Roadrunnr taps walkers, cyclists to deliver

Within six months of operations, the company expanded its operations to 11 cities

Harry Alex, a 23-year-old agent for Roadrunnr, walks and delivers food packets and grocery from neighbourhood stores to customers. Hari Om Sharma, 21, delivers them on a cycle in Gurgaon.

As hyper-local delivery start-ups try to keep costs low, people like Alex and Sharma are increasingly being sought after by start-ups, such as RoadRunnr, to deliver packets from restaurants and e-commerce companies to their customers. Roadrunnr engages around 200 walkers and about 600 cyclists, who use smartphones to get the pick up and drop locations to deliver goods.

Delivery start-ups charge between Rs 20 and Rs 40 for each transaction and every rupee saved goes into cutting costs as they look to acquire more customers.

Roadrunner serves the business-to-business delivery space and hires delivery agents on a freelance model, similar to how ride-hailing services Ola and Uber hire drivers, says Mohit Kumar, co-founder and chief executive.

Kumar, a former technology executive at Ola, witnessed how the company used the freelance model to sign up more drivers, helping it grow from 500 to 50,000 transactions a day.

Hiring freelancers is not only more cost effective, but also helps companies like Roadrunnr remain lean and grow faster. The company’s Pune operation, which currently handles an average of 900 transactions a day, is run by just one person. “You either have to have a workforce that manages the workforce, or you can build technology to handle such scenarios. We’ve built technology,” said Kumar.

On average, a runner who makes eight on-demand deliveries and 16 e-commerce deliveries makes close to Rs 700 a day. Factoring in EMIs and fuel costs, each runner takes home about Rs 14,000 for 28 days of work. Currently the company’s growth strategy revolves around setting up operations in connected clusters rather than the entire city, which helps it enter more cities sooner.

Sharma, who works delivering packages on cycle between 5 pm and 11 pm everyday in Gurgaon earns close to Rs 9,000 per month.

Roadrunnr has partnered with GoGreen BOV, an e-scooter manufacturer that’s planning to offer electric bikes to e-commerce, delivery and hyper local start-ups on lease, helping them reduce their capital expenditure.

“The vision is to build a network of cyclists and e-scooters,” Kumar said. “We care more about the cost, it’s much cheaper,” he said.