1) There's no easy way for users to browse.
2) The whole "gig" messaging and the entire call to action on the page is painfully confusing.
-"Describe your gig." What? Am I in a band? Is this for a "seller" or a "buyer"?
-Why do you need a description of "moving"?? "I'm moving." would be my description. What are you looking for here? Couldn't you just have a button for "I'm moving?"
-There's just a general lack of context here.
I do understand and don't need it explained, but I guarantee the average user is going to be totally confused.
> 2) The whole "gig" messaging and the entire call to action on the page is painfully confusing. -"Describe your gig." What? Am I in a band?
I think this is a difference in regional word usage. I'm accustomed to hearing "gig" used only to refer to a temporary agreement for musicians or similar artistic entertainment, like a single concert or perhaps a tour of concerts. But I have met people from the UK who use it to refer to any job.
I have friends in LA/Hollywood who use the word "gig" when referring to any job of indeterminate length; especially if it pays well. ex: "Oh, man, I'd love to have that gig!"
Hey, thanks so much for your feedback! We're working on adding a way for users to browse existing gigs right now!
We chose to go with "gig" for two reasons:
- It's a less formal way to say "job" which could be misleading for drivers looking for work, since most of these moves will be one-off things.
- We looked at the popular sections on craigslist where drivers post their services or users post looking for drivers and those sections are Services & Gigs; so we went with gigs for familiarity.
Maybe something more like, "What do you need a truck for?" Being more specific is generally better.
You may also consider funneling your traffic immediately to separate "buyers" and "sellers." Car sharing services often ask immediately whether you're looking to rent someone else's car or to rent out a car that you own. It's worth thinking about or testing anyway.
Given the infrequency of moving, I'm not sure how you intend to displace Craigslist for this sort of thing, since that website is already a good one-stop shop for random services. The times when you actually need a truck seem infrequent enough that I think you're going to run into a discoverability problem.
Indeed, ISTM that the trouble with moving your own stuff is not so much the truck - most people rent a u-haul or similar even if they have to bribe a friend to drive it - as the difficulty of finding people who know how to manhandle furniture and appliances without damaging them or the building they're being moved into/out of, and how to pack a truck so that the contents don't move around during transit.
> finding people who know how to manhandle furniture and appliances without damaging them or the building they're being moved into/out of, and how to pack a truck so that the contents don't move around during transit.
This. If you just need a truck, U-Haul or similar will do that for under $100. If you want to move anything fragile and valuable, pay someone knowledgeable and insured. There just isn't much money in schlepping things around town for $40 plus gas.
Agreed. I'm moved several times, including twice cross-country and once internationally. Finding a truck was the least of my problems. If I just need a truck for the day to move something heavy, I can already a) Rent one via Zipcar for as an hour or two, b) Rent a van from U-Haul for the day, or c) find someone on Craigslist.
You really need to deal with both state and federal consumer-oriented laws relating to moving, and bills of lading and the like.
You should also learn about the laws relating to "agency". As the agent of truckers, connecting the trucker to the customer, you can find yourself to be on the hook for movers and truckers that fail to deal with state laws, which can be quite "interesting" to an entity in your position.
The reason for such state laws and federal regulation: low estimates on the job, and truckers that hold a person's goods hostage for the surprisingly high bill. Nationally: you need to know your providers are reputable and capable.
I've used craigslist 4-5 times in the last 8 years (I don't drive, and I move a lot) - and two things stand out for me from my use of them:
#1 - I'm continually amazed at how flakey the drivers/moving services are - they all advertise multiple times a week that they have moving services available, but you have to call about a half dozen of them and leave messages before you eventually get one that will get back to you and commit. You would think they would at least get back to you quickly, and then refer the work to someone else.
#2 - The quality of service that you get varies quite a bit, and doesn't seem to correlate with what you pay as much as you would like - I've paid anywhere from $90 to $150 for moving and sometimes I get two, highly qualified movers, and an enormous truck capable of moving an entire house ($60/hour, 2 hour minimum). Sometimes you get a yahoo with a big uncovered pickup truck ($90/hour).
If there was a service that could solve those two pain points - eliminate the hassle of trying to track down the service, and making sure the person actually showed up when they said the would, and giving me some sense of what I would be getting (Big Truck? how big? Are the movers going to help me move things outside? Do they bring blankets for things like glass desks?) - then I'd be interested in using it.
Unpakt.com is pretty good for this, though they index only professional moving companies. You enter the general stuff you're going to move and they compare prices across a bunch of providers.
I would create a 3rd category that is akin to delivery. It could technically fall into moving but moving brings to mind the actual idea of moving.
What I mean by delivery is more something along the lines of...
- I have something I want to pickup (maybe off Craigslist or something) and I don't have a truck. Would be nice to have someone who has one help for a flat rate.
As a truck owner, is there a way to make sure that I never end up on this website? :) Just kidding. Any truck owner knows the joys of having every non-truck-owner ask to borrow the truck.
