History

A short History of the Sameday Courier Service by Carl Lomas & Tracey Worth

The leading early writer of the Road Transport Industry is Charles Dunbar. His book covers the history from 1919 – 1939. Whilst a respected source his work is far from current and certainly long before the Institute of Couriers. He covers reasons for the start of transporting goods and the development of steam engines and internal combustion. He highlights the Royal Commission on Transport in 1928, 1930 and 1933. The earliest mention of sameday or even the use of small vehicles comes in 1934 with the co-ordination of the Hutchinson’s transport service, Red Arrow Deliveries. A new approach of rapid extension of interworking between parcel carriers is covered. Trade unions, war, innovation of tires and the new engines have moved the transport industry forward. Dunbar closes his work in 1939. In 1943 one of the most famous motorcyclists of all time, six times world champion Geoff Duke became an army dispatch rider. 62 years later he was to be the guest of honour at the tenth National Courier Awards in 2005. Some of the very earliest modern companies, GLH, Mercury & West One would all be present.

There is still a long gap to the modern same day courier industry. This time has not been document as a history but is covered in various writings. The History of a Company. By Securicor in 1998 is one such book. The Complete guide to Dispatch riding by Carl Lomas, another To this end a broad history of the courier industries beginnings is below.:-

Late - Mid 60’s the beginnings of the modern courier industry.

The job of a courier in the sixties was to collect and deliver a clients package before returning to the courier base. In almost every circumstance the point of the activity was security. Urgency was not an issue. Accountability of collection and deliveries that were signed for was everything. Typical early couriers would work for banks, MOD or government. The delivery of a parcel by courier was uncommon and brought a high level of prestige to its arrival.

In mid 1965 the birth of the modern same day market probably began with a fleet of Ford Vans. As the 1960’s unfolded Keith Erskine saw opportunity to support the growing use of computer. Punch card and paper tape machines were producing a great deal of paper for payrolls and banking, Erskine led Securicor to launch that fleet of Ford vans, it was called ‘Data Transit’ the vans were driven by young women in air hostess style uniforms. Erskine never guessed the importance the new service would bring, it would make Securicor a household name in the courier industry.

One of the earliest companies traced on two wheels is ‘Scooter Messengers’ run by Doug Sissons out of a small office in Soho Square in 1969. This was the same year GLH was set up by Cyril Wilds but he had been involved in the minicab world since the 1920s. Todays owner of GLH, John Scot remembered the post war days when a Spitfire was parked on the lawn of what is todays car park. Pony Express was another company of the day.

The 70’s Communications – the most key issue of the same day urgent courier.

In the late 60’s security remained the key issue to the provision of the service. There was very poor use of a couriers time. It was an expensive business. A courier would contact courier control from a client’s phone or a phone box in the street, remember the pips? This was not a very professional image to the client. The weakness in this system was one way communication from rider to courier control office. Communication was in no way real time. Real time meaning an event is happening. If a problem arose, the courier company could not contact the courier half way through a journey. The communication systems that were to come would change the face of the same day industry. There was to be a shift of service provision from the delivery of secure items to the delivery of urgent packages. Today over 90% of the clients use of a courier is based on 'time sensitive work'. Radio communication revolutionized the possibility of couriers in the early 70s.

First there would be bleepers, pagers and then message pagers. Early mobile radios were expensive but made urgent delivery possible. With mobile radio a courier could be tracked, located and directed towards the next urgent job. Secure work would continue but a whole new direction for the industry had become possible.

Early radio based couriers were controlled on Open Call systems. Open call had been developed by the mini cab industry. In the early 70s minicabs were well established. Radio systems had come to cars earlier. In a car it had been possible to fit much larger radios with a thirsty need of electrical power and a strong metallic base. Pye Tait and the pale blue box of the Westminster were common place.

The method to control a number of cars by an office-based controller was to call jobs by location. Using radio, job locations would be called out as the telephonists took them from clients. A system of first, second or third call would be used. The first call would be for a driver very close to the job. The second and third for a driver further away. The driver knowing their own location would call back for the job. This was an effective system for getting the closest drivers to urgent jobs. A driver may have occasionally cheated, false called their own position. They would soon lose favour with colleagues and be disciplined. The strength of this system was the promptness of arrival to an urgent job. The downside was human error. The drivers may not have good street knowledge. They could be close to a client but not know it. The driver could cheat, lie about where they where to get best jobs. Either of these issues would cause service problems to the client and the courier company. Even so ‘open call’ was well respected and often used for bikes in the early days. Bikes would find themselves sharing a radio channel with the cars.

