career. As soon as he was introduced to the Courier Exchange network, things changed for the better and his business began to blossom.

“I’ve been in logistics for almost 20 years now. It’s all I’ve ever known and all I’ve ever wanted to do. Like many people, I started at the bottom. When I was 22 I joined TNT as a traffic clerk. The money wasn’t great, but what I gained in experience certainly made up for it. From there, I got my Category B Licence and started driving refrigerated 7.5 tonne lorries over a range of distances from multi-drops to long distance deliveries.

After working my way up to supervisor and manager, I left TNT, ran a bus depot for a while which really tested my planning skills, before taking a job with Kuehne + Nagel (K+N). I’d always wanted to work for a global transport company and at the time I thought K+N would be a good fit for me. In the beginning they were. They knew I loved time behind the wheel so they fixed it so I could combine driving with line managing duties.

However, after a few years, I got itchy feet. It got to a point where I’d felt that I learned as much I possibly could from the large logistics businesses that I’d been with for the last two decades. I really wanted to start my own business. But I realised very quickly that I didn’t have a dedicated customer base to make it work.

And then I met Phil and everything changed. Phil was a work colleague at K+N. He told me how he ran a small freight operation as a side-line. He had three vans and employed three drivers. One van he said serviced a contract with a large contractor, but it was how he put the other two to work that most interested me.

They were always at full capacity but weren’t tied to a dedicated haulier or courier company. “How do you always ensure that all your vans are fully loaded,” I asked him one day. He pulled out his phone and showed me his screen. It was showing the Courier Exchange app. He told me that CX almost guaranteed that his vans were at full capacity – even when they were returning home to base.

I thought it was too good to be true and so I did my own research. It seemed to corroborate what he’d said. I still had my doubts of course, but after talking to my wife I decided to take the plunge and leave K+N. So in November last year I bought a Ford Transit LWB van and started my own business, which I named Purpleline Couriers.

As an owner driver specialising in same day deliveries in the B2B sector, I’d won a bulk delivery contract with a multinational eCommerce company which I’d prioritised as my main source of work. The plan was to only use CX only in a limited capacity for backloads when returning home to Halifax.

However, as so often happens in life, things don’t run the way you quite expect. The contract with the eRetailer sadly didn’t deliver the regular work that I was hoping it would. But, on the other hand, the more I used Courier Exchange, the more I discovered that it wasn’t just a platform for backloads. I found it to be a consistent source of hotshot loads – so much so that after my first month, I realised that I could rely on the platform for my entire living.

So how does an average day shape up? Well, I’ll use the platform’s smart matching technology to find a load the night before the delivery’s due. I’ll then spend the evening with my family before setting off at around four o’clock in the morning. The pallets are usually with the customer before the rush hour has started and at 9 am I’ll then look for another load to take me home, or as close to Halifax as I can get.

It doesn’t always work out of course, but when it does it’s very satisfying. Last week, for example, I picked up in Preston, dropped off in Cambridge four hours later and then won a backload to Brighouse, which is just five miles from my house. I was back at home by lunchtime to walk the dog.

While the Exchange has helped me work on my terms, I can also say that it’s a great consolidation tool. At first, however, I had my doubts and so being a bit of whizz at Excel I decided to put it to the test. Therefore, I built a spreadsheet which logged my daily mileage, my diesel costs, my closing mileage, and my profitable mileage. From there I was able to accurately monitor my efficiency, and the results so far – albeit over a short period of time – have been quite astonishing.

For example, before I signed up to the Exchange, due to not being able to find backloads, I calculated that my inefficiency levels were close to 60 percent. After just a week on the Exchange, however, I managed to reduce them to 36 percent, and then a week later I cut them to 32 percent. And for the last few weeks, I’m running empty only 26 percent of the time.

As I expand the business, it ought to be possible to further cut dead mileage, especially if my wife comes on board to work on transport planning. When this happens, it will, I believe, generate many more loads. Finally, with profits up by 30% we’re a planning to buy another van, as well as make more use of the Exchange’s virtual fleet when we’re tied up on jobs ourselves.”

It’s a fine balance and one that few couriers achieve. How do you grow your business, yet remain faithful to your roots? It’s a question that Kevin Evans, owner of Avantee Logistics, pondered for a long time until he found the solution by signing up with CX, one of the UK’s leading collaborative logistics platforms.

How can you grow your business, while remaining faithful to your roots? It’s a question that Kevin Evans, the owner of Avantee Logistics, thought about for a long time, until he found the solution by signing up to Courier Exchange, one of the UK’s leading collaborative logistics platforms. Kevin founded Avantee Logistics, a same day courier service with headquarters in Tunbridge Wells and Reading, 5 years ago.

“We worked hard to build up a large and profitable customer base in Kent and Berkshire. Many of our clients are large logistics companies or manufacturers that are locally based, but operate throughout the whole of the UK and Europe. Like any ambitious logistics company, we wanted to forge closer links with them, but with a small fleet we realised that on our own, we didn’t have the agility or scale to provide national delivery capability to them at such short notice – unless we could find a recognised freight partner organisation to help.”

A game changer

Evans, who has worked in the same day courier sector for thirty five years, believed that the solution lay in collaborative logistics. It was then that he turned to CX.

He explains, “I had known about CX for a long time and decided to join. The technology is fairly intuitive, and it began to make a real difference to the business after just four months. Looking back, signing up to CX is probably one of the best decisions that we’ve ever made. Why? Because CX’s virtual fleet allows us to utilise the vast skillset of around 43,000 skilled drivers, meaning that we can take on jobs anywhere in the UK, and usually have them covered in around 60 minutes.”

Increased revenue stream

With Avantee Logistics primarily using CX to post loads, in percentage terms, how much does Evans think CX has added to the company’s annual revenue?

“99 percent of the time we use CX’s Live Availability Map (LAM) system to check the status of drivers in our network, and to post loads. We estimate that we earn between 15,000 to 20,000 pounds each month subcontracting work through the Exchange to its compliant freelance pool of drivers. And we would say the work we subcontract via the platform adds around 70 percent to our annual turnover.

Winning new clients

Has access to the CX virtual fleet also helped Avantee win new business?

“While I cannot say that CX is solely responsible for winning us new customers, it’s certainly played a part in winning new contracts. It’s made our business pitches to prospective clients much more compelling, because we’re able to tell them that we’re able to tap into a compliant virtual and mixed fleet at any time. That, I think, has added an extra dimension to our service offering.”

A communication enhancer

Kevin, who believes that “regular and pro-active communication between operator and customer” is the cornerstone of any successful logistics business, is convinced that the pioneering new technology developed by CX can play a key role in ensuring the client receives regular updates.

He says, “CX, has made this much easier for both us and the drivers that we subcontract. Why? Because if the driver activates the ‘on my way to pick up’ button, it means that the driver, the despatch manager at Avantee and the customer can all track the vehicle’s real-time position on the LAM. This means that nobody has to waste their time phoning the driver to find out where he is, which improves communication and efficiency.”