Shipping 2.0
- by Laura Daly , April 1, 2016
Zaldee
Developer: Zaldee, Inc.
Free
The sharing economy has disrupted many a traditional business model. Zaldee® is the sharing economy’s attempt to break into the multi-billion dollar shipping/courier businesses.
Zaldee® is a ship-on-demand app that matches one’s need to send a package with a traveler’s final destination. As a traveler, you get to monetize this extra baggage. As someone who urgently needs to send a package, sending your package via a traveler can be significantly cheaper than going through shipping companies. Beyond the price differentials, Zaldee can also give you a shipping option when your needs do not correspond with a shipping company’s hours of operation.
As is typical with a sharing economy business model, the onus of vetting is upon those involved in the transaction. Given today’s focus on security, there is some serious vetting that has to be done when accepting to deliver a package. Zaldee has anticipated this and has many features and mandates that help both sides of the transaction feel secure.
Both traveler and sender have to fill out a personal profile: name, photo, phone, email, and social media accounts. As with Airbnb, both traveler and sender will amass rankings and reviews. Another layer of safety is the need for the sender and traveler to meet in a public place and that the item being carried cannot be wrapped, allowing the traveler to know what he/she will be carrying.
The process: travelers and senders are connected based upon proximity, delivery timetable, specific info on the package’s recipient, the traveler’s itinerary and user reviews/rankings. The package, inspected and approved by the traveler is delivered to the recipient. The traveler gets paid.
Communication throughout the transaction is facilitated by the app’s chat feature. While Zaldee provides suggested shipping prices, it is left to the traveler/ sender to set and agree on a price and when payment will be made. These are currently cash-only transactions, or PayPal if both sides have accounts.
To date, there have been 100,000+ downloads of Zaldee, and a 4.5 user rating on iTunes.
