Johannesburg - A local start up aims to be the 'Uber' for same-city parcel deliveries in Gauteng and Cape Town.
South African start up WumDrop has launched its Deliver 2 Me service, which allows users to deliver packages to the exact location of recipients by determining their exact GPS location on their smartphones.
Apart from identifying the recipients' exact locations, the service also tracks packages along its route – offering what the startup dubs 'a no address solution'.
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Working similar to cab-hailing app Uber, Wumdrop’s Deliver 2 Me allows for Wumdrop’s drivers to download an app similar to the Uber Drivers’ app.
The company has said that the service is available to retailers via integration with WumDrop’s API.
Deliver 2 Me also represents a potential push for the company into business-to-customer delivery, particularly across Africa, where address data can be highly unreliable.
“What makes this technology remarkable is its scalability," said Wilson Canda, WumDrop CTO.
"Deliver 2 Me isn’t locked into a native mobile app like most geolocation services - it leverages the increasingly powerful suite of features found in mobile browsers to deliver an accurate delivery location to the driver, and a clean, easy to use interface to the end user,” Canda said.
Wumdrop was founded in May 2014, and has offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
They were awarded the MTN Business App of the Year in 2015.
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Deliver 2 Me is available exclusively through www.tfg.co.za for the launch of the product.
“We’re honoured to be partnering with TFG for the launch of Deliver 2 Me. It’s incredibly encouraging to see one of South Africa’s most established businesses willing to put their trust in the technology of a young local startup,” Simon Hartley, WumDrop founder said.
How it works:
Visit www.wumdrop.com. Place your order, and choose the Deliver 2 Me option.
When a parcel is ready for delivery, users will receive an SMS with a link to the Deliver 2 Me mobile web app.
Users can either choose “deliver now” or “deliver later”.
Choosing Deliver now will allow users to drop a pin or type in a specific location.
Choosing Deliver later will allow users to choose another time or day when they prefer for Wumdrop to SMS the user to start the Deliver now step above.
Users can also change their location while a delivery is taking place.
Never worry about missing another delivery, ever again.
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