About

Urgent Couriers is a privately owned limited liability company established in 1989.The company is one of the largest specialised on demand courier services in New Zealand. It has around 25 percent of the Auckland fast-delivery market. At inception it had four employees and 13 contractors. Today it has 20 staff and 85 contractors. The founder and managing director Steve Bonnici is passionate about sustainability and bringing excellent service to customers. His first-hand experience as a courier has proven beneficial in supporting the company’s goal of “Setting the Standard for the Courier Industry”.

In the late 1990s, Urgent Couriers adopted sustainability as a guiding philosophy. Urgent Couriers is working towards a full conversion of its vehicle fleet to low emission cars, which currently make up at least a quarter of the fleet.

This move has, to date, resulted in an impressive 40 percent reduction in fuel costs in the company owned fleet. In 2007 Urgent Couriers became the first transport company in New Zealand to be certified carbon neutral under the carboNZero programme. Urgent Couriers accounts for the emissions of its corporate operations as well as all contractors’ vehicles.

From 2002 to 2007 Urgent Couriers grew around 26 percent but the emissions produced by the company grew only three per cent. Steve Bonnici was a contributor to the Transport Sector Supplement of the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) sustainability reporting guidelines. Urgent Couriers is now producing its second sustainability report. Urgent Couriers is an active member of the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development.

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Strategy

At the core of Urgent Couriers’ climate change strategy is an understanding and acceptance of its impact as a carbon intensive business. The company views this as an opportunity for concrete actions that demonstrate leadership, and an opportunity to influence others in the transport industry.

Actions

Expanding the scope

To be come carbon neutral, Urgent Couriers defined the scope of measurement more broadly than official guidelines. It voluntarily chose to offset the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its 85 contract couriers as well as its company owned vehicles.

Offsetting emissions 
Urgent Couriers offsets the emissions it has not been able to eliminate by buying credits from Landcare Research’s carboNZero programme. It does this on an annual basis to remain carboNZero certified.

Increasing pedal power

• Urgent Couriers initially sought to increase the size of its cycle fleet, doubling numbers to a peak of 10 cycle couriers in 2004.
• In recent years however, the growth of secure e-mail has forced the balance of carriage from documents to parcels, which has meant the cycle fleet has shrunk back to five couriers.

Technology for efficiency

• Urgent Couriers responded by increasing efficiency from its vehicle fleet. Urgent Couriers developed an open source GPS system which allows its dispatchers to view an exact location of all couriers at all times in relation to deliveries pending.
• The result is a significantly more effective use of the couriers, which in turn has lowered the number of kilometers traveled meaning more financially viable couriers.

Community support

Urgent Couriers is an active participant and supporter of New Zealand’s Bike Awareness Week, a national initiative promoting cycling as a sustainable transport alternative. This year they organized a Commuter Challenge which put cyclists, car drivers, and bus users head to head with an ambitious goal: beat the traffic and make it first to Aotea Square. The Commuter Challenge raises the profile of healthy, environmentally friendly commuting options for the Auckland region and encourages the use of bicycles.

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