From driver to founder

Jrush Logistics is a last-mile courier company that delivers across Cape Town and to neighboring border towns using a mixed fleet of 4X4s, motorbikes, and small vans.

Founder Russell Jonathan, who spent over five years as a delivery driver himself, knows the challenges of last-mile delivery in South Africa firsthand. He built his business from scratch and now employs 15 freelance drivers who deliver food, retail, and medical items on demand, the next day, or by a nominated date.

Russell began his delivery experience working for a bakery, delivering baked goods to customers every Monday. His passion for delivery driving led him to turn it into a full-time career. After several years working as a freelance driver for courier companies, an opportunity arose to take on a client contract directly.

When his employer's poor performance led to the loss of a client contract that Russell was working on, the client contacted him directly to request that he consider taking on their deliveries.

Russell was using Circuit to manage his routes, and although the client was dissatisfied with the service provided by his employer, they had no complaints about the reliability or performance of the routes that Russell handled.

This vote of confidence was all the impetus he needed to transition from driver to founder of his own courier company, Jrush Logistics, and take on his first client.

"I’ve won all my clients by giving them great service and being polite and professional to recipients, keeping everyone happy"

Delivering safely in South Africa

Delivering across Cape Town comes with its own unique challenges. Firstly, the road infrastructure in some areas can be unsuitable for large vehicles, so it is essential to have a range of vehicle types capable of managing the variable terrain and road quality.

Large refrigerated vans typically used for food delivery are too big and heavy to navigate the South African rural roads successfully, so Jrush Logistics uses 4x4 pickups with hardtop canopies. Loading food items onto ice beds in the vehicle helps maintain low temperatures and keep edible items fresh while delivering.

On-demand delivery within the hour is also difficult to achieve successfully with a car in congested urban areas, so for speed and agility and to meet tight delivery deadlines, a portion of their fleet comprises motorcycle riders. Stationed strategically across the city, they can collect and deliver prescriptions and veterinary items to domestic addresses, Hospitals, Doctor’s Surgeries, and Veterinary Clinics within 60 minutes.

Safety is also a concern for Jrush Logistics as some streets are known crime hot spots, and the risk to their drivers of carjacking, robbery, and vehicle crime can be high. The Circuit Driver app allows drivers to utilize their local knowledge when navigating a route. Satellite navigation may suggest the most efficient route, but that could be through a dangerous neighborhood. Reoptimizing their routes on the fly allows drivers to adapt portions of Circuit’s suggested route based on their understanding of the local roads and risks.

The Dispatcher Dashboard’s real-time tracking of all drivers also means that if a driver is in trouble, breaks down, or needs to redistribute his deliveries to another driver to complete his route on time, these ad hoc updates can be made easily.

"I can see what each and every driver is doing. Before he phones me with a problem, I can already make the necessary arrangements"

Rapid onboarding of new drivers

Before using Circuit for Teams, onboarding new drivers was a lengthy process. Novice drivers with no knowledge of the local area would shadow an existing, experienced driver on their route.

They would then repeat this process, spending time with every driver on the team to learn each route and build an understanding of where to go and where to avoid. This was a very time-consuming way to educate new drivers.

Using the Driver app, an initial route is provided for them to follow, and it only takes a matter of minutes to make any specific adjustments to the optimized route to keep drivers away from hazards. What once took weeks to accomplish can now be done in minutes.

The Dispatcher Dashboard provides live location information so novice drivers can be monitored remotely and assisted instantly. It also enables Russell to handle any customer inquiries on delivery updates directly, providing instant answers and keeping his drivers happy as they can do their jobs without distractions and fully focus on their route.

“If my guys are happy, then I’m happy, and if they are miserable, they are going to give bad service to my client"

Jrush Logistics's future focus is on expanding its client base and the range of Circuit for Teams features it uses. Migrating their clients to Circuit’s client portal to streamline the process of receiving work and start the digital paper trail for each package even earlier.

With well-established operations in Cape Town, this provides the foundation they need to make their next strategic business move and venture into delivering internationally imported and exported goods.

Note: Circuit for teams is saving thousands of businesses at least 20% on delivery costs. Try it free for 7 days.