The last few weeks I have exchanged messages with Robert Matthams from Shiply.com and he has agreed to answer a few of my questions and tell us more about shiply.com and how it came about.

Introducing Robert….

I am a business graduate from The University of Manchester and first had the idea whilst back in my student days.  I was having a pool table delivered to me and whilst the driver was offloading it, I got chatting and learned that he was travelling back to London empty.  Looking into the issue more, I learnt that 25% of lorries on Britain’s roads run empty.  Seeing the huge environmental issue, I set about creating a solution.  Shiply has been live since June 2008.

And the Business…

Shiply.com  aims to provide a secure, objective and trustworthy marketplace.  Our aim is to reduce the number of wasted trips we see every day on Britain’s roads.  We offer couriers a quick, easy and barrier-free way to source work for routes they are already travelling and the return or “backloads”

Shiply’s customers….

Generally, the types of consumers that use Shiply are those that are pretty comfortable with using the internet or “web-savvy”.  People who like to use eBay, facebook and such like.  We have kept things nice and simple with Shiply, so it should cater to all markets.  In terms of goods moved, we have seen literally anything and everything listed in the marketplace.  There are a great deal of eBay items, furniture, fragile goods and office equipment that need delivering.  Car Transport and other vehicle transport is also proving very popular.  There are also larger more commercial loads including pallets and full truckloads of goods.  Businesses customers are becoming more and more interested in how Shiply can help them.

In terms of the other side of the marketplace, our transport providers, we see a huge array of different types of companies.  Everything from one man and his van right up to international haulage firms operating hundreds of vehicles.  Unlike a traditional “freight exchange” we don’t charge our transport providers a sign up fee or monthly subscription, instead we only charge a commission on jobs they actually secure.  This win-win proposition is proving very popular, especially given the economic climate where we all need to keep our overheads to an absolute minimum.

Whats the key competancies that make shiply.com different?

Our core competencies are technology-based, we are not couriers or haulage companies, none of us here have a background in the industry.  I feel this has actually worked well for us, it allowed us to take an objective view looking into the industry and through our market research, talking to hauliers and acting on their feedback I feel we have created something of real benefit to the industry as a whole.
We’ve created innovative search algorithms for finding shipment along routes and an entirely web-based transport marketplace which is very effective.  This is where our key competencies lie.

We live in challenging times now…

Biggest Challenges – From a personal perspective I spent about 8 months with no salary whatsoever when starting Shiply, money was tight and combine that with 12-14 hour work days 6 days a week and naturally you start to feel down.  Happily things are moving forward now, hard work does pay off, it just takes a lot of it!

Collaboration?

I’d have to say a transport company who helped us in the early days, was one of our best collaborations. We could throw ideas at them and they would get back to us with quick and helpful responses.

And the future? what’s on the horizon?

We’ve got a new search engine coming out which will make finding shipments easier for the service providers, it has some really neat tools. We’re also looking to accept contract work, whereby we can match businesses up with hauliers for ongoing work rather than simply one-off shipments. There are lots more, but you will have to wait and see for those…

Thanks Robert, much appreciated  – it’s a fascinating insight into a modern, greener business.

Sarah