CrossTown Courier is a fast, reliable and affordable delivery startup in green campaign which aims at delivery services within major cities in Kenya. TechMoran caught up with the founder and CEO Mr. Jimmy Tune to find out what inspiration was the driving force behind its birth and its growth.
CrossTown essentially offers its delivery service to a niche market of different sized companies locally. It has put a lot of energy at tailoring services through a flexible model in accordance to the different needs presented by subscribing clients. The startup is unique from other companies in the delivery industry since it uses environmental friendly electric bikes as the main mode of transportation across cities.
How CrossTown Courier started
While walking as an Intern at the Ministry of Education in Mombasa the second largest city in Kenya, Mr. Tune who was in his second year of study in university had the opportunity to organize a business forum for stakeholders. Invitation letters were made and handed over to the messenger department for delivery to the respective guests invited. “We prepared more than three hundred letters to all the stakeholders including corporates, local leaders and other representatives from the national government, ” He narrates. “Just a week to the event, only a handful RSVP had been confirmed and when a follow up was made it was dawned that the department had delegated the task to a third party who had difficulties in delivering to the respective participants.”
Eventually, the event was poorly attended which was a huge loss to the Ministry’s finances. That happened to be the foundation to the birth of CrossTown Courier since there was an opportunity in the loopholes of the corporate messenger department.
How does it work?
Clients can access the services through the company’s website or app downloaded from Google Playstore for Android devices which is friendly to use, create their account and navigate through the packages offered and the categories of clients served. Customers will also be liked to their favourite eat-out spots and restaurants where they can order food and drinks and have them delivered at their doorsteps.
Business Model
As the startup operates for both big and middle sized companies with inventories to be delivered periodically, the services are customized to meet a wide range of client delivery including food, mail, small boxes, laundry and laboratory deliveries.
CrossTown faces stiff competition from other local players and also international companies like FedEx and DHL who mainly conduct their services across borders and major cities. With focus on handling local deliveries, the startup seeks to position itself strategically in the industry and also its intentions to provide affordable pricing solutions on the subscription rates will be a perfect mechanism to claim the market share.
Currently, CrossTown Courier operates from the streets of the Kenyan coastal city but it plans to take the highly demanded services to the capital city Nairobi in the coming few months.