Shipit: How To Ship Safe With Crowdshipping
We shall tell the truth. Only the truth. And nothing but the truth. Shipit won’t be the first crowdsourced delivery platform. There is competition on the market that has been around for a while. Today we take a look at them and ponder how Shipit could improve on what they offer.
Disclaimer, this article seeks not smear our competitors, undermine them in any possible way or overpraise Shipit. We are here to find both advantages and disadvantages of several crowdsourced logistics companies and try and assess them from a regular customer’s point of view.
PiggyBee
PiggyBee was started as one of the first crowdsourced shipping platforms by Basile Bedelek and David Vylsteke in 2012.
Side note, David is a great guy; very friendly and kind, he wished us best of luck when we reached out to him to have a chat about the current situation on the market. He also answers emails addressed to PiggyBee support personally — that’s what we call individual approach!
PiggyBee functions as a website platform where you can directly access the list of travelers offering their services or post your own trip, once you are registered of course. Now, the main features.
Advantages:
- Simple interface, easy to understand and use;
- Easy to register; you can register using your FB page.
- Listings are monitored on the back-end; manual check during pick-up is highlighted as the main security measure to be taken by each traveler.
- Every package is insured against loss or damage by MARSH (max 1500 EUR).
- Both international and local deliveries are available; shipping big-sized items is an option in case a traveler has a truck or a van.
Disadvantages:
- No mobile app.
- No security means against users attempting to upload any misleading images when creating a listing.
- No KYC with government ID.
- Rigid 10% commission.
- Limited insurance deposit.
In general, we could recommend PiggyBee as one of the best services currently available on the market (before Shipit is done scaling up and is fully available on the market, of course). It’s simple and effective.
However, from our point of view KYC by social media profiles, email and phone number could sometimes be insufficient to prevent malicious actors from using the platform for their illegal activities. Besides, limited insurance means that if you need to ship something of very high value, you will still have to resort to DHL, FedEx and other conventional companies which implies higher costs. With Shipit you can ship anything as long as the traveler can afford creating an insurance deposit or use factoring service. Aside from that, using SHPT reduces the fee you pay Shipit for handling funds and providing security and dispute resolution in case something goes wrong.
Airmule
Airmule is not exactly P2P platform and could be of interest only to travelers, unless you are a small or medium business or plan to ship substantial volumes and regularly. The platform — started by Sean Yang and Rory Felton in 2015 -exists in the form of a website that aggregates items, scans, packs and ships them via travelers who are ready to sell their luggage space.
Advantages:
- Airmule ensures that all packages meet all relevant customs requirements.
- The platform packs all items and provides thorough descriptions and photos; at the same time, travelers are encouraged to double-check the packages before agreeing to make a delivery.
- No need to worry about any customs taxes or levies, Airmule takes care of all the paperwork or reimburses you any unforeseen expenses related to customs checks.
Disadvantages:
- Only US citizens with US bank account can be travelers.
- Maximum insurance is $300; in case of shipping a high-value item purchasing additional insurance is required (the price amounts to the maximum of $6500).
- Traveler’s tip is limited at $500.
- Service is available only in China, California and Greater New York Area.
- Once again, the app is lacking.
Airmule is great when it comes to security but has somewhat limited geography and only accepts you as a traveler if you are a US citizen. Additionally, you can’t expect to be paid more than $500 and even then you are required to have 4 free luggage slots.
Entrusters
Entruster is a platform that offers mail forwarding services and enables you to shop internationally at Amazon, Nike, Apple and Ralph Lauren and get your purchases delivered to you by travelers.
Founded by Andrew Justice, David Larpent and Wesley McRae, this website platform has been around since 2014.
Advantages:
- All fees are calculated in advance, no hidden charges.
- Door delivery via local logistics companies partnered by Entrusters; you will need to pay additional fees.
- The platform accepts Bitcoin.
- Full refund in case you package gets lost, stolen or damaged.
- Any customs charges are also reimbursed by the platform if applied.
Disadvantages:
- Uncertain or quite long delivery time; even if you are ready to pay extra and us Buy It Now option, the delivery time could still take up to 21 days.
- The platform claims that it may but is not obligated to KYC its users.
- Lack of mobile app.
- Only email communications between a shopper and a traveler.
- Traveler may have to wait for 72 hours to get their remuneration.
- US sales tax and domestic shipping charges may applied to the delivery, although the traveler is technically the only owner of the item purchase and hence should not be charged anything from the said category.
As we can see, despite that crowdshipping has been around for quite some time by now, there is a lot to be improved. This is exactly what Shipit intends to do. How? Be sure to check our article or our WP).
Now, you can participate in our project by joining and liking us and sharing our posts on FB, Twitter and Telegram. Ship us to the world and we shall deliver!