Owning a truck can be a blessing and a curse. I was never the driver when car pooling with my friends, but I had tons of requests to help move things--usually at the end/beginning of the academic years.
I wish this service was around when I owned a truck.
Is this aimed at guys moving like one or two boxes?
My parents run a removals firm in the UK, British Association of Removers accredited. Are you hoping to displace the removal industry of people moving entire homes?
The actual physical handling of people's goods should never come down to price, a bidding war on moving the personal belongings of your entire personal life is never going to end well. Unlicensed, unregulated cowboys will never handle your belongings as well as someone who has had training, is fully insured and has twenty years of experience.
Moving people is hard work, it's difficult to judge a price based upon what people say, distance to the truck? Amount of packing that needs to be done? These are all things that can add huge amounts of time, and therefore money into moving home and due to the fact you're dealing with people's hard earned personal possessions something that shouldn't be ignored.
I've thought about this on and off over the years as well but never had the motivation to try. Congratulations.
In all seriousness, the one question I could never answer for myself is "what happens when there's cocaine in the box?" Have you considered this and how this risk will be handled?
They face it with the corporate veil, insurance, and a bunch of lawyers. My concern is, as an ordinary guy with a truck who just bid on a job to make a little extra cash over the weekend, "Its not mine" is going to work about as well as can usually be expected.
Definitely agree! We're working on adding user generated reviews right now and would love to eventually verify drivers with their license/insurance info. Appreciate your input!
I met Sasan and Heidar at the hackathon where they first built TruckPlease. Neat concept that definitely solves a problem, and they're smart/friendly guys!
Super curious what their plans are to monetize (it looks like TP is currently completely free)?
Hey, Matt! Great seeing you on here and thanks for the kind words :)
Right now we're completely free but we have a lot of ideas for monetization. One of them being handling payments and taking a cut and another would be to sell optional related services, like moving/rental insurance, cleaning services, and moving supplies.
tell me about it! I rented a Uhaul last year during this time, and it was a complete nightmare. Im wondering how much extra money I have to pay on this site to make it less painful and whether it would be worth it.
Very cool! Are you guys going to ship an app soon (something like having to pick up a large package at a fedex location and having a streamlined UI for requesting a truck).
Thanks! :) Yeah, once the site has all the features we want we'll definitely start working on an app. Tracking is something we're really interested in doing with that.
As a user it is more reassuring to me if I can identify the business model or the fees involved up front. The FAQ states that the drivers don't pay anything, and the customers pay the drivers directly in cash. That makes me feel like I am missing something.
We currently have both! We have people using the site in Vancouver and Victoria right now and both licensed movers and guys with trucks are bidding on gigs. We're working on adding a badge system and reviews so users can quickly see how they're dealing with before accepting a bid.
Edit: right now we're focusing on local moves within cities but there's we have no problem with the site being used for long-haul moves.
For the time being we're thinking of ourselves as just a platform for drivers to meet users and don't plan directly hiring drivers. Kind of like a moving dating website. We would like to eventually verify the drivers insurance/licensing and award them badges on the site so users know who they're hiring, though!
Thats right you would be the 3PL and you would be dealing with 1PL(consignee) and 2PL(carrier). So likely dealing with 3PL regulation. You probably already have to worry about licensing, and insurance.
This isn't a bad market to get into. You should educate yourself though more in it.
Hey! Just a copy & paste from a comment I wrote earlier:
We really like uShip! But we're different. While uShip has the functionality to offer local moves, their primary focus is on larger long-haul moves. Movers generally use their service to fill empty space on their trucks so they can get the most for their time/fuel costs.
Our main focus is on local moves. We've tried using uShip for in-city moves in a few cities and getting bids for these on their site is pretty hit and miss since most of their drivers prefer a longer haul.
Hey! moveline.com looks pretty cool. We're less focused on long-haul moves, although our site can easily accommodate them (we have a few long-haul gigs posted up right now) and more focused on short, "I need this desk moved across town" gigs.
We really like uShip! But we're different. While uShip has the functionality to offer local moves, their primary focus is on larger long-haul moves. Movers generally use their service to fill empty space on their trucks so they can get the most for their time/fuel costs.
Our main focus is on local moves. We've tried using uShip for in-city moves in a few cities and getting bids for these on their site is pretty hit and miss since most of their drivers prefer a longer haul.
Think about all the retailers that sell oversized products. Pretty much any item that can't fit into a sedan is a prime target. Build a large list of items from appliances, to furniture, even trips to costco.
I think this is an excellent idea with great potential.
The moving industry is nice, but I think there is much more potential in larger retail purchases and local delivery.
1) There's no easy way for users to browse. 2) The whole "gig" messaging and the entire call to action on the page is painfully confusing. -"Describe your gig." What? Am I in a band? Is this for a "seller" or a "buyer"? -Why do you need a description of "moving"?? "I'm moving." would be my description. What are you looking for here? Couldn't you just have a button for "I'm moving?" -There's just a general lack of context here.
I do understand and don't need it explained, but I guarantee the average user is going to be totally confused.