Urgent Couriers drives aversion to recession

Urgent Couriers drives aversion to recession

Urgent Couriers is selling advertising space on its courier vehicles in an effort to boost earnings in the tight courier market.

By next month, 20 Urgent Courier vehicles - just over 25 per cent of the company’s fleet - will become branded ‘mobile adverts’ that companies can “wrap” with advertising. All Mobile AdVert vehicles are Honda Jazzes to homogenise the brand exposure for advertising clients.

Each vehicle will cover between 2,000 and 5,000 kilometres around Auckland streets per month and GPS tracking software will allow Mobile AdVert customers to see the vehicles in real time and playback the route the vehicle has traveled over a given period.

Urgent Couriers managing director Steve Bonnici says Mobile AdVert has been launched to create new revenue streams for the courier company during difficult financial times.

Courier services have steadily tapered off in the last year, with the company’s revenue falling 12 per cent in the year to March.

“The outlook for the current financial year is looking to be another reduction in the same vicinity unless there is a sharp upturn in the second half of the year,” says Mr Bonnici.

“The premium, point-to-point courier market has felt the downturn more than other sectors as clients have looked at ways of cutting costs. We seem to have hit the bottom of the cycle, although volumes are 25-30 per cent down on April last year.”

Mr Bonnici was aware of a risk that during the downturn, clients would explore more economical ways of sending their goods.

“This could mean that even when the economy picks up this will not be reflected in this segment of the industry. That’s why we need to look for different service offerings and alternative revenue streams.”

Mobile Advert is aimed at businesses wanting to benefit from brand exposure to the general public. Urgent Couriers has been keeping media buyers, from the major advertising agencies, up to date with the service launch.

Businesses currently advertising on buses or billboards should consider Mobile AdVert as a technology smart alternative.

Steve Bonnici says the distances the vehicles travel each day offers clients wrapping the vehicles huge potential for brand exposure.

The mobile media opportunity is also carbon friendly, as Kiwi-owned Urgent Couriers was the country’s first transport business to have its entire operations certified “carbon neutral” in 2007, through Landcare Research’s carboNZero programme.

ENDS

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