Whilst chatting to a group of friends I mentioned that a contact on Twitter had called me ‘The most digitally visible courier in the UK’ Not a lot of couriers use twitter, which is a shame as you can tweet your drivers directly to their mobile phones. This is handy to warn them of traffic, accidents etc. Then when I was saying “I wonder what I should be writing on my blog this week…” one of the suggestions that came back was I should write about what it means to be Courier 2.0… It may be funny, but I thought it was a good idea

Web 2.0 is generally defined as the internet after the crash of 1999, the next phase of the internet.

Well, web 2.0 is a bit of a catch-all which covers a broad range of new online services, user-generated content, communities and social networking tools. The most popular are sites such as Blogger, Flickr, MySpace, YouTube and Wikipedia and the Godfather of web 2.0 – Google. The phrase also refers to the creation of far greater levels of interactivity, not just between users, or between users and the internet but between complementary online services through mash-ups and web services.

Silicon.com

We have always used the technology available for our business, and to make life easier and safer for our drivers (and for us too). We were one of the first courier companies in the UK to embrace Satellite Navigation. I can recall Kevin showing a bemused group of other couriers how Mrs Hawkings (our affectionate name for the Sat Nav) worked. A year later they all had them! The effective use of technology allowed us to win the prestigious Thames Gateway Business Awards 2007. We also fully utilise vehicle tracking GPS technology, but lets get back to the web.

Well, we first started Social Media networking (or chatting online to your mates) when we joined the Courier Exchange 6 years ago. The Courier Exchange is the leading Freight Exchange in the UK and Europe, and we met many other couriers here and then began networking with them. We still meet several times a year and discuss industry related issues.

They have submitted a video to You Tube, it’s worth a watch

Last year I joined BT Tradespace. It was here I learned to ‘blog’, write short internet diaries about work related things and 116 blogs later…. we are still going strong and part of the community! We are thrilled that BT Tradespace actually invited us to a lunch with them at the end of October, it will be good to meet some of the people behind the pics at last. Tradespace also have a behind the scenes community, they are very helpful and supportive of each other, and share tips to get the best of the Tradespace forum.

I have just read this back, and it’s a bigger blog than intended! so I will post the next part as Courier 2.0 part 2  – The Final Delivery (and if that sounds a bit Hollywood Sequal-ish that’s possibly because I have just found out there is a TV series called Courier 2.0!)

Sarah

Essex Same Day Courier