E-Gistics: Digital freight is destined to become more like other areas of the transport sector
Road and air freight distribution specialist, E-Gistics Ltd, is celebrating a £131,000 cash injection after its new online distribution platform for vendors and independent hauliers earned it a valuable government tax incentive.
E-Gistics Ltd has built a digital platform to seamlessly network smaller, independent distribution companies together to lower costs and increase efficiencies for themselves and customers.
The platform met all the tests to qualify as research and development (R&D) under the UK Government’s R&D tax credit scheme. This rewards firms with either a reduction in their limited company’s corporation tax bill or a cash lump sum for any work that seeks to resolve a scientific or technological uncertainty, whether that’s a new process, product or service.
E-Gistics spotted an opportunity to offer independent hauliers, pallet members and forwarders the chance to digitise the way deliveries carried out by combinations of independent firms can be priced and booked online, instead of relying on emails and phone calls.
Fraser Harper, CEO of E-Gistics Ltd, said: “The freight forwarding sector has a digitisation requirement but some companies have been unsure how to go about it.
“In the end, it was probably inevitable that a third party software specialist would bring them all together and that’s what we’ve done.
“Digital freight is destined to become more like other areas of the transport sector where automation and digitisation have turned things on their head. Uber in the personal transport space is a prime example.
“We knew we were investing heavily in technology and tax incentives like these make it so much easier to continue to do that. The Government was clever to introduce this scheme. It encourages businesses to invest in technology and if companies don’t embrace digital, they don’t have a great future ahead of them.”
Richard Armstrong, Partnerships Director of specialist R&D tax consultancy Catax, commented:
“Fraser and the team are a great example of a SME that is using the R&D tax credit regime to support the future growth of their business.
“Technology is at the heart of what they do and their innovations promise to revolutionise the way the parcel delivery sector functions, not just in the UK but across Europe.
“It’s important to remember that R&D tax credits still apply to projects that don’t succeed. There really is no good reason not to innovate with such valuable incentives on the table.”
