Business Post launches its own drop-box system

In what could turn out to be a landmark development, Business Post has started marketing its own drop-box system for unattended deliveries. The company is thought to be the first mainstream UK parcels carrier to have taken this step, although others such as Royal Mail have experimented with box systems of various kinds, and Hays had its own extensive network of box banks for deliveries to field staff (it was later sold to ByBox).

The Business Post system is based round the Canadian-developed eBox range, for which the company has become the exclusive UK distributor. eBox consists of individual boxes (they come in three sizes), which are placed directly outside the recipient’s business or home.

This approach harks back to the early doctom period, when a variety of drop-box systems or "pods" appeared on the market, and contrasts with more recent developments, which have tended to favour banks of boxes installed at public pickup points.

Project coordinator Steve Hayward points out: "Box banks work in some situations, and we have every respect for the suppliers, but many people simply don’t want to travel to collect their goods. They want them delivered literally to the door."

eBox differs however from the early generation of "smart" boxes in that the units have no inbuilt intelligence or communications capability, so they need no external power source. Nor do they need installation; they are free-standing. However, despite being made primarily from relatively light rotation-moulded recycled plastics, they should resist casual theft, since on placement they are ballasted with up to 60kg of concrete, which is inserted into a hidden underfloor compartment.

While lacking computing capability, the boxes do have a secret technological weapon – an embedded RFID (radio frequency identification) tag, which interacts with a reader carried by the delivery driver or recipient, and authorises access. Inside, the box is identified with a simple built-in barcode – evocative of the system introduced on the Hippo Box range last year – which can be scanned by the driver to confirm that a delivery has been made.

"Early drop-boxes were over-engineered," Steve Hayward believes. "Since parcel delivery drivers nowadays carry scanners and use real-time communication systems, they can get delivery confirmation on the web in minutes without the need for any intelligence in the boxes themselves. They can even have email or text alerts."

There are three sizes of eBox. The biggest is 84cm wide, 71cm high and 70cm wide, the smallest 60cm by 74cm by 33cm.

Business Post is targeting both business and consumer markets with the eBox, although business users are initially seen as the prime potential users. Field service, parts delivery, internal company document transfers and existing "in-night" and "in-boot" deliveries are all seen as suitable applications. The business model is to market the system to the commercial client, which in a closed-loop operation might be both despatcher and recipient. Hayward says the price per box can be as little as £5 per week.

Home deliveries are also definitely on the horizon, Hayward says, adding that the company is now entering discussions with various major retailers about possible implementation strategies. Homeserve is understood to be one of the company’s fastest-growing divisions.

The company certainly seems serious about the product. Hayward says the project has been undergoing development and live trials for over a year, and emphasises that the system has been integrated fully into Business Post’s document flow processes. "An eBox delivery is flagged up in manifests, labels, run sheets, everywhere in the system."

eBox is produced by Canadian-based Visible Assets Inc, which markets a range of logistics products including asset-tracking systems. In its own country it also offers its own time-critical express delivery service.