A Nottingham firm has launched a ‘Deliveroo-style’ business for the trade.
The new Arnold based company is promising to offer the same speed of delivery that the popular food service provides, but to trade customers.
This could mean an end to jobs being held up by missing parts, the directors of the firm claim.
Named Trade Drop, the new service would mean that if a tradesperson runs out of a component while on-site at a job, they can call up their supplier and, if the part is available, have it delivered directly to the site “in as little as 30-minutes from collection to delivery”.
The idea for the firm began when one of the now-directors pointed out that he could get a burger delivered to his house in half an hour but couldn’t get a part needed in the line of his work in anything like that time scale.
Directors, Mark Bentley, Paul Bentley, Glenn Miles and Phil Dennis took this idea and created the new technology-based service.
Phil Dennis confirmed: "As a tradesman, I find trade deliveries aren't adequate. Usually food deliveries are quicker than vital parts from my wholesaler. We came up with Trade Drop to give trade merchants access to a large network of delivery agents, thereby giving all tradesmen speedy deliveries, allowing them to carry on with their jobs."
The start-up business has 10 merchants signed up so far while 30 self-employed drivers have been appointed with plans to recruit more and expand into neighbouring counties.
Nicki Smith, sales manager for the firm, said: “The concept and tech behind the idea behaves like Uber in its order and live-tracking abilities, providing a more responsive service for customers. A taxi or Uber driver can be picking up a part from a supplier within 10 or 15 minutes.”
It's a “win-win situation” says Nicki, who adds that suppliers keep their customers' business by being able to supply the part rather than the tradesperson going to the nearest outlet, and it allows tradespeople to stay on-site to finish a job.
How it works. A customer places the order with the supplier as they usually would, the supplier then requests delivery through the web-based delivery site, a price is shown immediately based on locations, and the delivery is then booked.
The system seems to already be working for customers. One of the companies signed up to the scheme is Alert Electrical in Nottingham.
Sam Hayman from the firm said: “Trade Drop got us out of a pinch when a customer was desperate for a delivery but they couldn’t leave site due to their customer going out and taking the keys.
"Our van was out and wouldn’t have been back for a good few hours, but the goods ended up with the customer within half an hour of booking the Trade Drop delivery. Without it, we’d have lost that order, so both we and our customer were left happy with the end result.”
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