Its the time of year when I dust off the site and give it another go at success. The last week was spent upgrading the software from ruby on rails version 2.3 to version 3.1. Rails 3 is faster and will be easier to make future changes with.
Everyone delivers also got a new logo.
I used to think that summertime was the preferable season to spread the word about everyonedelivers. Thats probably true for getting delivery people to participate. Recently I’ve been realizing that winter time with its inhospitable weather is the time to get listings.
While biking back from the market with a load of pickled goods and preserved foods I thought about how I can fairly easily get to a store under my own power with time being the only cost and how there are others who probably have a much harder time getting to the store.
Safety is a prime concern and one change that is planned for is using “nearest intersection” in place of an address on delivery listings. The exact address would be revealed to whomever accepted the delivery. Then I thought about social networks and having people you know do the delivery. That’d be a huge help in establishing trust. Taking a cue from Second Porch, what if a delivery request were advertised just to your social network? With a facebook login feature, a new delivery could ask to post the request to your newsfeed. Existing facebook friends could see the request, which could optionally stay out of the public search on the site itself.
Which leads me to another feature, having @everyonedelivrs tweet out any new public delivery lising.
While making Delivery #161 in Portland, one of the recipient’s coworkers pointed out squareup.com. I was vaguely aware of being able to run a credit card through a cell phone, but being reminded of that at the point of delivery was a revelation. With any delivery person having a Point Of Sale machine in their pocket and being able to run a visa at the doorstep seems custom made for everyonedelivers.
The current functionality of EveryoneDelivers.com allows for the listing of delivery requests, browsing requests, and claiming a request. There is a lot more to getting a delivery job done, including payment and feedback. There are a number of workable models on who pays what first and division of responsibility. Below is the method I feel is the best start for performing deliveries.
One way to think of this setup is that the delivery person is selling the item to the listing person at their doorstep. The listing person helps the delivery person make a sale by specifying exactly what they want, but a sale is not guaranteed. For brevity I’m going to use two made-up words, the ‘lister’ is the person making the delivery request and the ‘fufiller’ is the person making the delivery. The most common use case, I imagine, is having the fufiller purchase the item from a store, then making the delivery.
First step: Accepting the delivery on the website. lister risk: none, fufiller risk: none.
Second step: The delivery person travels to the store and fronts the money to buy the item. Risk: fufiller has spent X of their own money in exchange for the item. Considerations: Make 100% sure you are buying the right item. Ideas on how to help with this: a UPC code in the delivery listing (for items with a UPC code)
Third step: Deliver the item to the destination address. Case: lister denies the item. It is the lister’s prerogative to deny the item at any time for any reason. The fufiller is then stuck with the item and is out the cash. The fufiller may be able to return the item to the store. Case: Lister accepts the item. The lister paypal’s the retail amount plus bounty amount to the fufiller’s paypal address. The lister reveals a code to the fufiller that allows the fufiller to mark on the website that the delivery was completed successfully. This increases the history/reputation of the fufiller and lister.
These steps eliminate a whole category of problems of the lister fronting money while the fufiller walks away with it. It provides a back-out strategy for the fufiller (with returnable items) but more risk is put on the fufiller than the lister. This is because the fufiller profits by making deliveries. Even in the rare case of making a delivery, being denied, and not being able to return the item, a history of successful deliveries will provide enough profit to insulate against the occasional failure.
I expect in the future that there will be a selection of mechanisms the lister can elect to use, such as delivery person pays first, listing person pays first, listing person pays retail first bounty later.
November 2011 front page
December 2011 front page
I hope its an improvement. There are lots more changes coming. I use this boarding pass blog post as inspiration.
The EveryoneDelivers service has been quietly getting some attention lately. There is a first take at a logo up on the site. The user’s progression from the front page to getting inside the site is being reworked. You’ll see small changes being pushed to the site every other day. Please use the GetSatisfaction page for comments or suggestions.
The ad on the Whiffies Pie cart
Yesterday a new laminated sign for EveryoneDelivers.com was posted to the Whiffies Fried Pie cart.