Mr Sammy Rose was a mini cab driver of the time operating on just such a circuit. In 1972 he began Mercury Dispatch from an office in Glenthorne Road W6 with a small fleet of Suzukis in bright orange livery. The bikes came first but with growth orange vans would arrive and a new office found in Maida Vale. It was around this time Phil Booker launched Vanguard express, his son Adam would be around to bag the Red Star contract for same day British Rail deliveries almost twenty years later in the mid nineties. Another key early company was yellow Express operating out of Harrow they ran a bike fleet of twenty motorcycles serving an IBM account on the North Circular road.

Today Open call is rarely seen but still has a place in large minicab firms such as Addison Lee. As technology improved in mobile communication message pagers replaced the bleepers. Radios became more reliable but reliable direct two-way conversation was still difficult to support. Limited channel availability was am issue but more so the ability to get a good aerial site, typical spots included the top of West End hotels such as the Hilton and Metropole.

During this mid late seventies boom of technology we saw the creation of some of today’s largest courier companies. John Weston began West One Couriers in 1974, Phoenix Express began in 1975. John Hood set up West End Despatch in 1977 just after Ambasador began. Pony Express was started and Malcolm Bloomel established Bell Despatch in 1978 the same year that Martin Rutty and Tim Gilbert joined forces to set up London based Speed. Alan and Stephen Floyd began Pegasus Couriers. Sammy Rose had moved on from Mercury to form Express Despatch in Ladbrooke Grove where the new fleet know had a bright yellow livery.

During the later 70s many of the growing companies adopted the plot system of courier control. This was to become widely used and showed the way forward. Plot control brought all the emphasis back to the controller in the courier office. The controller would plot the expected position of a rider through the day. The controller would give work out according to a courier’s location and number of jobs available. The jobs typically on paper dockets would adorn the table tops of busy controllers, a magnetic map board generally portrayed courier positions.

The controller had the benefit to see all the job dockets booked by clients. Jobs that went in the same direction could be doubled up. The controller would hand them out in routes pre set that could string a number of jobs together. If a client screamed for a late job the controller could redirect the courier acordingly. Quality of pick up and delivery times came into the control of the controler. The Courier Company could maintain its service levels to important clients by leaving other clients to wait. Plot controlling and increased work levels in the courier industry brought new needs. New roles for customer service and control co-ordinators began. With this new way of working and better technology companies increased their customer base.

Technology and systems arrived but the biker culture of the 60’s remained with the industry. Cruising with your motorbike was very much the in’ thing to do. The door was open for people to make money in a job they loved doing. Motorcycling was their hobby; they were being paid for it. With the expansion of customers it was a natural and successful merger of supply and demand.

It was the lifestyle issues of the job that were to bring many failings to the service.

With the close of the seventies came a the launch of a courier icon, Honda released the first versions of the CX500. No superbike this was to become the workhorse of the two wheel world with a rugged shaft drive reliability not yet seen. In a crash it usually damaged something else rather than its self.

The 80’s Boom years

For the courier industry the boom years flourished right through the 80’s. Both the economy and the courier industry was in the pink. Many new companies started up, the demand was needed and it was trendy. Add Bikes, Area Route, Alternative just to mention a few ‘As’.

Spreading beyond London in 1981 Des Anderson set up Dale Express in Croydon. In the same year the first major purchase took place when Securicor took over Pony Express. The old green logo white leather jackets treasured by age old bike couriers were replaced with Securicor blue but a National prescence of franchise operators was soon to arrive in the new colour schemes.

Alongside business to business activities, eighties extravagance arrived. Deliveries of Fish and Chips, Love letters and alcohol purchases were common place. A strong housing market brought new clients in the form of estate agents moving keys between offices for ever more viewings. The economy was buoyant and the manner in which to prove you were affluent was in the use of the couriers.

Bringing glamour to the industry, World champion car racer Damon Hill found himself as a motorcycle courier for Appollo Despatch in 1982. He rode a Kawasaki Z500. At the weekends he would race his courier bike and later became champion of Brands Hatch aboard a Yamaha TZ 350.

Many older riders were not happy with the industries new direction and affluence. With the demise of Open call the choice of jobs they did had been taken away from them. They were unable to pick their favourite jobs, they had lost their day to day control. The lifestyle issues they had joined up for were being suppressed by the courier companies need to provide better service levels. The better service levels were demanded by clients who were becoming dependent on a need they had created.

Services to courier companies were springing up, Ashley began Headstart a company providing customized bags for packages and radios specifically for the two wheel courier.

