Not too long ago, Vulcan Post had featured a startup called Zap Delivery. Launched in December 2015, Zap Delivery provides fast, secure and reliable service for all your delivery needs. Whether it’s to retrieve your spare set of car keys from home or to dispatch an important document ASAP, this startup guarantees door-to-door delivery in under 2 hours!
Zap Delivery is unlike your run-of-the-mill delivery company. It cuts through multi-step processes and connects the customer directly with the courier. It’s a disruptive system, and is basically the Uber of delivery services.
Five months on, the team behind Zap Delivery must be doing something right with their model. Because in this short amount of time, their database of couriers has grown rapidly from 0 to 1000!
That’s an exponential rate of growth. With such an increase, one does wonder if any magical recipe was used for recruitment. As it turns out, they’ve only done what is common.
“We have posted information online on portals like Fastjobs and Gumtree. We’ve also done several roadshows to inform couriers on the streets that they have an option to join Zap Delivery,” cofounder Alexander Danilov explains. They also advertise on their website and social media pages.
Hence, with various similar set-ups in competition – like Uber – what then is Zap Delivery’s pull factor?
Only As Good As Their Partners
This is their secret: Zap Delivery knows that their service is only as good as their courier partners. So they have diligently built their system around certain principles to serve as incentives and maintain high morale. According to Alex, their success in recruitment boils down to several key advantages:
- Transparency: Couriers know exactly how much they will make from every job they take.
- Flexibility: Couriers are free to choose their working hours, preferred locations and workload.
- No transportation preference: Couriers can use any and all modes of transport – Cars, vans, motorbikes, bicycles and even public transport.
- Human-oriented approach: Processes are in place to understand every courier’s needs, and to help optimise his or her work productivity and goals. The Zap team will also help by identifying areas where more jobs are expected to come in.
When it comes to the human-oriented approach, Alex describes that their workflow and processes are not quite the same as ride-sharing operators, as they are unique to the delivery industry. One example is their support system.
“Our Help Centre is open Monday to Sunday from 10:00am-7:00pm, and there is always someone on standby 24/7 if any courier needs help. This level of support is unheard of from other similar service providers.”
With such an empathetic system and a good income model in place (a ZAP courier can earn up to $2,500 a month), couriers will be driven to take on more jobs and do their work well.
Keeping To A High Standard
The demographics of couriers is broad. They consist of both men and women, aged between 20 to 65, and hail from all kinds of backgrounds, a lot with past courier experience.
The Zap Delivery team are vigilant in recruiting the right kind of couriers. They don’t just pick a stranger off the street. Instead, all potential couriers have to undergo stringent qualification and background checks.
Alex lists the most important qualifications in a potential partner, “devotion to work and commitment, as they are required to provide fast, secure and reliable service. Of course, we run necessary legal checks.” After which, Zap Delivery will run through a comprehensive on-boarding process.
Applications to become a courier can come through the website, an email, a message on Facebook, walk-in interviews, or even the app. Regardless, each applicant will then have undergo a face-to-face interview at the office.
As of now, 1000 couriers is not enough. “We are always looking for new couriers to join our platform, and will welcome all who wish to become one of Zap Couriers,” Alex says. “Our plans for the future is to grow, providing more jobs for the increasing number of couriers joining our platform.”
As part of the brand’s growth, there is set to be a line-up of new features and products. But for now, they’re keeping mum about what those exactly are.
At only 5 months old, Zap Delivery already holds much promise. They may just achieve their vision of disrupting the delivery industry through the power of crowdsourcing, and of changing people’s perception on courier options. If the current pattern persists, Zap Delivery is set to be the next top career and delivery choice for Singaporeans.
So if you need anything delivered, you should definitely check out Zap Delivery.
