Mapping Amazing: POSTX

Welcome to the first in a new series of articles on Map Happenings that I am calling “Mapping Amazing”.

Each post in the series is going to feature a small company or organization that, through use of geospatial technology, is doing innovative / rockin’ / lit / vibing / happening / mapping amazing work (pick your adjective!) to make a small dent in the universe.

And today we’re going to feature a little known startup in London called POSTX. It’s a little different, but it’s using geospatial excellence at its core.

I got to know the founder of POSTX, Max Glaisher, as a result of business dealings I had with him during his career at DPD, one of the largest delivery companies in Europe. While at DPD Max was one of the leaders on their innovation team. I was always impressed with his energy, spark and drive to “think different”.

Sure enough, he did. In 2023 Max founded POSTX with the aim of changing the way the world moves goods with zero emissions.

A big hairy audacious idea. But how can a tiny startup with fewer than 10 full time employees possibly begin to go head to head with the likes of FedEx, UPS, DHL, DPD and Amazon Logistics?

Well the answer is two fold.

First — they don’t. They’re not aiming to replace any of these behemoths. Instead they’re aiming to transform the old sausage making plants the big guys use and bring them firmly into the 21st AI century. So, for the boomers among you, POSTX’s MO is more akin to the famous BASF ad from the 1980s: “We don’t make a lot of the products you buy. We make a lot of the products you buy better.”

Second — through innovation. To deliver all goods with zero emissions is about SO much more than buying a fleet of electric trucks and using them in your delivery network. And actually, it’s not about buying any trucks at all.

But before we get into the details, let’s start with a little history lesson on the last time the whole world of global delivery got disrupted …

Wind the clock back 54 years to 1971. This was the year that Intel released its first commercially available microprocessor (the Intel 4004). It was also the year that electronic calculators and digital watches started to appear on the market.

The Hamilton Pulsar Watch launched 1971

But something else happened in 1971. While at Yale University, a chap called Frederick W. Smith came up with a devastatingly disruptive idea for a new kind of logistics company that would revolutionise time-sensitive shipments. This was around the era that “just-in-time” manufacturing was becoming vogue, and Fred saw a critical need for fast, reliable delivery.

The revolutionary idea behind this new company was to use a hub-and-spoke model, where by all goods were first shipped to, and then sorted at a centralized hub in Memphis, Tennessee. This model allowed the company to guarantee next day delivery, something no other carrier could offer reliably at the time.

But this wasn’t the only secret ingredient. The company also used a system of barcode tracking and real-time package updates that set a whole new standard for logistics transparency. By pioneering overnight delivery and package tracking, this new upstart fundamentally changed customer expectations and forced competitors like UPS and the U.S. Postal Service to adapt. It didn’t just deliver parcels — it redefined speed and reliability in global commerce.

The company? Well, it’s FedEx of course.

So what’s happened in the intervening half century? Well most logistics companies have copied FedEx, not only the hub-and-spoke model for air shipments, but in using the same hub-and-spoke model for ground shipments too. This has all meant the need to build massive warehouses so parcels can be collected, sorted and then shipped back out to their final destination. In other words: a huge capital expense.

So has anything innovative happened since the dawn of FedEx? Well yes, inside the warehouse there’s now a ton of expensive computer controlled conveyer belts and sorting systems, as well as increased use of robots (although robots are more applicable to organizations that have to pick products as well as sort them —think Amazon or Walmart). And for route planning obviously everyone is using digital maps and mapping software to help drivers find their way.

But there’s some fundamental underpinnings of all logistics companies that are still stuck in the mid 20th century. What am I talking about? The answer: postcodes — or to you Yanks — ZIP codes.¹

How ZIP Codes Helped Organize the US — Credit: Vox Media

For example, in the US, ZIP codes were invented in 1963 and in the UK, postcodes were invented in 1959. And yes, both were invented to help streamline and automate sorting. But 60+ years on they are all getting rather long in the tooth. Coupled with that, the postcode system is different in every country and by no means do all countries have them. For example, Ireland only released their “Eircode” system in 2015 and populous countries such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong have yet to create or fully develop a system.

So what’s wrong with postcodes?

Well first they don’t tell you how close things really are to each other. Then they don’t indicate how far one postcode is from another postcode. And they certainly don’t convey how routes should be grouped to be as efficient as possible based on distance, time and cost.

Take a look at the postcodes for London as an example and you see the issue. The denser the population the smaller the postcodes are (look at the inset for EC, SW1, W1, WC1 for example). So for logistics purposes the postcode actually tells you little about geography or geographical distance:

Postcode sectors for London

This issue creates a range of planning issues when designing service areas for depots and routes.

So what do legacy logistics companies do to try and get around the issue? They build “origin-destination” matrices of pre-computed distances between postcodes. But even then they don’t create these matrices on the full postcode — there are simply far too many of them². So instead they fall back to creating matrices just based on general postcode areas.