The Yellow Pages became full to bursting with same day delivery adverts. In 1983 Challenger began out of Britania Cars offices, Jeremy Thompson started Mach One Couriers in 1984, Sean Merick and Quentin Abel formed Speed Northern in Manchester in 1985 and the same year Cyclone emerged in London.

1987 Saw Kevin Hay launch Citadel Couriers in Scotland, experience with Interfax couriers and QED led him to the creation of what would become a key Scotish same day courier company and latterly find him a place on the board of the Despatch Association.

Couriers who had now been out on the road for ten years looked for career steps, somewhere new to go. If they were at the top of their tree they often found themselves stepping into control positions. Top bike couriers with client knowledge could take the opportunity to set up their own business. Couriers pay was good at this time an example would be that a rider could earn 500 per week. A very special bike would cost 2000 pounds. This was a ratio of four working weeks to buy the best of bikes available. For those who had entered the industry on a bike lifestyle basis these were great times.

Some thirty years later riders still earn 500 pounds per week. A special bike such as a racy Ducati will now cost 10,000 pounds. A ratio of twenty working weeks to buy. Even though we would not expect an earnings increase directly in line with the cost of living. i.e. the price of the bike, the earnings have not gone up at all. In many cases related to inflation earnings have come down. What was a very well paid lifestyle job for the few has become a reasonably paid job for the many.

With the need for many,new problems would arrive, particularly the supply of couriers the raw material of a courier company. If the experienced rider wasn’t tempted to move into their own business then the obvious move was in to office of the courier company for which they worked. The natural position was that of junior controller where great use of an individuals street knowledge could be drawn on. This step from front line delivery work to mid management was later to bring very practical hands on approach too much of the 90s management systems.

At the same time the opportunity for someone to enter middle management from outside the industry was blocked by their need for that highly detailed street knowledge. As the eighties boom time of growth softened it was experience and industry knowledge that gave couriers the opportunity to start their own company. Little capital was needed and there was even good government support for start up companies. Speed Couriers Manchester was one such example supported by a Princess Trust grant. De-nationalization of many industries meant communities were unemployed. Anyone with a licence to drive could turn to mini-cab, courier or truck driving work. Looking back at older business phone directories there seems to have been a never-ending stream of new companies. Motorcyle News was stuffed with rider adverts, guaranteed minimum incomes and any bonous you could care to think of.

With biker couriers dissatisfied at the changing style of the industry, one other new element was to appear. The American Riders Union. The motorcycle riders of America had started a union for the protection of their rights and this had transpired in the UK. It was however not to take off but not without some small in roads to trying to ensure companies gave fair rates to drivers.

The business came from a lifestyle culture of the 60’s. The timing of the good economic growth allowed those who were experienced to benefit and start up in the industry. The very nature of the job, the need for excellent communication, motivational and application skills had meant that you could climb the ladder quickly from a hands on practical starting point. A person could move from driver to assistant, assistant to controller, then to operations manger without an external qualification in the world. This means that the managers of today have arrived in their role with only experience as their guide.

It is not to say that there is no place for this experience but in other industry’s you are required to pass exams. you are often trained to standards or go to day release. The courier industry offered none of that. It should be noted that through this period of time there was no great need for it. Bosses won contracts, paid the wages and made profit by their own abilities.

As the eighties drew to a close the timing of technology was perfect for the next steps. Many of the paper systems used by the courier companies were at bursting point. The early IBM PC was to help enormously. Many home grown systems began to arrive around compiled basic computer language and the economies of the first Amstrad units set the seeds of growth. With more cost effective PC availability and the first standardized networks professional courier computer systems such as Fleetway and ROCs (Realtime Operational Control) came onto the screen. These systems set the tone that would be expanded on into the present day. The software supported the plot system and would display jobs by time priority on a computer screen. Urgent at the top. Jobs would be highlighted when allocated to a courier, waiting to be picked up or in transit. Later screens brought excellent use of colour to represent key data. Very urgent jobs waiting could be displayed Red etc. The age of the paper docket and magnetic map board was coming to an end.

The National Courier Association began in 1988 forming a new representation for the smaller same day companies to inter trade into the next day market. With the last days of the eighties another major player arrived into the same day market as Laurence Levan sold Britania and Concorde to Fed Ex. 

The 90’s and the tightening of the belt

A s the 90’s came in the customer demands had long changed from those early days. The economy tightened its belt and the need to understand how to adapt was more than just ‘acting on a gut feeling’. The scene had changed. Customers started to demand more professionalism. They wanted better value. Price wars started and the corporate customer stamped its buying power over the industry. As the large national companies started to contract out and concentrate on core competencies they used their buying power to ake the courier industry very competitive on price and quality. This was the wake up call to the industry. In the life cycle of a product this was ‘maturity’ and changes were needed and indeed only the fittest survived.

