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Snakes alive: special delivery sealed with a hiss

DeliveryX

Moving reptiles around the UK is not a straightforward business, unless you know what you’re doing, of course.
Based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and covering the whole of the UK, Cold Blooded Movements (CBM) is a specialist reptile courier, compliant with DEFRA T2 regulations and offering per-animal-insurance.

CBM operates fully-heated three tier unit using 4ft mats controlled independently by a digital thermostat to ensure the reptiles in transit are as comfortable as can be. It uses Express, the web-based booking, despatch and tracking technology from DA Systems, which specialises in the same-day carrier market.

The aim of every delivery is to get the item there on time and always in perfect condition; unlike standard parcels, there’s little scope for carding and failed delivery. As the business was growing so was the amount of paperwork and time spent on administrative tasks – CBM needed to streamline business operations by removing paper based processes together with eliminating invoicing errors.

Caring for all reptiles as if they were their own has made CBM more than just a courier. Catering for individual needs, they carry out multiple welfare checks each day. Delivering most reptiles within 48 hours although when this can’t be done those longer travellers get extra special care and attention.

Express is a fully hosted, cloud based solution giving couriers the ability to run their services from anywhere through real-time access to a single, centralised and integrated platform.

Having a centralised system was vital for the business as they continued to grow. Furthermore, the software offers more than booking functionality it includes pricing, despatch, scheduling, driver allocation and delivery notifications through to invoicing and driver self-bills.

By using the mobile driver app enables instant new job alerts to be sent direct to a mobile device combined with status updates (POB, POD), which are sent back to the system and straight to the customer.

A further addition to enhance the customer experience was introducing online quotes, booking and tracking as part of their service. Intuitive and user-friendly, customers enjoy instant access to the services they need, when they need them. The online web bookings allows customers to easily and quickly obtain quotes and book jobs online, they have round the clock access to CBM’s services.

The final part of the process is the invoicing system, which sends automatic emails to customers and also handles driver self-bills with minimal effort.

By introducing Express, CBM have access to real-time information, accurate delivery details and the software has cut out a huge amount of unnecessary administration.

Their customers are seeing the value too; they have direct access to online bookings combined with the ability to create orders and track them from pick up to delivery. Furthermore, instant notifications of proof of collection and delivery proves that CBM have kept to their promise.

Working with such high value and live items means customers must be kept informed of where they are – Express has everything a same-day courier company could possibly ask for and more. Most importantly, it is helping the business grow and develop.

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