eCourier is a courier service based in the United Kingdom. As with its predecessor, "Courier Systems", the company is notorious for retaining "deposits" deducted from the salaries of self employed, sub contracting couriers and for (quite legally) paying sub contractors levels of remuneration that are well below minimum wage.
Courier positions are tracked by GPS and an intelligent dispatch system assigns orders via GPRS, improving efficiency in a traditional industry. 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.
The company stores the historical GPS positions of its couriers, and uploads this information to OpenStreetMap. 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.
The company was founded by Tom Allason and Jay Bregman, after event tickets were lost by a motorcycle courier. The business won Allason recognition as a Growing Business Top Gun 2007 and Bregman from the British Computer Society as 2005 IT Director of the Year.
Investors in the company include Esther Dyson and Stuart Wheeler. Venture Capital firm Logispring also owned a minority stake in the company.
In 2007, the company won the Evening Standard's Most Inspirational Business award. In 2008, Allason left the company to pursue a new venture. and the following year launched Shutl. In 2009, eCourier reached 6 on Deloitte's list of UK's 50 Fastest Growing Technology Businesses. and #53 on The Sunday Times Tech Track list of Britain's fastest growing private technology companies.
From 2011 to 2012, eCourier revenues were flat, and the business was put up for sale. In 2012, eCourier was acquired by Courier Systems, the trading name of Revisecatch Limited. In 2013, eCourier (UK) Ltd changed its name to Kandysystems Ltd, and was put into voluntary liquidation.
Revisecatch Limited now uses the eCourier trading name for all of its courier business and has phased out the use of the Courier Systems name. eCourier now has one of the largest and most recognisable courier fleets in London and the South.
Video Ecourier
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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