We’re not a big business by any stretch, I work from home, don’t run an office arrangement and rarely do we send parcels out. So when we needed to get some deliveries done we had no account with a courier company or no easy way to do it – the perfect chance to test Zoom2U the crowd sourced delivery service right across Australia.
Every year we hand out a bunch of EFTM Best Awards – these are not some token article saying we like this or that, we get real plaques made up each year. In the past we sent them Australia Post, last year two were broken on the way, so in fact some are still here undelivered.
This year, I did not want a repeat of that problem. So we asked Zoom2U if we could try out their service.
We had a lot to send. 18 deliveries, 13 in Sydney, 3 in Melbourne, One in Perth and one in Tasmania.
Turns out Zoom2U don’t deliver to Tassy yet, so we bubble wrapped that guy and went with the post. For the rest, we set about logging into Zoom2U and setting the deliveries.
After setting up our default address (saving having to type it each time) all I had to do was enter the address of the recipient, along with phone and email details and almost immediately price estimates would appear on the page.
For almost all parcels, we were given delivery windows and prices to suit. We made most of the bookings in the afternoon, so not many were able to be delivered before 5pm, however it was surprising to see on how many that actually was an option.
In most cases we chose the cheapest delivery, except if it was a corporate address and there was another option to get there by 5pm by paying more.
After booking the deliveries I could quickly see in the website that each job was being allocated to Zoom2U drivers and in many cases they were being grouped together. Deliveries to Western Sydney area would be collected by one person, those to the south another etc.
Interstate deliveries were collected the following business day as my booking was made too late in the day.
Each driver was courteous, happy and just got the job done. Strangely each seemed to use a different system, some needed a signature some didn’t, some took photos with me others didn’t, but these photos and signatures appear on the website for you the booker to check too – very handy.
Deliveries happened fast, like amazingly fast. By the first evening almost all were done.
On the day the interstate packages were collected I was SHOCKED to get emails later that day confirming delivery.. The box going to Perth was picked up from my home at 9.34am. I live an hour from the airport. It was delivered in Perth that night at 9.10pm. Yep, SAME DAY – ACROSS AUSTRALIA. Mind blowing.
The dashboard available to me online let me see where my courier was at all times, meaning transparency for me when it came to seeing how things were going
To be clear, this is not the cheapest courier service in the country. I’ve seen others, yes it can be cheaper, but what Zoom2U is targeting is urgency, that same day feeling. Others manage their logistics as a whole, taking deliveries to a central place then distributing to the delivery driver the next possible time.
Zoom2U is a network of drivers just wanting to earn more money who pickup and dropoff – same day, job done.
On average we paid between $39 and $68 for same day service. The Perth courier cost $259, while the far outer suburbs of Melbourne was under $200.
I really can’t fault them, they did what they promised and it’s a great immediate service. Relying on the “sharing economy” to find people willing to deliver stuff you need taken places is a simple way of just getting the job done!
