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The Disrupters: Plan to cut transport waste moving forward with Shiply.com

Andrew Cave

13th May 2009

Freight companies have responded to pressure about carbon emissions in recent years by partnering up to share loads, thereby eliminating some of the hundreds of thousands of empty return journeys on Britain's roads.

However, Robert Matthams still saw sufficient wastage in the industry two years ago for him to come up with the concept for Shiply.com.

"I got the idea when I was ordering a pool table towards the end of my time on a business studies degree at Manchester University," says Mr Matthams, 24.

"The driver was coming up from London and returning empty. It occurred to me that this was a waste, so I looked into it and found Department of Transport figures stating that 25pc of lorries and 15pc of vans run empty in the UK.

"That's more than 112,000 lorries and 450,000 vans releasing a shocking and unnecessary 36 million tons of carbon dioxide a year � 7.2pc of the UK's annual carbon footprint. I realised just how big the issue was."

Mr Matthams turned to the internet, utilising the information technology knowledge he had gained on his course to help build a computer program capable of matching empty lorries with people wishing to transport goods in a way that is similar to eBay's pairing of sellers of goods with potential buyers.

The result was Manchester-based Shiply.com, which went live in June last year. Users register, log in and post messages about items they want transported, stipulating the maximum they are prepared to pay. Then freight members have the opportunity to bid for the work.

If more than one firm responds, they take part in a reverse auction, bidding each other down to the lowest price that anyone is prepared to accept.

"Anything that needs to be moved, from a small box to cars, boats or even entire house contents, can be listed on the site for free," says managing director Mr Matthams.

"Our aim is to ease monotonous consumer shipping processes, while also contributing towards a greener solution.

"Users find that they no longer need to waste valuable time phoning around for quotes but can let feedback-rated transportation companies bid and compete for their work."

Shiply.com has signed up 15,000 users and 3,500 transport firms and has already received 20,000 shipment requests, about 40pc of which are typically filled.

Its service is free to users, while transport firms pay commission, starting at 9.9pc for jobs charging less than £150 and reducing on a sliding scale for larger orders.

The business expects a turnover of £500,000 this year and Mr Matthams says it is doubling in size every month.

It has found eBay a particular source of custom. "At any one time there are more than 930,000 items listed on eBay.co.uk that are only available for local collection, usually due to their oversized nature," he says.

"This may deter prospective bidders who don't live locally, but we have developed eBay tools that allow bidders to import items they have won, or on which they are currently bidding, into Shiply.com. I think there's a lot of scope for this to be a major business."

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