FROM feminine hygiene products to vaccines for dogs to infant’s milk, a fledgling local startup claims it can get and deliver to residents of Metro Cebu.
PasPas, a short messaging service (SMS)-based delivery service operating in Cebu City, helps people finish their errands by acting as a shop-to-home delivery service, buying and delivering the requested items straight to the customer’s doorstep, said co-founder and chief executive officer Benjamin Paget.
Paget co-founded the company with Adrien Gonzales, who sits as chief operating officer. PasPas started operations only last month, serving as many as 25 orders in one day.
This is in response not only to the growing traffic congestion problem in Metro Cebu, but also to the need for a “personal assistant” for busy Cebuanos who do not have time to buy necessities.
“We want to simplify the life of people,” Paget added.
Patterned after online food delivery application FoodPanda, PasPas offers to deliver groceries, booking accommodations and transportation services, medicine and tour bookings.
Customers can send their requests to PasPas via SMS or Facebook chat. Two operators are on standby from Monday to Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., to receive orders.
The operators then contact the customers, presenting their products, the prices and the additional service and delivery fees charged by the company. This system also works for booking tours, flights and sea trips.
PasPas also has five regular drivers who make the deliveries. A number of drivers are also available on an on-call basis, said Gonzales.
PasPas expects to expand its operations to include hotels and business-to-business (b2b) delivery service.
“Cebu is a good testing ground,” said Paget. “It is similar to Manila, but is safer so you can see how well the concept will work in bigger cities and make it better. If we had tested this in Manila, we would have probably died within the first few weeks.”
The company is in partnership with three hotels, namely Maxwell Hotel, Holiday Hotel and Vacation Hotel.
Contracts with at least three other hotels are expected to be signed next week while the company is in talks for possible courier services.
Scaling the company up, Paget and Gonzales plan to launch the service in Davao by the third quarter of this year and in other cities in the succeeding months.
They also plan to increase the number of deliveries to 100 daily in one to two months, as well as make the service available 24/7.
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