[unohoo]

With so many startups doing things similar to this (do local tasks, fetch food, deliver stuff, clean home, do laundry) -- I am wondering where and how they will all be able to hire local runners (lets not forget ebay, google and amazon also trying to get into this 'get it now' mania).

It might actually be a killer idea to employ these local runners -- and then get jobs from all these varied companies/startups. So, doordash, instacart, prim etc. could all contact you and use your workforce -- you essentially remove the headache of hiring, scheduling and logistics for these startups. But then -- what would be the point of all these startups -- you could just offer these services yourself if you owned the runners :)

[chrissnell]

It's an interesting idea, actually. Your value-add is that you (the "runner" company) blanket the area with runners. You give them RAM mounts and tablets that run an app that predictively puts them in the most likely zone when they're not making a run. If you have enough drivers, you could conceivably dispatch one to any location within 5-10 minutes. Add 10-20 minutes of driving time to the destination and you're conceivably doing sub-30 minute deliveries like Dominos promised in the 1980s. The more customers (customers being companies like Prim, Doordash, etc.) you have, the more you can saturate and the shorter that time becomes.

Automate the pick-up arrangements and intelligently route them on best route to the drop-off. No need to collect money at the drop-off site other than tips. That's handled during the API transaction, where "RunnerCo" collects and skims it's per-transaction fee.

The reason that so many delivery services failed in years past was that they were doing radio dispatching with poor/minimal map and routing technology and they were collecting cash money at the door. No wonder they couldn't make a profit.

[evancharles]

I like this idea. Managing a workforce like ours (DoorDash) is incredibly difficult, and our ability to do it well is probably the greatest advantage we could have. The idea is to make software that makes complex tasks simple.

[jaggederest]

I was actually just thinking of this as an API middleman to dispatch tasks to the appropriate company with a markup.