Move Over, Move fast with MOBER

The presents have been opened. The balikbayan relatives are headed home, and while the Ref is still probably full of leftovers, hopefully you’ve given away a lot of the stuff you don’t need and are just adding to the clutter in your home.

It’s that post-holiday time of the year, and its time to say goodbye to the old and say hello to a new year.

Coming from a Chinese Family, part of our New Year tradition is to make sure that every corner of the house is cleaned. In Chinese, “Dust” is a homophone for the word “old” (Chen), thus cleaning means to drive the bad luck or the old things away from the house to get ready for a new start.

The fun part comes after the cleaning as we are also encouraged to go out and buy new clothes and stuff as it symbolizes a prosperous welcome to the coming year. It’s also a good thing since a lot of shops hold post-Holiday sales to move out or dispose some of their overstocked items.

Last year, I decided to buy a new cabinet and one of those ergonomic office chairs, and while I got them at a hugely discounted price, the problem was bringing them home as they couldn’t fit inside the trunk of my car. I had no choice but to have them delivered, pay extra, and wait—for almost two weeks as they have a pretty long list of deliveries.

It’s the same problem for those who buy big appliances like washing machines, LED TV, a bed, or even a bike or for those who buy items in bulk to resell.

Flagging a taxi, especially when you’re bringing lots of stuff is next to impossible and they’d even probably charge you double or triple if they do decide to pick you up. You can always hire a van or small truck but it can be quite expensive especially if you are just loading a few items. So you are left at the mercy of the store’s delivery service which can take days or even weeks.

But that is now all in the past.

Now you have a quick and easy option thanks to a new app called Mober.

Mober hopes to change the way people have their items delivered much like how GRAB and UBER has made it easier for commuters to find a ride.

A few days before Christmas, we got the chance to interview MOBER Marketing Head Adrian Marin who introduced us to this nifty new service that also targets small and medium business and provide another “lipat bahay” option for those moving to a new house.

“Mober is an on demand delivery app and service for our users through a crowd sourced fleet of vans lorries and other types of vehicles,” he began.

Mober is the brainchild of Dennis Ng, and was launched a couple of months ago to address the logistics needs of SMEs and individuals who need to transport a sundry of items for their household.

The company seeks to address the need for more efficient and cost-effective delivery by offering an app that will meet the logistics requirements of SMEs. Individuals, companies, or business owners can now book a van through the app to have their goods picked up and delivered door-to-door.

Marin described it as an ambitious transportation service marketplace for goods with a B2B and C2C focus and mentioned regional counterparts such are GoGoVan or Lalamove, which are present in Singapore and Hong Kong.

“What makes Mober unique, however, is that it was designed and created for the Philippine market and not just an app that was localized, so we have a very good idea of how to service our clients and what they need.”

EFFICIENT TRACKING AND CARGO GUARANTEE
To book a van, all you need is to download the App which is available for both Android and iOS users. Register with your email and you can immediately use the app to Book Now, or Book Later.

If a user has pre-scheduled the delivery, the driver will be expected to arrive on time. With on-demand service, the average arrival time is an estimate of 30 and 60 minutes upon confirmation. Delivery trips are each kept exclusive for each booking, wherein Mober drivers are not allowed to pick up orders from multiple clients. The cargo is also insured for up to P50,000.

To guarantee a safe and efficient delivery, the mobile app allows users to track and share drivers’ progress in real-time, and the process is backed by a service hotline to help with customer problems and inquiries. Upon drop off, senders receive a confirmation of delivery.

For its dry-run Mober utilized the 5 vans in its in-house fleet and are seeking to partner with high quality and trustworthy service providers by 2016. “We plan to add around 250 vans by next year, and these would include those businesses that have already purchased their own utility vehicles and seek to maximize its service.

COST EFFICIENT DOOR TO DOOR DELIVERY
The minimum fare is Php500.00 for Van and Php 750.00 for a VanPlus service, wherein a van porter can help load and unload the items from point to point. The base Fare is Php250 and Php450 respectively, with additional Php25.00 per kilometer and Php2.50 per minute. At the moment, Mober services are on cash basis.

Among the entrepreneurs who have been identified as those who will benefit from the services are SMEs dealing in e-commerce, catering services, party planners and events suppliers and restaurants with three or four branches that need deliveries from their commissaries.

Some of their regular customers during their 2-month dry run have been bazaar sellers moving their goods from one gift fair to the next. Those who are moving into their condominium units will find using this service to move their furniture and appliances more convenient and practical than hiring a lipat-bahay truck. Those arriving at the airport can likewise have their balikbayan boxes and baggage safely transported to their homes.

The app lets users send anything they want, so long as it fits in one of their vehicles and is within the vehicles maximum cargo capacity. Orders may consist of transporting just a single box or loading up a van with several bulky items. It may be applicable for store-based businesses who deliver or online sellers like those found on online classified such as OLX.

Currently, Mober only services Metro Manila, but there are already plans of expanding the service to cover metro Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo and Davao. The fare is calculated much like that of the app-based commuter services, as it depends on the type of vehicle requested and the distance between pickup and drop off locations.

SHARED ECONOMIES
“With the revolution for personal transportation brought about by TNC services now is a great time for entrepreneurs who have privately-owned vans at the disposal looking to move, ship, or deliver goods for their businesses.”

Mober expands these services with such conveniences choosing as the type of vehicle to accommodate your cargo and getting immediate estimates of the cost for your travel through the app.

With the help of technology, formerly niché and community-based models for business have evolved into global enterprises in the “sharing economy.” A sharing economy allows people to access, share, and grow resources among a common group.

“There is no better venue for a shared economy of cargo vehicles to flourish than Metro Manila, a city that is infamous for traffic jams that cause daily billion-peso opportunity loss,” said Marin.

The firm also provides opportunity for investment in non-commercial delivery vehicles, allowing van-owners to maximize their parked resources. Marin said they follow the rules set by the LTFRB for TNC services.

“Vehicles like the Urvan, Hi-Ace, or L-300 are examples for Mober’s fleet. Mober offers a competitive income system to marginalize partners’ overheads and amortizations with the app’s linkages to a young economy of entrepreneurs.”

The app-based models for services such as Mober’s have already been proven to work in booming ASEAN economies. Startups and even established businesses have seen the value of outsourcing their logistics, as a cost-effective and convenient way to grow profit margins.

Mober’s logistics app is set to impact the local economy as it can help more entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. There is less worry about how they will move their goods and there is less capital needed to reach more customers.