UHI Business Awards: War on Ukraine inspired app for Inverness University of the Highlands and Islands student
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Aleksandra Czech-Seklecka and husband Mariusz Seklecki, from Inverness, picked up the Best Researched award at the UHI Business Awards this year.
Student Aleksandra (35) came up with the idea for a mobile application – called QuickPick – linking businesses and transport providers after being let down at the last minute by a company she had arranged to collect medical supplies she had gathered in Inverness to help people in war-torn Ukraine and had less than one week to find alternative transport.
Aleksandra said: “It took me long and stressful hours to search and contact different transport companies, usually just to learn that they were not available for such a route at that time.
“This is when I had got an idea of an app, which allows you to easily search for transport vehicles available at your required time and route.
“At that time, I also learned that transport companies often have to run empty or only partially loaded vehicles in order to pick some load from a far destination or come back empty after delivering the load. “This sounds to me like a problem with a wide impact on transport costs, volume of traffic on the roads, carbon emissions, which me and my husband can help to solve with our app.
“The UHI Business Competition was a great opportunity to be able to present my idea in front of the judges, who are experienced business people, and get feedback from them as well as some advice on my next steps.”
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