Roadie delivers to suburban Philly
It was only amatter of time before some enterprising soul figured out a way to use all that collectively empty back seat and trunk space we all drive aroundwith every day.
Marc Gorlin of Atlanta was the guy who came up with the idea of an innovative delivery system when he neededmaterials to complete a bathroomrenovation and had noway of getting his hands on themimmediately.
Counting on the triedand-true notion of southern hospitality— andmost folks’ fondness of raking in a little supplemental income — Gorlin tracked down someonewith a carwho happened to be going in the right direction, and the innovative app-based Roadie delivery service was born in 2015.
David DeBlasio isn’t Southern — he’s originally from Norristown, actually, and delivered The Times Herald as a kid— but he’s one of the dozens of local multitasking motorists who have discovered the convenience of making extra money as a Roadie driver now that the company has expanded into the Philadelphia area.
“Roadie is just connecting people with the time and the resources with people who need to send something somewhere,” DeBlasio noted recently over coffee at Panera in Audubon, where, coincidentally, he received a notification on his Samsung Galaxy that a gig, as Roadie calls them, had popped up within his 50-mile designated radius.
“If you’re driving people around going from point A to point B, there might be a small package that will fit in the trunk while you’re going from point A to point B ... it makes sense. If you’re the sender, and you have a TVyouwant to send to your son in Iowa, it’s too expensive to send by Federal Express and it’s not worth it to send it with a regular moving company, so you put it on Roadie and see if anyone may be going out there. You may have to be patient, but chances are someone will take it at some point. Roadie is really a crowd sourcing logistics company,” added DeBlasio who was introduced to the concept at a street fair near his home in Philadelphia.
“Roadie had a booth there and they were giving away T-shirts to those who downloaded the app, to try to get people to know about it, ” he recalled. “I downloaded the app just to see what it was all about.”
Soon after, he officially became a Roadie while driving a fare to the airport as a Uber driver. (When he’s not putting his 2007 Toyota Camry to work delivering people and things, DeBlasio works in the financial field.)
“You make your own hours with Roadie, taking the gigs you know you can handle,” he explained. “It’s like the olden days of the stage coach and people sending something along with the driver. Remember in ‘The Waltons,’ someone going down to the store, asking, ‘Did you get a package for me today?’ ”
Roadie driverswith access to flatbed trucks frequently transport cars all over the country, DeBlasio noted.
That first gig at the airport last fall paid $65 and involved retrieving a guy’s laptop that had been inadvertently left behind and then bringing it to him.
Since then DeBlasio has delivered boxes, shelving, plants, food, chairs — even a puppy.
“The person had seen the puppies at the breeder’s in New Jersey when they were very little, picked out which one of the litter they wanted and when the dog was ready to leave his mother, instead of the person driving all the way up here from down South and then back home, I drove the puppy down to him. They gaveme food and treats and I probably stopped along the way more than I needed to every couple of hours. We hung out and had great conversations,” DeBlasio added, laughing.
Likemany clients, the new puppy parent went above and beyond the suggested Roadie price, DeBlasio recalled.
“Just likeKelley BlueBook, there’s a suggested price on the gig for the sender when they post the item on the app,” he explained. “Roadie will give you an approximate amount that you probably should charge, as a kind of a guide. The sender can try to lowball it, or, if they want to get it there a little quicker, theymayadd inalittle more money. People who want to send their item may say they’ll pay $150, but you can always go back to them and say, ‘Look you’re going intothe city… It’s NewYork; it’s $22 just for the tolls toget into the city. Can you add in $30 extra?’ They’ll usually say sure, or, ‘No, I don’t have that much to spend,’ and then you have to make a decision.”
According to the company’s own description of its services, Roadie “delivers what people need right to their door, same day, next day, and even on weekends. Both the sender and receiver can track deliveries in real-time via smartphone, and goods are automatically protected up to $500 with the option to purchase additional coverage up to $10,000.”
Pricing is determined by distance and urgency, in addition to the size of the item, with most deliveries costing between $8 and $50, and long distance gigs with oversized items costing up to $650, or more.
The driver’s direct-deposit payment is a large percentage of the total fee.
As “theworld’s first neighbor-to-neighbor shipping network” Roadie has now gradually expanded well beyond Atlanta, including the Philadelphia area this year.
“Roadie was built on the concept of neighbors helping neighbors, so where better to grow our community than in the City of Brotherly love,” Gorlin said. “It has become the single, best way to send hard-to-transport items. From patio furniture to pets, Roadie makes ‘outof-the box’ delivery in Philadelphia and the surrounding area as easy and convenient as ordering a cheesesteak.”
The process from proposing a gig to delivery couldn’t be more streamlined or efficient, with the 24/7 Roadie customer service staff monitoring everything from Atlanta, noted Delasio.
“Any small business that normally uses Federal Express orUPSwould like how convenient and simple it is. When I arrive to pick up the itemItakeapictureof it and click ‘start gig’ on the app. The sender gets a text that it’s been picked up. I navigate through Google Maps or something, and when I deliver the item I take another picture, and the information is downloaded. The sender gets an email, then I rate himand he rates me, just like on eBay with seller and buyer rating each other.”
DeBlasio has earned himself five stars, the highest acclaim for a Roadie driver.
His profile echoes the simple concept behind the company: “It’s people helping people. Let me know how I can help you.”
DeBlasio’s road journal includes its share of curiosities that have kept the job interesting, he allowed.
“There was a mannequin head someone had left at a cosmetology convention in the city, and she had posted, ‘Need head delivered.’ She apparently thought it was going to be packed up with all her other things but the head was left behind,” he recalled, grinning.
The cosmetology instructor graciously sweetened the deal considerably, DeBlasio noted.
“It was going from the Sheraton in Philadelphia to Flemington, N.J., which would normally have been around $45,” he said. “But she needed the head back for a class the next day, so she was willing to pay $100. I knew it was a great gig so I took it right away.”
The Roadie app is available for download in the iTunes Store and on Google Play.
For more information, visit www.roadie.com. County Detective Lieutenant Marc Azeff, the pair spoke with then District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and helped create the “Wheels of Justice” team. The 2009 “Wheels of Justice” team consisted of 55 riders who raised $10,847. Now the team has 214 riders that work inMontgomery County law enforcement.
The bike ride was created by Irish Pub owners Cathy Burke and Mark O’Connor as a way to give back to the community. One of its chief causes is to provide for the families of fallen heroes. All money raised goes to the Irish Pub Children’s Foundation, a non-profit organization created in 2007, and a portion of those proceeds will go to support the Montgomery County Heroes Fund. The Montgomery County Heroes Fund is a 501(c)(3) spear-
headed by Ferman following the murder of Plymouth Township Officer Bradley Fox. Since 2009, the “Wheels of Justice” teamhas raisedmore than $400,000 for the families of fallen first responders and the Irish Pub Children’s Foundation.
With 10 days to go before the ride, the Irish Pub Children’s Foundation is still seeking donations. To make a donation and to learnmore about the Tour de Shore, visit irishpub.donordrive.com.