Online marketplace saved hauliers from empty running

Richard Morris

10th June 2009

A Wythenshawe-based company which enables haulage firms to fill empty lorries, is planning to expand into Australia and Germany.

Shiply Ltd, set up 12 months ago by entrepreneur Rob Matthams, expects to make a profit in its first year of trading on turnover of £100,000.

It matches about 4,000 transport firms with potential clients with loads for trucks which would otherwise have to make long journeys empty.

People list goods they need to move on the company's shiply.com website for free and hauliers then bid for the work.

Customers can see reviews of the haulage companies to decide which bid to accept. Shiply claims it has saved customers £2m in the past year, with some cutting their bills by 75 per cent.

Among the hauliers signed up are Pickfords and small family firms, some of whom say they would have gone out of business without the revenue Shiply has provided, according to Matthams,a 24-year-old who studied at the University of Manchester.

He said: "It's an enormous problem with 25 per cent of vehicles running completely empty and over half running only part full and so this is an enormous environmental issue.

"We take a commission off the haulage companies. We don't charge a subscription fee or a sign up fee to keep the overheads low for the haulage companies which at the moment is very important.

The company charges 10 per cent for orders of £150 and under and then a sliding scale comes into force.

Loads range from small packages to cars, boats, household moves

Matthams added: "What has become popular is overseas removal. What companies can do now is find someone moving house from Spain to London for example and someone else moving the other way and they can keep their vehicle full there and back.

"We expected it to grow quickly, although perhaps not as quickly as it has, so we are very pleased. I think at the moment with the recession the key thing is price. If we're offering green credentials then that's something customers appreciate but at the moment it's all about money and how we can save people cash � I think that's what has pushed our business forward so quickly. The recession has actually helped."

"With traditional businesses you'd wait a few years before moving into overseas territories but we have got something that is growing very quickly and with an online business you do need to move fast. The set up will be very similar although there will be some mild translation needed.

"It's the sheer size of the market. The haulage business is enormous with the size of the country. A move out there is thousands of miles and so the cost is higher and so our revenue off the back of that is going to be much higher."

The company now employs four people including Matthams, who is projecting turnover of half a million by 2010.

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