For example, in the UK they only use the first few letters of the postcode, known as the “outcode”:

Credit: IdealPostcodes

Ultimately, these precomputed matrices don’t reflect real travel distances, times or costs — so it’s not actually very useful for route planning.

To work around that, companies do the following:

Pay a third party to validate postcodes
Pay a third party to geocode each address into coordinates
Run a distance matrix to calculate travel time and distance between every delivery point for a particular day
Use a solver to figure out the best stop sequence based on business rules

It’s expensive, slow and relies on multiple external systems — just to get inefficient routes.

Even Amazon, with all their sophistication, still uses these matrices as a fundamental part of their mechanism for sorting out where packages should go.

Your Amazon Shipping Label Explained — Credit: @FridayAdventureClub

Couldn’t there be a better way?

POSTX not only thinks so. They know so. And it became one of the primary pillars of their new venture.

Pillar 1: Nexus Grid + the Atom Sorting Index

One of POSTX’s first tasks was to generate an entirely new sorting index designed specifically for logistics, not for just for delivering letters. And it’s not national. It’s global.

They call this new sorting index “Atom”, and Atom is part of an overall platform that they are building called “Nexus Grid” which will also provide predictive routes and sequencing.

And how is Atom different? Well it replaces postcode matrices with a smart, machine-readable grid — so every location is already sorted by how it connects to others at local, sub regional, regional and national levels.

This lets them:

Sort vertically (national → regional → local)
Sort horizontally (between any two places nearby)
Automatically group routes based on real travel cost and time, not mailing zones
Do it all without 3rd party maps or postcode logic

Unlike postcode boundaries that are drawn by people, Atom was built using a machine learning model to map and organise the world into hierarchical 6-unit geospatial zones. This pre-indexed structure embeds real-world distance, time, and cost into every location, allowing routes to be clustered and optimised almost instantly — without relying on postcodes, third-party maps, or heavy sorting infrastructure.

This video compares traditional postcodes to the hierarchical nature of Atom:

Another groundbreaking change …

Nexus Grid enables something POSTX calls Virtual Sortation.

Virtual sortation eliminates the traditional “collect → central sort → deliver” model.

Instead of loading everything onto a large truck and driving it to a central sorting center for unloading and belt sorting, goods are pre-sorted directly at the origin warehouse into modular numbered trailer PODs (individually tracked by Bluetooth) — each one already grouped by its delivery destination or route.

Those PODs can be:

Pre-loaded at ground level for speed in or outside warehouses efficiently
Swapped between vehicles without unloading
Sent directly to their destination depot or delivery zone
Used as mobile depots for local delivery drivers, skipping the long commute into industrial estates to collect their parcels

This removes several-handling steps, eliminates the need to expand large sorting hubs, cuts loading/unloading times dramatically, and lowers transport costs by reducing unnecessary miles.

Now actually POSTX’s method for using trailer PODs isn’t altogether new. In fact the concept of separating the goods that need to be delivered from the driver all goes back to the horse and carriage days, and this was later replaced by the “mechanical horse”. While separating the goods and the driver has remained with us for long haul routes (e.g. 18-wheelers and 53′ trailers) it’s been lost for middle distance and local deliveries. POSTX is bringing that concept back to life.

The way goods used to be delivered. Credit: Steam: The Museum of the Great Western Railway

The 1948 Scammell Scarab: A “Mechanical Horse”. Credit: OnWheels

Let’s look at one of POSTX’s mailing labels. They are actually bi-directional and work for returns. And they eliminate the need for manual re-labelling for in-network transfer of goods or transfer across networks:

Credit: POSTX

Note Einstein is embedded in the QR code! As Max from POSTX told me:

Einstein gave us the tools to understand the chaotic dance of atoms. POSTX uses the Atom sorting index to decode the dance of shipments, reordering how we plan routes using space, time, and cost for logistics. I thought it made sense!

“But come on now!” I hear you say, “How could this tiny company with fewer than ten people get any business just by inventing a geospatial index for logistics?”

Well that’s where the other pillars of POSTX come in. Let’s tackle them one by one.

Pillar 2: Zero Emissions

If you visit the POSTX website, you’ll see that zero emissions is front and center in their message. And it’s certainly a key selling point that their customers are keen to leverage. The ability to claim “100% Emission Free Delivery” is a value that resonates strongly with the majority of consumers.

So every single one of the deliveries made within the POSTX network is done with electric vehicles. But they’re not doing it like Amazon and paying Rivian hundreds of millions of dollars to develop custom electric delivery vehicles. And nor are they doing it by buying a fleet of Ford E-Transits or Mercedes eSprinters. And they are not buying any electric trucks.

Nope, in fact they’re not using vans or trucks at all. They’re using electric cars, SUVs to be precise, all sourced from (cue “hiss”) … Tesla. But even then they’re not buying them. They’re renting them. And part of the secret sauce is they are using Teslas not on their own, but with trailers. It’s the modern day Scammell Scarab:

A POSTX Delivery in a Local Neighbourhood.

