My bigger question is how you would validate this isn't drugs because this seems like the perfect low effort way to send high value drugs.
My bigger question is how you would validate this isn't drugs because this seems like the perfect low effort way to send high value drugs.
Check-in explicitly asks you "have you packed your bags yourself", and then you have to either say "no I have this random package from a stranger which might contain anything" or lie to customs.
TBH, I can't really think of a market for this that isn't contraband. The "last mile" looks really annoying as well.
Edit: I think it's a legit marketing question for OP. Name three different kinds of item someone might want to use this service for.
I'll even give you one: there's already a small cottage industry of reshipping companies from e.g. Japan, who will let you buy stuff from companies that won't themselves do international shipping. Ship to re-shipper, who then handles the international part.
You might be able to get a market started if your model starts with only items bought from legitimate retailers. Effectively a really long distance doordash.
I think it probably works fine for national delivery couriers filling space in their van with additional extra bulky items; services to disintermediate them to move heavy goods for less cost than a dedicated courier already exist and some of them even wrap suitable insurance around it.
Internationally if it's P2P rather than P2companythatdoesthecustomspaperwork it's pretty much pure smuggling-as-a-service, and yes, people who kindly help carry the stranger's Colombian souvenir on their passenger flight for a small fraction of the ticket cost will find themselves being jailed at the other end.
I can easily imagine a market for this, because I was in the market for this until last week.
I had a large, bulky, and fragile package I needed to send to Florida from New Jersey. The shipping corps were happy to do it for me for $500+, and no guarantee that it wouldn't arrive as a box of shattered glass.
I ended up finding someone in town who happened to be driving there, and was kind enough to deliver it for me. They still offer no such guarantee, but they also were kind enough not to charge me for this!
> They still offer no such guarantee, but they also were kind enough not to charge me for this!
Sure, but like open source, the dynamics are different when it's a favor without money changing hands. OP's market would want compensation, and then inevitably someone has to deal with the "my package arrived as a pile of shattered glass" claims.
It's a thing in second world countries too. There are small communities that don't get package delivery, so they ship packages to the capital city and then pay someone to drive packages to their community once a week or so. I've heard of people paying $50 a package in places with pretty low incomes.
> the perfect low effort way to send high value drugs
They've already created a FedEx and an Amazon for high value drugs. They're called FedEx[0] and Amazon[1].
[0]: https://qz.com/1627572/drug-traffickers-favorite-way-to-move...
[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/21/world/deadly-drugs-paper....
Relevant Mitch Hedberg (rest in peace) joke: “ I love my fed-ex guy cause he's a drug dealer and he doesn't even know it”
Fair, I should have said even cheaper as well.
fair question. BlaBlaCar, Uber, Airbnb all got the same pushback: why would you get in a strangers car, sleep in a strangers house. Trust infrastructure solves it over time: ID verification, package limits, photo documentation, escrow paymnts.
And people already do this informally all the time. Sending stuff "with someone who's traveling" is super common, it just happens with zero oversight right now. This adds structure and accountability to something that already exists
I think you are being too glib. The trust model is really different for small packages. Housing small amounts of drugs in objects is way easier and more likely than wrecking someone's airbnb.
And the consequences are higher for the driver. You can insure an airbnb or trip. Are you going to pay for someone's legal fees when they get popped for being a drug mule?
The bigger problem is that being a casual package courier is not worth the hassle.
Let’s say someone doesn’t want to pay FedEx $70 to ship a box next-day from San Francisco to Portland, so OP arranges for you to do it and charges $35, takes $10 off the top and pays you $25. Now you are supposed to drive to random person’s house to pick up the package, carry it across state lines, and drop it off at someone else’s house. You have to deal with potential flakes on both sides of this transaction and risk of carrying who knows what the whole time. For $25.
Would you agree to do this job? And if not, would you trust your package with someone who would?
I note that both Airbnb and Uber marketed as "use part of something you're not otherwise using", and almost immediately became professionalized. Full time drivers. People buying apartments to let out.
Maybe they wouldn't have worked without that professionalization? Which is of course not possible if you're going the "passing traveller" model.
This is the key thing. None of this “trust a stranger” stuff actually works out. Uber isn’t actually a rideshare. It’s a professional driver. Airbnb isn’t a room in someone’s house. It’s an apartment rental. GrubHub isn’t someone who picks up your noodles when they pick up theirs. It’s their job.
The courier model could totally work the same way. You want someone to drive your package from San Francisco to New York? Someone will happily do that. The trick is they will want to get paid. No one’s doing this stuff basically for free as a favor or to help OP’s company show a profit.
Maybe worked but at very small scale. The early Lyft with fist bumps and much more casual driver interactions worked at some level but was pretty small--and I actively avoided because of the vibe. You may borrow a tool from a neighbor but it's not a routine or neighborhood-wide thing for the most part.
This is completely different. While for Uber and AirBnb as the person delivering the service I have to worry about a private citizen either doing harm to my property (more statistically likely) or my person (much less likely), if I am pulled over by a cop carrying illegal goods I have to deal with the law enforcement.
Insurance can take of property damage.
My personal threat model is:
1. Law enforcement with qualified immunity and a “monopoly on [legalized] violence” .
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99. Everyone else
Uber and Airbnb had budgets to subsidize the first mass of people. Heck, I’m less than nobody and got paid the first several times I used an Uber.
Uber and AirBnB lied about their model as an end run around regulation.
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All humor and pithy quips aside. The assumed liability is very different. A driver of a commercial courier accidentally transporting an illegal substance is at much less personal risk than an average citizen or small business.
I think this match-maker platform should be willing to shoulder more that liability. KYC but for bill of lading as well?
While not 1-1 or perfect, AirBnb and TaskRabbit platforms include insurance and other risk mitigations for both sides of p2p relationship.
You think the average person has the infrastructure and the relationship with customs and the DEA that FedEx and ups do?
Yes because if someone gets stopped carrying contraband who works for FedEx, delivering in a FedEx truck, wearing a FedEx uniform is going to be treated the same as Bob in his Honda Civic who said he picked up a package from a known trap house and had no idea what was in it.
Doesn't Uber have a courier service too?
You would be equally as dumb to do that unless you are delivering from a commercial establishment.
https://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/unfortunately-i...
https://www.freedommag.org/news/uber-drivers-used-as-unwitti...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13107193/Uber-drive...