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Yea and to think about it, it can be expanded to other stuff as well. Not just restaurants. Imagine this: 1. I am located at LA, have a friend at New York who

Yea and to think about it, it can be expanded to other stuff as well. Not just restaurants. Imagine this: 1. I am located at LA, have a friend at New York who has something that he needs to give me. 2. A person named Adam is on his way back to New York to LA. 3. Why not let Adam take that something from my friend in New York and bring it back to LA with him? 4. Waiting/paying for USPS, UPS, Fedex, is too long and costly. This is better

amorphid 15y ago
I can just imagine trying to explain to the TSA agent at the airport that I was carrying someone else's package. I'm sure something could be worked out.
- aherlambang 15y ago
  Yea, that's also one prevention that needs to taken care off in the system. The user should make it clear what package is being carried and have the permission to open the package, if necessary. I don't want this to be a drug smuggling facility in the end.
- ksolanki 15y ago
  I am not sure it this could simply be "worked out". I think this TSA issue could get nasty.
gmichnikov 15y ago
I remember coming across the idea of crowdsourced shipping before; google around and you might get some more thoughts (e.g. http://www.cambrianhouse.com/idea/idea-promoter/ideas-id/8TIvkTW/ http://www.cambrianhouse.com/idea/idea-promoter/ideas-id/8TI...)
- aherlambang 15y ago
  so has anyone implemented it and be successful?
lsc 15y ago
eh, I think that the economies of scale UPS/USPS/FedEx have will make it difficult for this to work for long-haul shipping; my understanding is that most of the fuel used is used getting the package from the local hub to your house, so I think taking care of the long-haul part as you describe doesn't make all that much sense. On the other hand, whenever you get such a large megacorp involved, there are certain inefficiencies inherent to being a large megacorp... e.g. I remain price competitive with amazon, so I could be wrong. Really, I think the food idea is great because it's filling a need that isn't being filled at all. As far as I can tell, delivery services are pretty dang good. you can get something light shipped across the country in a day or two for ten or twenty bucks. Seems like a good deal to me. Food on the other hand, other than pizza, where I am, I can't get food delivered until I'm at 'catering scale' (water.com doesn't work for just me and my employee, unless I want to pick up myself, which defeats the point) The thing is, I'm in the heart of silicon valley. Lots of overpaid nerds who don't want to leave the house (or office) - we'd be glad to pay even taxi per-mile rates to get someone to bring us our take-out. There are more underpaid kids around here than you'd think, people who would be happy to make food runs for less than taxi per-mile rates. Figure out how to hook up those two groups, and you have a business model.
- aherlambang 15y ago
  thank you! this was a very good comment.. I'll think about it more and see if I can come up with a solid plan.. anyhow, whatever people say here.. whether it will work or not.. I am going to build this thing
vshlos 15y ago
can we expand this to do drug delivery too?
- aherlambang 15y ago
  such as from CVS/Walgreen? I guess yea! Any kind of delivery from a business - customer I guess
  - vshlos 15y ago
    I was joking about illegal drug delivery. I don't think its legal to send medicine through intermediaries, so I don't actually think it would work for something like CVS/Walgreen. But besides that, I like the idea of sending physical packets in a P2P network. Think of how torrents work and try to apply that to your business model. (might help)
donofrip 15y ago
Doesn't this already exist? I don't like to base my comments off things I see in movies, but I seem to remember the characters in the movie Eurotrip getting discounted flights to Europe because they were acting as couriers.

amorphid 15y ago

I can just imagine trying to explain to the TSA agent at the airport that I was carrying someone else's package. I'm sure something could be worked out.

aherlambang 15y ago
Yea, that's also one prevention that needs to taken care off in the system. The user should make it clear what package is being carried and have the permission to open the package, if necessary. I don't want this to be a drug smuggling facility in the end.
ksolanki 15y ago
I am not sure it this could simply be "worked out". I think this TSA issue could get nasty.

gmichnikov 15y ago

I remember coming across the idea of crowdsourced shipping before; google around and you might get some more thoughts (e.g. http://www.cambrianhouse.com/idea/idea-promoter/ideas-id/8TIvkTW/ http://www.cambrianhouse.com/idea/idea-promoter/ideas-id/8TI...)

aherlambang 15y ago
so has anyone implemented it and be successful?

lsc 15y ago

eh, I think that the economies of scale UPS/USPS/FedEx have will make it difficult for this to work for long-haul shipping; my understanding is that most of the fuel used is used getting the package from the local hub to your house, so I think taking care of the long-haul part as you describe doesn't make all that much sense. On the other hand, whenever you get such a large megacorp involved, there are certain inefficiencies inherent to being a large megacorp... e.g. I remain price competitive with amazon, so I could be wrong. Really, I think the food idea is great because it's filling a need that isn't being filled at all. As far as I can tell, delivery services are pretty dang good. you can get something light shipped across the country in a day or two for ten or twenty bucks. Seems like a good deal to me. Food on the other hand, other than pizza, where I am, I can't get food delivered until I'm at 'catering scale' (water.com doesn't work for just me and my employee, unless I want to pick up myself, which defeats the point) The thing is, I'm in the heart of silicon valley. Lots of overpaid nerds who don't want to leave the house (or office) - we'd be glad to pay even taxi per-mile rates to get someone to bring us our take-out. There are more underpaid kids around here than you'd think, people who would be happy to make food runs for less than taxi per-mile rates. Figure out how to hook up those two groups, and you have a business model.

aherlambang 15y ago
thank you! this was a very good comment.. I'll think about it more and see if I can come up with a solid plan.. anyhow, whatever people say here.. whether it will work or not.. I am going to build this thing

vshlos 15y ago

can we expand this to do drug delivery too?

aherlambang 15y ago
such as from CVS/Walgreen? I guess yea! Any kind of delivery from a business - customer I guess
- vshlos 15y ago
  I was joking about illegal drug delivery. I don't think its legal to send medicine through intermediaries, so I don't actually think it would work for something like CVS/Walgreen. But besides that, I like the idea of sending physical packets in a P2P network. Think of how torrents work and try to apply that to your business model. (might help)

donofrip 15y ago

Doesn't this already exist? I don't like to base my comments off things I see in movies, but I seem to remember the characters in the movie Eurotrip getting discounted flights to Europe because they were acting as couriers.