AL Now: Giving local London businesses a boost with our new two-hour delivery service

As a business that has called London its home for 45 years, we’ve been proud to play our part in supporting the capital through the pandemic.

From the day we arrived in the business in late March last year, we’ve been adapting our offer to support the needs of London’s businesses and citizens, and to keep drivers’ wheels turning.  

During the first lockdown, we made sure that key workers could get to and from work safely and back in April we launched Donate A Ride to get NHS staff to work for free.

We’re the only major private hire operator to have installed screens across our standard fleet to protect passengers and drivers. And we recently announced our Vaccination Drive to provide discounted rides for people travelling to and from major vaccination centres.

Delivering the goods for London

Since the start of the first lockdown – with people staying at home and shopping shifting online – we’ve seen our courier business grow by 30%.

With restrictions looking likely to continue for some time, and shopping patterns altered forever, we’re helping London businesses adapt to new trading realities with the launch of AL Now – a new two-hour delivery service that gives local London businesses a better, faster way to deliver to their customers.

Unlike other delivery services which give customers all-day delivery windows, AL Now allows London businesses to offer consumers a specific two-hour delivery slot. The service – built on technology we’re already using with major online players – is designed to help independent local businesses compete on a more level playing field with retail giants like Amazon by giving their customers unparalleled choice and control over delivery timings.

Love local: helping London businesses this Valentine’s Day

We’re launching the new service just in time for Valentine’s Day, as new research we commissioned revealed that many Brits this year are planning to turn their back on retail giants and looking to local businesses to provide a special gift for loved ones.

We found that almost half (47%) of those celebrating this year want to support local businesses in their community by buying from them this Valentine’s Day – but that 54% would be more likely to shop with local businesses if they offered a quick and efficient delivery service.

That’s why we created AL Now – to give smaller, independent London businesses a simple, speedy way to deliver the goods to their customers.

We’re delighted that we already have some fantastic local businesses on board ahead of Valentine’s Day – Islington-based champagne retailer The Finest Bubble (IG: @thefinestbubble), Earlsfield florist Blume Studio (@blumestudiostore), menswear retailer Hackett (@hackettlondon) and The Urban Vintage Affair (@the_urban_vintage_affair), an N1 antique store.

From antique shops and artisan bakers, to bottle shops, boutiques, delis and designers, any London businesses can take advantage of our new service.  We’d love to hear how we can help you – please get in touch with our commercial team on either 0203 800 03 65 or at sales@addisonlee.com

Liam Griffin,

CEO, Addison Lee