The first, all-EV courier company, has charged its batteries and is ready for business, says Alex Staniland owner of Xpress, with an eye on innovation and gaps in the market.
“We are thrilled to announce that the newly formed, XPress, is now fully operational as a standalone overnight courier in Gauteng and neighbouring areas. The company is unique in that we run a fleet of pure EVs. A trio of BYD Dolphin vehicles are the first units in our fleet,” he says.
The formation of XPress was born out of necessity, as is often the case. Alex’s interest in smart homes and networked electronics led to the creation of mUther. It is billed as The Ultimate Smart Home Store with thousands of products on offer.
“We were using established courier services to distribute sales from the mUther online store. But the service levels we received, and experienced by our clients, did not sit well with me,” according to Alex.
“We have been in the logistics industry for over 40 years. Our parent company, Special Envoy, has been delivering freight to the mining industry primarily in Gauteng and Mpumalanga,” says the company co-owner. “I realised that a courier service is well within the scope of what we already offer through Special Envoy.”
XPress is in its formative stages, currently operating in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo. Each delivery costs R99 and is guaranteed to get to you or your customer the following day if booked before 10:00. Customers can track their parcels using a portal on the XPress website.
Considering the high-tech nature of mUther and what it has to offer, an EV fleet was a natural step in the formation of XPress.
“I wanted to portray the right brand image, and an EV conveys that perfectly. We did some research into possible options and settled on BYD. The Dolphin has a unique appearance, a high-tech interior and importantly has very good range of over 400km on a full charge. Using EVs has made us more efficient all around.
“The project has been a success thus far,” he says. “There’s plenty of space in the Dolphins as we had them customised. We removed the passenger- and rear seats, essentially turning them into little panel vans. Importantly for me, our drivers seem to really enjoy driving these cars. They have a sense of pride that shows in their appearance and the level of courtesy shown to clients.
“All our drivers are also trained on our proprietary software to accept parcels on the spot via our Bring It service. This allows clients to simply scan a QR code to send a parcel there and then, to remove unnecessary paperwork and admin, which is pretty unique in SA, ” says Alex.
“The roll-out has proven that this is a viable concept, even if South Africa is slow to widespread EV adoption. We are already in talks to offer the XPress service in Durban, Cape Town and Nelspruit. We are also considering adding a few BYD Seagulls for intra-city deliveries. But it’s still early days for this exciting new business,” concludes Alex.
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