November 2000

The latest contender to reveal plans for a Web-based freight exchange service is E-Freight Logistics, which is based at Coatbridge in central Scotland. It is targeting both domestic and international business, and aims to start operations next spring.

It is the brainchild of managing director Nigel Feeney, who was previously UK operations director for a technology business in which Alcatel was a partner. Fellow-directors include Charles Scott (finance), one-time senior partner with Ernst & Young, and David Ballantyne (logistics), formerly of Exel Logistics and Christian Salvesen. Software development for the project is being handled externally by another Scottish-based business, Inform Software Systems, under a deal said to be worth more than £1 million. A feature of the system will be a very large database, and Inform has chosen Sun and Oracle as lead suppliers. Inform is the e-business division of QSP, a supplier of financial management and e-business solutions, and provides a range of what are termed strategy and enablement services. Its customers include Robert Wiseman Dairies, William Baird, and prize-winning dotcom start-up unipharma.net