Never miss another delivery

[Ross]

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/small-b ... 616-ghdz5r" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Parcel forwarding business After Hours Delivery is the product of six mates with no entrepreneurial experience, but plenty of drive. Together they hatched a plan to make life easier for the exploding number of online shoppers who are never home to receive parcels and can't make it to the post office to pick them up.

Tas Munintrapong,the brains behind the business, was sick of returning home from his job as a finance officer with Victoria Police to find delivery cards stuck in his front door. Even more frustrating was the fact he couldn't fetch the parcels from his local post office because it was only open during business hours.

The simple solution was a delivery service that drops off parcels in the evening and on weekends.

Munintrapong discussed the idea with a group of friends – two other unsworn Victoria Police members, a chef and a Department of Human Services worker – two years ago, but it was another year before things got serious.
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They each chipped in $20,000 to fund a warehouse lease in Tullamarine, in Melbourne's northwest, plus three delivery vans.

After Hours Delivery hit the road three months ago and since then it's been pedal to the metal. In its first month of trade, 170 customers came on board and quickly blew out to 1276 by May – a whopping 650 per cent increase.

Customers pay $10 to list the After Hours Delivery warehouse as their shipping address for online purchases and the company then contacts them to schedule a delivery time.

While there are a number of US parcel forwarding services for online shoppers, the start-up faces few competitors in the domestic parcel forwarding space.

The After Hours Delivery business model means its nearest rivals deliver hundreds of parcels to its warehouse every week. These rivals include Australia Post, Toll and the new Officeworks parcel delivery service Mailman.

But a spokesperson for Australia Post dismissed any competitive threat from parcel forwarding services such as After Hours Delivery, which she says only wind up being more expensive for consumers.

"The parcel delivery market is a competitive sector and services such as this may suit some customers who are willing to pay twice for the delivery of their parcel," she says.

"Australia Post already has its own 24/7 service – our free parcel lockers in more than 200 locations. We also offer Saturday deliveries because we know customers are not always at home during the week.

"Our customers have access to a wide range of delivery choices that offer value for money through Australia Post and StarTrack – companies they know and trust, and provide the most extensive delivery and parcel collection network of any parcels operator in Australia."

Despite this, After Hours Delivery co-founder Liam Hamilton says surging customer numbers have pushed his business to the next phase.

"We're already looking at launching in Sydney," he says.

"The key is to expand as quickly as possible. Nationwide expansion is our dream and that's what we're aiming for."

All six co-founders are still in their day jobs, but Hamilton says one of them is likely to quit their job to manage the Sydney expansion.

He says the explosion in internet shopping, which is not expected to abate any time soon, spells good news for the parcel forwarding business

Latest figures show growing consumer confidence in online spending. In March, $708 million was spent online, up from $532 million at the same time last year, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data. Annually, Australians spend $16.7 billion on online goodies.

Combine this with the 8.1 million full-time workers in Australia, many of whom work 9 to 5, and there's a healthy pool of potential customers.

"The online consumer who is typically not home during the day has become the cornerstone of our business," Hamilton says.

"We have seen a marked increase in the eBay customer sending packages to us that we then deliver to them at night or on the weekend.

"Feedback received from our Melbourne-based customers is that they are now unable to have packages sent to their workplace, requiring a new way of having their packages delivered."

[Top_Bhoy]

I had a look at the After Hours Delivery website and if they deliver on their service as intended, they have a lot going for it. Providing their fees remain realistic and affordable, this new service could be a game-changer for many who currently don't use certain online companies because of the couriers they use.

[jacks1071]

Love it, hope they do really well from their new business.

[Defy The Odds]

This is really positive.

Not only is it a great idea that is practical, but it's not funded by corporate giants and instead of humble locals.

Well done to the lads