Tristan Thomas, CEO of Packfleet
Nearly thirty years after Amazon’s launch, it’s perhaps fair to assume that online merchants and logistics companies have pretty much nailed the process of delivering goods to appreciative recipients.
But then again, maybe not quite. Then Tristan Thomas, an executive at a mobile banking company Monzo started a wine subscription business with his brother during the UK’s pandemic lockdown, he discovered that efficient and cost-effective delivery could not be taken for granted. Bluntly, he felt his nascent business was not well served by established couriers.
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“We’ve all experienced poor delivery from a customer’s perspective – goods thrown over fences and things like that – but what I found was that the shopping experience is worse.”
Instead of complaining, Thomas began exploring the idea of setting up his own carrier – one that was both operationally friendly to its business customers and capable of providing a good service to consumers.
Fast forward to 2022 and pack fleet – a company founded by Thomas in the company of two other Monzo employees – has 50 vans on the streets of London, delivering goods on behalf of around 150 customers. But in reality, is there anything that can be done to really improve delivery services? After all, we have all become accustomed to 24-hour deliveries – often within agreed time slots – and order tracking. Is there anything that can be added to the mix?
Thomas believes a lot can be done – especially for small businesses – by taking an app-based approach to managing operations.
Operation And Technology
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“We are both an operations company and a technology company,” he says. In other words, Packfleet has built its own tech stack to manage the movement of goods.
The tech stack aims to allow merchants to set up collections and deliveries on a case-by-case or periodic basis using an app, which also tracks order progress. Delivery addresses and time slots can be changed while the drivers are on the road.
In addition, Packfleet’s fleet consists of electric vehicles and the company claims to offer a 100% carbon neutral service.
Climate neutral
So how important is that aspect of the service? Thomas is realistic about the company’s green appeal. “It’s important to customers, but there are other factors to consider, such as price and reliability,” he says.
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Similarly, even if it’s a differentiator now, with the UK moving towards net zero, more and more vans will be electric in the coming years. So in the longer term, EVs won’t make Packfleet stand out. “But we wanted to do it right from the start,” says Thomas. In other words, the green proposition is part of a larger mix.
And for that matter, the company has held its own in terms of reliability. “Some courier companies have seen a 10% failure rate,” says Thomas. “We have a 0.1% failure rate.” The measurement here is goods that do not arrive, rather than goods that arrive just a little too late.
Perhaps just as importantly, Thomas says the company took the time to research what small businesses want from their carriers and built this information into the platform.
But can a company like Packfleet really compete with companies that have thousands of vehicles on the road and serve the whole of the UK? Again, Thomas is realistic. “At the moment we can’t sell John Lewis (a major UK store) because we don’t have enough vehicles.” However, the company can serve small businesses in fixed geographies well and expand from there.
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The plan is to first expand the London operation and then expand geographically. “We started delivering just a few parcels a day in South East London and have grown from there. This month we cover the whole area within the 25 (London’s ring road)”. From there, the company plans to expand to other UK cities, starting with Birmingham and Manchester. More vans also bring the opportunity to target larger retailers.
Far from being sewn in, the delivery space is evolving. Goods are delivered by established couriers in vans, but also – depending on where you live – by autonomous vehicles that drive on sidewalks and in some cases drones. And of course. There are companies like To deliver that have grown and thrived using their own tech stacks. Packfleet is part of that mix. All of this is likely to be good for e-commerce entrepreneurs, who can choose delivery models that suit recipients and their own customers.
