thanks - sent me in the right direction and now sorted
After a bit of minor tweaking it worked.  This was the final working code:
$uniqueriders = array();
for($e = 0; $e < sizeof($this->Items); $e++){
    if(!(in_array($this->Items[$e]->rider, $uniqueriders))){
        $uniqueriders[$e] = $this->Items[$e]->rider;
    }
}
$riders = count($uniqueriders);  
I noticed if I run the ecart interface it dissapears, but that is no hardship.  Many thanks for your assistance on this custom code.


