THE E-STOP CONCEPT

‘e-stop’ is a concept that offers an alternative stream for Home Delivery to overcome the problems for e-tailers/retailers, Local Authorities and consumers alike.  ‘e-stop’ will be a national chain of locally placed drive-thru’ collection centres located on main arterial routes, close to city centres with a 24/7 opening. 
                             
Goods will be collected from the e-tailers/retailers on a bulk basis by ‘e-stop’s logistics partner and delivered to the relevant ‘e-stop’, closest to the consumer’s home address.  Collection by the consumer can then be made easily via the efficiently managed, modern, and safe drive-thru’ Collection centres without them having to leave their car.

The ‘e-stop’ service will be a cost, convenience and environmentally led decision made both by the e-tailer/retailer and consumer.  ‘e-stop’ gives consumers maximum flexibility to collect when it suits them, offering reduced traffic and significant environmental benefits for Home Delivery, as ‘e-stop’ units will be located on a route home.

We expect the operating costs for e-stop to reduce Home Delivery costs by over 25%.   The ‘e-stop’ principle has been given support by the recent government (DTI & DfT) sponsored E-FLEX project  “Maximising the Efficiency of Urban Home Delivery”.  This looked at practical ways to improve home delivery.  From this report the ‘e-stop’ concept produced both savings in costs and CO2 emissions.

We anticipate the UK capacity for this concept to be well in excess of 100 units.   This could well increase with e-stop’s development opportunities within the Business-to-Business arena.