Motorbike Delivery: A Business Redefined

Snapp, Tap30, and Carpino are three ride-hailing applications which have become regular discussions at the dining table in Tehran. The services have radically transformed how people use cars and taxis, and as with other markets, shaken the traditional transportation industries.  

One recent startup called AloPeyk is aiming to do to motorbikes what those three apps did for the taxi industry.

Speaking with the company’s CEO and co-founder Mehdi Nayebi, earlier this week, Financial Tribune discovered what this company plans to do in the next few years to transform how people and enterprises interact with motorcyclist by using the new app.

Nayebi, formally with Deutsche Bank and online ticketing agency KweekWeek, returned to Iran in 2016 to get the ball rolling on his plan that motorbike deliveries with the use of a mobile phone application could become the next big ticket company.

“One of the key issues with starting our app was to look at bricks and mortar stuff,” he says, in essence conveying that if you can get the basics right other issues will fall into place.

He added that one of his investors in London had invested in similar concepts in Brazil and Indonesia so he had access to enough data to show what type of growth these companies can have.

“Jakarta is not a copy of Tehran, but they have similar problems with congestion, traffic, lack of infrastructure” adding that both countries offer much potential to these types of businesses.

The CEO added another issue with doing a courier service in Iran is that the traditional postal service does not provide an ‘express’ service which is the norm is most countries.

“The postal system in Iran is broken down.”

 Foresight for Problems

The AloPeyk boss talked about issues the ride-hailing apps have faced in recent years. He said Snapp and Tap30 had faced several regulatory hurdles in setting up their businesses and seeing those issues he wanted to get the permits and permissions clarified before all else.

It took four months to get the initial program developed, and it was officially launched in November. Since then sales have skyrocketed.  

“We have had exponential growth - further ahead of our projections.”

So far the company has had 150,000 downloads through both iOS and Android phones. Regarding numbers, 70% of the downloads have been through local Android app store Café Bazaar, while another 30% is through the official GooglePlay store.

One development, he says, is that several new apps are coming online which mimic Alopeyk’s service. However, Nayebi seems confident that his “first mover advantage” remains intact for the time being.

Surprisingly, taxi ride-hailing app Snapp is rumored to be entering the motorbike delivery service.

 Figures

The pace of growth of the app is also startling. Nayebi says when they started they had one to two drivers sign up for their service, six months down the line, that figure stands at 100-150 new drivers. He added that they have some 5,000 drivers with 40% ready to take parcels at any given time.

“More than 10,000 packages are delivered through the service every day, he said, with drivers able to earn up to 2 million rials (€50) per day.”

Demographics of the drivers is also interesting. “Many people who own motorbikes are joining the company, including young men doing their military service, government employees, and even teachers.”

 Future Plans

As for expanding to other cities, the CEO said for now there is no such plan  because he majority of “this sort of business is in Tehran.”

Another area of development is the company’s plug-in to existing e-commerce stores: when a customer places an order AloPeyk software will send a motorbike delivery driver to the store for pickup, removing the need for the warehouse or e-commerce platform to deal and employ drivers themselves.

He hinted at another potential gold mine of revenue for the firm, as they intend to team up with food delivery websites to speed up delivery time for orders.

Motorcycle taxis are also likely to become the companies target in the next few months with the company already receiving 300 messages a day from people enquiring about such service. The company currently does not have motorcycle taxis, but is getting ready to do so in the not too distant future.