Delivery Services

Global Crowdsourced Delivery Update

The founder of Piggybee (who I previously interviewed) published an interesting new blog post which includes a comprehensive list of peer to peer delivery companies, and some interesting thoughts on why this business model should succeed (or at least why he’s not crazy to be trying it).

IMG_1637

Crowdsourced delivery, or peer to peer delivery, is usually not on a motorbike

This sharing economy service allows travelers to generate some extra income by carrying things for other people while they travel, putting empty space in luggage to work. In addition to expanding the delivery listings in my peer to peer travel services spreadsheet, David speculates that the following are key problems for startups in this space which have thus far prevented any one from taking off (in order of importance):

– critical mass
– last mile delivery
– security/customs/taxes
– trust

All but the last mile delivery are issues for most peer to peer companies. As I wrote in an overview of crowdsourced delivery, a lot of new peer to peer delivery companies were founded in the past two years. If a few of these companies can work out the kinks, this presents travelers like me a great opportunity to earn some money. I am undertaking my first peer to peer delivery in a few weeks, stay tuned for my report on that experience.

2 Comments

    • Hi Aman, you should check out the links in this post for more information on companies you could use to do this. I don’t know of any focusing on deliveries to/from India yet, but there may be listings on some of the sites that offer services around the globe. I hope you can find some! Let me know how it goes.