A number of large new companies were formed with mergers and acquisitions that had begun in the late 80s. Laurence Levan had sold Concorde to American giant FedEx in 1988. In 1990 Ken Ewell, Vice President of FedEx sold the same day UK rapid delivery section back into the private hands of Malcolm Bloomel.

The Dally brothers sold their market leading A to Z couriers to Securiguard PLC. Their sister held a strong prescence in the north with Abacus Express Leeds. Mayfair based On Yer Bike bought Security Despatch with Venture Capital from Foreign & Colonial. These were the first really big deals in the courier industry.

1992 was rocked by the liquidation of West One. Then the largest of the same day London courier companies it was rescued by Hilton Lewis of Bridgewharf Investments who acquired it from the receiver on the 2 nd October 1992. Hilton Lewis a chartered accountant by trade was to go on and buy Malcolm Bloomels Rapid despatch in 1993. This formed the first super sized same day company.

With the formation of larger courier companies came ever more technology. The mid 90’s saw computer implants at the clients premises. Jeremy Thompson of Mach One couriers was to win a National Courier Award for one of the first implementations. A client could have a remote terminal and book direct onto a courier companies system. The Internet has further supported this and advanced the client’s opportunity not only to book but then to check how a job is doing. A client can call up the location of a job. How long it may be for delivery or who signed for it on arrival.

Technologies were all moving on. The technology that made the computers possible in the late 80s saw a major step forward in chip based radios by Motorola and Maxon in the nineties. This brought true availability of hand held radio. Common use of radio by security guards and event organizers brought further economies of scale to the new chip based radios. These small light chip based radios were easily covered from rain with a plastic parking ticket bag. Custom bags soon followed and a small cottage industry began to support ever more specialized courier needs. Clothing, bags and radio pouches would commonly carry the courier company name. Even third party adverts came on to the scene. A corporate body could advertise on billboards, busses, cabs and now on couriers. Software packages at the operations end arrived which could download job details to radio at the press of a button. The next step brought data messaging to hand held radios. A courier could simply action a reply button to verify receipt of a computer transferred job detail.

Technology continues towards today’s microwave frequency phones. Much of the phone technology has helped with economy in development. Particularly in areas of miniature nicad batteries and message ystems. Latest systems upload radio from courier back to office. Some signature pads are digital and send proof of package delivery back. This then using Internet software goes back to client.

With the early nineties the technology was moving a pace but rider shortages were beginning to bite hard, the lifestyle bikers were very thin on the ground, on the job learning was not helping retention and there was nowhere new left to advertise, almost everything had been tried.

A new answer to the rider shortage issues saw Camelot Courier Training launched in 1992 with government support from the Training Enterprise Council. Government funds began to help the unemployed find jobs through recognized training in the industry. By 1993 an NVQ became available in Transporting Goods by Road. The front line courier was gaining recognition but more importantly a safe step into the industry had arrived, you could train first, gain some street knowledge and confidence before launching into the real hing.

New courier companies were still being formed, in 1993 Tim Houston created Business Direct Couriers, Martin Rutty owner of Streetwise Couriers took over Business to Business in Hackney and exceeded two million pounds of turnover, a year latter he would sell his London operations to Mach One and focus attention on the South West.

Also in 1993 Michael and Peter Kane floated Business Post at a value of sixty million pounds. Apollo launched its tenth office in Sheffield. As the year closed Hilton Lewis of West One merged Malcolm Bloomels Rapid Despatch to form West One Rapid with over 4000 daily same day dockets. This was the time of the famous Motorola P210 radio. Dockets rolled across computer screens and couriers received them with reliability of strong bash proof technology. Adding to that a growing number of new couriers had the foundation of proper training and things looked well.

In 1994 another US giant, UPS experimented with their first motorbikes hiring four CX500’s to work out of their Heathrow hub offices. That same year US based Domino Pizza had to pay out a million dollars in compensation after a pedestrian had been injured by a speeding delivery driver in the US. At the time many pizza deliveries had money back offers for late delivery. In the wake of the Domino law suit such offers were dropped. It was the same year the Despatch Association launched an industry wide Conditions of carriage Document. Respectability in the 60s image biker business was coming of age.

With this new respectability came a host of courier companies who gained accreditation for BS5750 and ISO 9000. A well known Park Royal company, Delta under Jack Price gained BS5750. Quicksilver and Phoenix followed and soon after Apollo gained ISO9002. Securicor gained ISO 9000 for its 102 branches, which ncompassed what, had originally been known as Pony Express.

