Taxi-only offering promises to use drivers extra time to get parcels around Sydney and Melbourne
Logistics startup Taxi Lineup is looking to supersede the current courier landscape by utilising the Australian taxi network, launching as a 24-hour online solution for parcel deliveries.
Currently in Sydney and Melbourne, with Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth to arrive shortly, Taxi Lineup is the brainchild of Anthony Lechner and uses a taxi drivers’ extra time between shifts to pick up and deliver packages.
“The idea is simple,” the company says, “Taxi Lineup is a platform for easy booking of local parcel deliveries, providing secure tracking and payment system, for drivers and customers.”
“The magic is that Taxi Lineup uses the local network of registered taxi drivers that can be tracked across the city and suburbs, and are on the road 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
“It solves the ‘last mile’ logistics issue for businesses and gives customers easy access to deliveries.”
Joining a number of players in the space such as Ingogo, GoCatch, and Zoom2U, the three-week-old company says it only uses taxi drivers as they can be quicker than couriers, are able to drive in bus lanes, and have been impacted by Uber.
“Taxi Lineup… provides a timely revenue boost to taxi drivers who have seen their industry shaken up by recent changes,” the company says.
“Several months of market research, development and testing has highlighted the under-utilised down time many taxi drivers report in any given shift.
“After completing the thorough Taxi Lineup recruitment process, local taxi drivers now have the opportunity to use that down time and supplement their passenger service with deliveries.”
Taxi Lineup works in three flat rates for all clients, regardless of time of day or day of the week, within a 10km radius.
The most urgent delivery option provides a one-hour turnaround for $44, the mid-range express delivery option has a three-hour window for $25, while the same-day, six-hour option is $18.
Available as an iOS and Android app or online, Taxi Lineup says any item can be transported as long as it is under 16kg.