bpost launches crowdshipping app, bringr
bpost has launched a new collaborative platform app, called bringr, which will enable users to source drivers who can transport goods for them. In a statement issued today (20 June) bpost explained the concept: “With bringr, a scoop in Belgium, bpost complements its existing product range with a service that enables users to find a driver to pick up goods at point A and deliver them to point B (for instance the transport of a microwave oven you just bought via a second-hand website, the forgotten keys that you need back, an armchair just too big for your car, etc.).”
The bringr app is available for iOS and Android. People can use the app both to request deliveries and also register as drivers. The price for the service, said bpost is “based on various parameters, such as weight and distance; payment is made electronically through the app”.
The concept will look familiar to people who have used the services provided by companies like Roadie in the United States, or Nimber in the UK and Norway.
For the moment, bpost is running the service as a pilot project in the Antwerp area. But while the pick-up location has to be in the Antwerp area, the delivery address can be anywhere in Belgium. If the pilot is successful, bpost plans to roll the service out to other cities.
Koen Van Gerven, bpost’s CEO, said: “The digitization of our world represents threats but offers opportunities at the same time. We don’t have to fear digitization but embrace it and use it to make bpost a stronger company. This is what innovation is about and bringr is a good example of this.”
Interestingly, Triangle’s World Mail and Express Europe Conference, which took place in Warsaw last week, focused on how traditional post and parcel companies can adapt to, and learn from, “disruptive” developments like digitization and crowdsourcing/crowdshipping.
