November 2002

Hays DX and ByBox, two of the leading players in unattended delivery solutions, have joined forces to develop a service called Intellibox, which is based round ByBox's box-bank system.

In effect, this means the ByBox solution will now be marketed by Hays, which already has a strong presence in the business-to-business drop-box market. ByBox managing director Stuart Miller told e.logistics Magazine: "We know there's a market for our solution in the business community, but developing it on our own was simply going to take too long. By working with Hays, we can accelerate take-up enormously. We're very excited about this agreement."

Additional ByBox banks will now be installed at Hays sites, some of which will be exclusive to Hays customers. However, existing ByBox customers will not be affected by the development, and if anything are likely to have more box banks to choose from.

Hays already has a large network of its own boxes at strategic points round the country (notably at garage forecourts), which are used by mobile sales and field service staff. But the boxes are "dumb" in that they have no built-in electronic intelligence. ByBox locker banks add that intelligence by linking each unit to a central control point, and from there to the employer.

ByBox has now capitalised on that intelligence by adding the facility for staff to order components online through the central console built into each box cluster. Product ordered in this way is then delivered to the relevant box bank via the Hays DX express network.

As mobile communication systems become more widespread, the ordering capability might become less significant, but at the moment it represents an attractive low-cost option to providing all staff with their own mobile computers or relying on online ordering from their homes.

Keith Maple, planning and marketing director for Hays DX, says that early interest in the system suggests the two companies "have a very strong service offering for the marketplace."