Postmates Raises $80M in Push Toward $1 Deliveries(blogs.wsj.com) |
Postmates Raises $80M in Push Toward $1 Deliveries(blogs.wsj.com) |
Getting something now is definitely better than getting it later which is definitely better than getting it tomorrow and on and on. But there are not a lot of things that I really need now or today. And I suspect most will be unwilling to pay for speed very much.
In fact we actually hired people that hated the old/current Postmates model.
But basically, it's not an easy business model and it's not one that makes financial sense, no matter what the funding, city, tipping situation is.
Deliveries = Time Time = Money
If you want someone to have time to make deliveries, you have to pay them enough money to have that time. Until VERY EXPENSIVE robots and cars replace people, deliveries will always be expensive, and relatively dependent on the speed of traffic + production. And even once we have robots, we'll need to charge enough to cover the robots, the guy that repairs the robots and money to invest in the next robot. That probably will be more than an dollar... especially when you factor in energy for the robots.
I reckon for some time we'll see people sitting in self-driving cars just to take care of the final hand over.
Actually, just struck me that what might work is an Amazon Locker on wheels plus an Uber-style app. You track the package drawing near via app (plus alerts) then go outside to grab it from an opening on the van before the vehicle recognises a completed transaction and drives off. You could take a delivery at a park, home, work, anywhere with a road nearby.
Covering the last 50 meters with a quadrotor has potential. With very short flights and frequent recharges, the carrying capacity could be quite high. You could also deliver to apartment building balconies or trays mounted outside windows.
I am not sure about this style of food delivery, it's weird and off putting to me though I can't exactly say why.
Although I have caught a few issues where they charged double for an avocado or something like that but it seems like more of a data entry error based on the current price of "2 for 1"
DoorDash recently launched in my neighborhood, and I've noticed that prices are there are significantly higher, to the point of adding $5-10 on to the price of the same order from Grubhub
Just order pizza or Chinese.
This is a feature, not a bug.
> Just order pizza or Chinese.
That's so 1999. The hip, ultra-efficient city-dwellers of 2015 have Soylent on tap.
But interestingly, I see this as a huge win for people that may be home-bound due to age or injury. Specialty services that cater to this demographic are expensive and not nearly as responsive.
I actually question their business model because I think something like Sprig will be far more specialized to cut costs sustainably than something like a Postmates will ever be able to.
For example I used it to get diet food deliveries from a local 'fitness food' cafe 30m away. It saved me an hour of time. And this place didn't do deliveries.
I don't see that as a viable option for most restaurants, unless postmastes can absolutely guarantee that a courier will be out delivering their orders within 10 minutes of them being completed by the kitchen and delivered within 30 minutes after pickup.
And at that point, if you're basically paying postmates to constantly have a courier on call for your restaurant, why wouldn't you just hire a driver? They mostly make minimum wage and live off of tips, and they pay for their own car, insurance, gas, etc.
I knew a delivery driver once, and he was not a happy man.
For future reference, the specific thought in your second sentence is the kind of thing that makes for a substantive critique instead of a generic dismissal, and if you added a bit more detail about why you think this—something for people to consider and respond to—then you'd have a fine comment. We're certainly not trying to eliminate critique.
I've never seen the in store pricing option here.