DeliverWithMe : Get Benefits For Carrying A Parcel With You In The Flight

@thebigk • Oct 24, 2024

Oct 24, 2024

3.3K

DeliverWithMe has come up with a novel concept for shipments. If you're traveling on a flight and don't mind carrying someone's parcel with you - you can receive benefits in exchange. That's how DeliverWithMe works. In short - it's a crowdsourced eCommerce delivery platform.

Here's a short minute-long elevator pitch from DeliverWithMe-

Do you think the startup has the potential to scale? Will 'YOU' be willing to carry someone else's parcel on the flight?

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Ashraf HZ

@Ash • Jul 11, 2013

Definitely not! Unless its from someone I know, I will not risk carrying a stranger's parcel. Seems an easy way to be a drug mule, lol.
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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Jul 11, 2013

ash
Definitely not! Unless its from someone I know, I will not risk carrying a stranger's parcel. Seems an easy way to be a drug mule, lol.
Yeah. How if a peddler impersonates as a DeliverWithMe representative and then hands over a packet of brown sugar? 👎 The security guys will stone you in no time.

By the way - do we have any deliverwithme representatives reading this thread? If yes, tell us how you plan to fix those situations?
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Ramani Aswath

@ramani-VR4O43 • Jul 12, 2013

Grave Security breach. Specifically banned by prominent notices at all air ports.
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Anand Satyan

@anand-satyan-22TrCk • Jul 13, 2013

Hello everyone. I am the founder of DeliverWithMe. I would love to address all your concerns about DeliverWithMe here.

Security is the primary concern for anyone who signs up for or reads about DeliverWithMe. I would like to draw a parallel business model to DWM.

Mumbai's dabbawallas are a six sigma company and have been able to achieve reliability and accuracy of more than 99%. The security concerns mentioned above exist with Dabbawallas too. Anyone can dress up as a dabbawalla and deliver anything illegal (including explosives) to your office/house 😀 . That would instantly blow you up. We have studied the dabbawalla model in detail and understand how they manage to build such high levels of trust and accuracy. When it comes to deliverwithme we have managers present at airports at all times. We are with you right from the time you pick things up from us till the time you return it back to us at the destination airport. Travelers are given numbers and contact details of managers who are responsible for the travelers' safety. If there is something illegal present in what you are carrying you can immediately report it and call our managers or our helpline numbers.

To begin with, we even have an open bag policy where we bring an open box to you and show you what is inside. These shipments are directly from e-commerce company warehouses and are brand new. The uncertainty of something illegal present in them is omnipresent. When you buy something from a shop at the airport or elsewhere there is no guarantee that it doesn't contain drugs. We ask for confirmation from the traveller and then seal it in front of you and hand it over to you. So there is no question of carrying explosives.

We do only small package sizes and restrict ourselves to certain categories of products such as books and apparels.

We use the power of social graph to know who you are and who you are connected to. To become a dabbawalla, you need to be related to an existing dabbawalla. Else they will never take you in. We use a similar model with social graph. We dont give packages to everyone who signs up. We only give them to those who are socially related to someone who has already delivered for us before.

I am sitting at Bangalore International Airport and writing this post. Being the founder, I spend my day at the airport from morning 6 30 to night 10 30 to ensure things are in order. Today I am the manager for Bangalore Airport and I will personally be talking to our travelers to know them better. I plan to do this over a few weeks so that I am exposed to an initial community of travelers. Once a traveler has delivered a package safely, I mark his profile as trustworthy in our database using a mobile app we have built.

As far as the trustworthiness of managers at the airport is concerned, We train them for almost one month before they can go to the airport and manage all by themselves. They all have valid DeliverWithMe badges which are difficult to fake. If they misbehave with you, please feel free to call me at 7406732496 and do not carry the package. My number is also put as a helpline on our website. In case of theft or loss of a package, we are insured.

If you feel that the manager badges are not credible enough to trust us, It's the same case in all organizations which rely on a supply chain.

As far as credibility of the brand is concerned, we are very open about who we are and how you can get in touch with us. Our contact numbers and address details are available on the website for you to contact us 24/7. We have been featured in multiple top magazines and blogs including Forbes, Economic Times and Bangalore Mirror.

