- All EV courier fleet, first in SA
- Highly experienced logistics team
- Eye on the future
- Bring It service for instant pick-ups
Alex Staniland is a tech-savvy entrepreneur with an eye on innovation and gaps in the market. His most recent venture, XPress is South Africa’s first, all-EV courier company.
“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,” said Staniland.
The formation of XPress was borne out of necessity, as is often the case. Staniland’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.”
“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,” said 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 just R99 and is guaranteed to get to you/your customer the following day if booked before 10am. 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 as to possible options and settled on BYD. This company is a rival for Tesla and is now available in SA. The Dolphin has a unique appearance, a high-tech interior and importantly has very good range, over 400 km, on a full charge. Using EVs has made us more efficient all around.”
“The project has been a success thus far,” says Staniland. “There is 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.”
But the quick-talking company founder isn’t stopping there. He already has his eye on expansion.
“The rollout 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,” concluded Staniland.
