'Uber-for-documents' startup now targets businesses

Cape Town - Local delivery start-up 'picup' has launched a business service that promises high-speed delivery times.

On Thursday, picup launched picupBusiness which will target firms that need speedy delivery of documents and parcels. The company promises delivery times of under 90 minutes.

"It didn't take long for us to realise that businesses formed a core part of our target market and we needed a solution that allowed them to place a picup from their PC," said founder Antonio Bruni.

The company launched its consumer facing business in May, saying that it intended to collaborate with industry rather than disrupt, but the new service is clearly a salvo at the traditional model.

READ: 'Uber-for-documents' startup launches in CPT

"In order to offer a same-day solution, courier companies need to pull a driver off a route to do one delivery or they need one designated driver doing same-day deliveries, which results in exorbitant costs," Bruni argued.

Strategy

Picup has a fleet of drivers with different vehicles which affords the company some flexibility in terms of how fast it can navigate traffic.

Bruni said that the model eases the process of deliveries.

"In our mind, same-day delivery means delivery within 90-minutes (traffic dependant) of placing the picup. In today's world, people need things to be done immediately and we're helping them achieve that.

"What's more, you only have to sign up with picup once, and after that the steps to place a picup are so simple you can do it in under three minutes. This allows people to get back to running their business without having to worry about tedious paperwork or hand delivering a document to get it to the right person on time."

The choice of using a website to drive the new platform, in contrast to the WeChat platform of the consumer application is deliberate strategy, said Bruni.

"While today's consumer is constantly on the go and a mobile offering on WeChat is the perfect solution, the average business person still does most of their work from a desktop computer."

Watch Grant Isaacs explain the reasoning of using WeChat in this News24 Live video:

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