There are various competing companies who do similar things in the international market such as Postmates (#-Link-Snipped-#). Even a big brand such as Walmart (<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2013/03/29/be-your-neighbors-fedex-walmarts-next-move-on-deliveries/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Be Your Neighbor's FedEx - Walmart's Next Move On Deliveries</a>) is working on crowdsourced local deliveries and they started work on it about a month ago. They see that it is possible to crowdsource deliveries. We started 7 months back and we understand the issues and are continuously working on it to make it a reality.

As for crowdsourcing, it is a being done all over the world. Airbnb (#-Link-Snipped-#) is a company that crowdsources PG Rooms. They have existed for about 5 years and have grown to become a billion dollar value company and are one of the fastest growing companies in the world. You can get strangers to come and stay in your house for a few days and get paid for it. Think about the kind of security issues that can come up here. Yet, they have survived without many incidents and people opt for them in big numbers.

I see it Deliverwithme as a noble cause. I saw problems in the way logistics is handled and tried to solve it. According to the ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, our domestic cargo stands at 0.89 million metric tonnes per year. Of this, 17.1% is transported by aircraft specially dedicated to freight operations. Whereas passenger flights utilize only 68% of their cargo capacity. Further calculation showed that if passenger flights utilized their capacity to the fullest, we would not be needing any special flights. In fact, we would still have 16% of the space left unused. Think about the number of trips that can be reduced by utilizing this space and further the amount of fuel saved because of this.

This concept has existed at a community level for years. How many times have you heard someone say 'US se aa rahe ho kya? Kuch leke aana udhar se'. I am just trying to do the same in a crowdsourced manner.

On an average ecommerce deliveries take about 3 to 5 days to get shipped to your doorstep. I am trying to get this down to a couple of hours. Cost of shipping is also significantly reduced through deliverwithme. The whole ecommerce market relies on their supply chain to provide value. Im just adding value to this sector.

The inefficiencies of the current logistics operators are shocking to say the least. Let me elaborate with the scenario for international deliveries. If you wish to send something to the US, things first go to a hub in Europe, get sorted and then go to the US. If you want to send something to Russia, things still go all the way to Europe, get sorted and then go to Russia instead of directly going to Russia. (Disclaimer: This is not the case for ALL logistics operators). Think about the amount of wasted fuel because of this process. This pain point is solved by DeliverWithMe at a intra-national level.

I still believe in the goodness of people. Being an entrepreneur I have to believe in it in order to survive. So Kaustubh Katdare, when you are giving away information or passing comments, please make sure to give the full information. If 100 people say that a fact is wrong, it still remains a fact.
Keep Travelling, Keep Delivering.
Anand Satyan

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Anand Satyan

@anand-satyan-22TrCk • Jul 13, 2013

If you still think that I am not doing right, write to me at #-Link-Snipped-#. Feel free to call me at 7406732496.

I have never written such a big post on any forum or community before but I wanted to do it here at crazyengineers because I want the students in this forum to embrace startups and entrepreneurship and believe in goodness.

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Apurwa.Thakur

@apurwathakur-8cwdkc • Jul 13, 2013

This post remind me "my college offering 10000 concession in fee of those student who is responsible for admission of student".
😲
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Ramani Aswath

@ramani-VR4O43 • Jul 13, 2013

In my opinion should still be avoided for air travel. The risks are too much. Can be used for other modes.
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Apurwa.Thakur

@apurwathakur-8cwdkc • Jul 13, 2013

A.V.Ramani
In my opinion should still be avoided for air travel. The risks are too much. Can be used for other modes.

R u thinking of something like time machine?😁
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Ramani Aswath

@ramani-VR4O43 • Jul 13, 2013

Rail, truck and bullock or hand carts as used in India for goods transport has been quoted as a very cost effective delivery system.
I have seen some agencies unofficially using the AC coach attendants to carry parcels on trains between Bangalore and Madras. I am sure that this is being done between other stations as well. I was thinking of those sorts of operations.
What concerns me is what this story tells:
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/magazine/the-professor-the-bikini-model-and-the-suitcase-full-of-trouble.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">The Professor, the Bikini Model and the Suitcase Full of Trouble - The New York Times</a>

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