Here’s a short promo video explaining how it all works. If you pick one video to watch in this article then choose this one:

Phew, well that’s a bit different, eh? But that’s not all. Let’s move on…

Pillar 3: No CapEx

So, no purchasing of any electric vehicles. And no purchasing of any trailers either (they’re rented too). So no CapEx in fleet costs. In fact eventually POSTX envisages using a network of drivers who happen to own an electric vehicle that is capable of towing (for example, a Tesla Model Y).

The owners get to use their car as their daily driver but then they also get to make money from it by making deliveries. The folks at Tesla love this because POSTX is short circuiting Elon’s master plan for people to make money from their Tesla vehicles…

But it doesn’t stop with the fleet.

If you operate a logistics company — remember the story about FedEx? — one of your biggest costs is setting up a sorting warehouse. But due to the magic of the 21st-century geospatial logistics software behind POSTX, guess what?

You don’t need any warehouses with expensive conveyor belts dedicated to sorting goods and packages.

Goods are pre-sorted at the beginning of the fulfilment process, tracked with POSTX’s Atom destination code and return numbered labels, and then loaded directly into modular trailer PODs with the assigned numbers.

Any further sorting happens virtually — it appears in the driver’s route as a scheduled stop. At that stop, drivers either drop-swap & go (exchanging trailers moving in opposite directions) or perform a shipment exchange (transferring goods from one trailer to another). 

Think of it like internet data packets being sent from router-to-router, but one step further — instead of the routers being at a fixed locations they’re actually mobile.

These exchanges remove regional sorting overheads, significantly reduce sorting time, and can be completed while vehicles charge at designated “stop points” — eliminating the delays and costs of traditional hub-based processing.

Bam. There’s a humongous cost eliminated.

Pillar 4: Get Anywhere: Faster and MUCH Cheaper

There are a number the advantages of using a car with a trailer rather than a traditional panel truck or van.

First, unlike a truck, they are small. They can get virtually anywhere — for example, up someone’s narrow gravel driveway.

Second they are permitted virtually anywhere — there are generally no weight or size restrictions unlike there are for trucks.

Third, trailers are much faster to load and unload than trucks with tail lifts. Also, they are also a lot safer to load and unload. POSTX has shown that their trailers can be loaded 14X faster than a truck with a lift gate:

Fourth, unlike vans the trailers can be dropped off anywhere, sans driver. So they can be dropped off at a manufacturer’s facility the night before, loaded, and picked up later. They have the advantages of a full size 18-wheeler rig and trailer, but the size and weight advantages of a van.

But then let’s talk about cost. Not theoretically, but as proven in real world operations:

POSTX is showing their costs are 50% less than using a diesel truck, not including the driver. If you take into account the full cost of the driver, this cost savings rises to 70% or more, not because POSTX pays their drivers less, but because of the efficiency brought to bear by the geospatial excellence of their system. As a result they need significantly fewer driver hours to make the same deliveries.

Pillar 5: Logistics-as-a-Service

So actually POSTX isn’t looking to compete with the big boys at all. You see they don’t see themselves as a logistics company. They see themselves as a Logistics-as-Service platform that helps existing logistics companies significantly reduce their costs. They do this by automating planning, routing and sortation, all powered by a network of driver owned EVs and rented trailers.

As such POSTX is aiming to provide a service to logistics companies for 20-40% of their routes with a much more flexible and lower cost solution.

By optimising sortation and routes using their modern Nexus Grid platform they can increase speed, efficiency and reliability all while significantly reducing costs.

Pillar 6: Focus!

For any startup, focus is critical. And for POSTX it’s no different. They are focused on just one aspect of the logistics market. It’s called the “middle mile”. As opposed to last mile, the middle mile is involved with bulk shipments that commonly involve moving pallets of goods over longer distances, often with fewer stops.

In the UK, existing middle mile fleets typically spend £300+ ($400+) per route and cost £60/hour ($80) to run. POSTX has proven they can cut these costs in half.

And so POSTX’s is the end-to-end platform for logistic companies to make their middle mile deliveries.

And there’s another network effect. As more customers use the POSTX platform, it continuously indexes detailed movement patterns — rather like Google indexing the web — enabling increasingly accurate predictions on how to move goods with the optimal balance of time, cost, and service.

So How is POSTX doing?

Incredibly well.

Growing 29% MoM. A solid base of middle mile logistics customers across the UK. Providing a capital light / no CapEx model with simple pricing. And already over 300,000 miles of tailpipe emissions avoided.

One of their key customers is a group called Segen, who is a top distributor of solar systems, energy storage and EV charging solutions across the UK. Faced with high damage claims, delays, failed deliveries and rising middle mile costs they turned to POSTX to help them with deliveries.

The outcomes?

100% on-time, in-full deliveries with 0% damage
50% cost savings
Multi-site expansion after 12 week pilot

And POSTX’s success is showing up in other areas too:

In October last year they won a National Sustainability Award together with their customers Segen and E.ON
This year they are being recognised as building the UK’s safest courier business.