APC, the Alternative Parcel Company was formed in 1994 by a confederation of forty courier companies around the UK, in the early days there had been same day and next day companies but times had changed, the National Courier Association was know strong and in 1995 the National Courier Network got the Marks & Spencer contract to deliver flowers for Valentines day, this was a big job with a tiny time slot, a sort of same day job for the next day industry that made them one and the same.

Before 1994 there was one special courier crowned a world champion, Damon Hill bagged the prize. An ex Apollo Despatch courier he had also done some time at West One when they were back in Great Portland Street.

1995 found the Rank Xerox contracts land with Concord then under the ownership of Simon Bliss, this was another step forward finding same day couriers know holding third party parts for delivery. As the years were to pass the very same couriers would often become engineers for the third party clients they would service. 1995 also saw Securicor change their Pony Express parcels carrier to a full-service logistics supplier with the fifty million pound purchase of Russell Davies, the group was re-branded Securicor Omega Logistics and targeted the shifting customer need for a complete logistics solution.

1996 saw WC1 bassed GoBetween Couriers in a merger takeover of Globe Trotters. Fondly known as Gobby’s the firm had been set up more than ten years earlier as a co-operative of almost a dozen riders, couriers making their own courier company.

Couriers needed top level skills to compete in the gathering market. At the end of the nineties Camelot Training now well established in the delivery of NVQs to motorcycle couriers was audited by the governments Training Standards Council. It gained rave reviews for safety & quality and scored one of the highest marks of all training in the UK. Comments that recognized Camelot and the courier companies included, ‘Very practical with strong links to industry.’

Starting a new trend altogether Business Post closed the nineties by re-branding its home delivery services to HomeServe.net, Peter Kane commented ‘We will adapt to meet the e-commerce opportunities that arise"

2000 Respectability and Growth

As 2000 arrived e-commerce and technology would both drive and gear the modern courier companies.

With the end of the 90s the mergers that had drawn West One together with Rapid, Delta and Security Dispatch under the American DMS structure listed them on the NASDAQ stock market. The National Courier Awards in their fifth year were held during a glamorous ceremony aboard HMS Belfast in central London. Professionalism had arrived and it was being recognized. Ex Conservative transport minister, Steve Norris took a top motorcycle slot as he headed up the Motorcycle Industry association MCIA. Late in 2000 the Motorcycle Action Group MAG announced their government lobbying had been successful and motorcycles would be exempt from London congestion charging. Motorcycle couriers would travel free in the busy cities they served.

In April 2001 TNT bagged one of the biggest deliveries yet with the contract to deliver 37 million census forms and celebrated 21 years of overnight deliveries the same year. Hilton Lewis former MD of West One Rapid Despatch returned in 2001 to launch Lewis Day, by August a deal was on the table to take over Challenger.

In January 2002 the receivers had arrived at DMS. The then owners of West One, Delta and Security espatch were rescued by a management buy out headed by Andrew Barnard who reformed the operation into CitySprint. By February 2003 CitySprint acquired Hornets and M&L Couriers in East London to push turnover up ten percent.

In 2003 eCourier arrived, Tom Allason completed a years research to implement a cutting edge gps tracking computer booking system that would find customers watching their deliveries by laptop without the need for many of the control staff.

Closing 2004 the National Courier Network collapsed with a turnover of nearly 25 million pounds being driven by many small courier companies across the UK, Business Post claimed fifty new clients as the market settled.

In 2005 one of the oldest family run courier companies Anderson Young went to Addison Lee and AtoZ couriers came into the ownership of Mach One headed by Jeremy Thompson. In the same month Business Post became the first UK courier Company to make it to the FTSE250 Share Index. By the autumn of 2005 big courier companies were all over the news, Lynx was set to be swallowed up by UPS, Amtrack set to get Nightspeed and then word that DHL would bid for Excel to make a ten billion pound courier company giant.

The high street was reporting tough times in late 2005 but courier companies were strong, London streets were surprisingly quiet for December, internet shopping was driving a boom of jobs into many courier companies both same day and overnight, couriers found it easy to cash in on the quiet streets.

2005 would also be marked for the launch of a new recognition for the individuals of the courier industry. Carl Lomas headed up the launch of the Institute of Couriers (IOC) backed by Transport Minister David Jamieson. IOC President, the Viscount Falkland would gown the founding fellows at the House of Lords inearly 2006. Professional recognition for people who made all the deliveries possible had arrived. The core nature of the industry is change. The job is a daily life of adapting, contingencies, and environmental changes. Probably the main reason why anyone gets involved is because every day, every week even every minute is different.

This industry history extract is from a work by Carl Lomas & Tracey Worth  2006

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