Introducing the new Packfleet!

Welcome to our new blog! We’ve been planning to get this up and running for a while, there’s been so much to do we hadn’t had a chance. But we’re finally here 😄

Today, we’re introducing the new Packfleet, built from the ground up over the last few months to enable us to serve our customers better and lay the foundations for the future.

A quick history

Back in March, when we did our first ever deliveries, we built a very basic prototype that allowed merchants to upload shipments as a CSV, import from Shopify, or add them manually. This was as basic as they come, but it allowed us to get up and running and start the process of understanding what really matters to merchants.

Since then, we’ve delivered thousands of packs and have been spending lots of time with our merchants, working to get to grips with what their dream courier platform would be. Today’s update marks our move away from that basic prototype on to a totally custom platform of our own, which brings some great new updates today but also means we’re able to bring new updates much more quickly in future.

So, what’s new?

If you’re an existing Packfleet merchant, you should see a few new features live today:

Upcoming collections

We’ve decoupled collections and shipments, so you can now book a collection without needing to add shipments to it immediately. This is perfect for when you know you’ll need us to come and pick up your parcels, but you don’t yet know exactly which ones or how many. And it’s really easy to view and cancel any that you no longer need!

Recurring collections

While we’ve always supported recurring collections, we now make it much easier to book your own recurring collection, as well as view and cancel existing ones. This is just the start of what we want to build here: really putting you in control of your collections.

Multiple collection locations

For those of you who have multiple shops and/or warehouses that you want us to collect from, we now support multiple collection locations from the same Packfleet account. Just book collections from whichever location you want, assign shipments to those collections, and we’ll come and pick up your packs from the right place!

Shopify app

Setting up Shopify import through Packfleet was historically a bit of a pain, with you needing to send us your shop’s details manually. That’s all sorted now, with our very own Packfleet app you can install from the Shopify App Store to view all of your eligible shipments and import them in one click.

Two shapes of labels

Some of you like to use square labels (4x4 inch) whereas others like rectangular ones (6x4 inch). We now support both so just pick the right one at the printing stage and you’ll be set. Oh, and we remember your last choice so you don’t have to waste your time tinkering with printer settings every time.

Number of packs per shipment

You can now select how many parcels (we call them packs) a shipment has. This makes it much easier to print labels (each pack gets its own unique label in the PDF) and also helps our drivers as now they’ll know exactly how many packs you have for us at every collection. And you can change it at any time of course; if when packing your orders you realise you need an extra label just go back to the “Print labels” section and increase the number.

Fewer bugs and easier to use

That basic prototype was buggy and often had weird issues, like random blank labels at the end of your PDFs. No longer! While we can’t promise this is perfect, we’ve made a bunch of improvements across the app to make it as easy to use as possible, as well as much more beautiful!

Much more to come!

When we say this is just the beginning, we mean it. As we run up to Christmas, we’ve got a long list of improvements and new features we want to bring to Packfleet. If you’re an existing merchant, we’d love to hear any suggestions you have; and if you’re not yet a Packfleet merchant, we’d love to have you on board!

Thanks 😄

The Packfleet Team