BIKE SHIPPING THROUGH RAILWAYS GOT EASY !!

Excited by the job offer I got in Bangalore, I called my family in Bellary and spoke about the offer, perks etc. and while hanging the phone , I requested my brother to send me my two wheeler to Bangalore which I needed it badly to start my job in marketing .I had to join my job the very next day. I was expecting the vehicle to reach me in 2 days and I thought it was a fair expectation and dint think it was such a big deal! Meanwhile I had started my job , finished the joining formalities. At last I received my vehicle documents nearly after 5 days after my job joining date And yo! My ‘Dhanno’ had arrived at Bangalore station and she is waiting for Bangalore ride. Now it was my turn to spend that entire day away from work to collect my vehicle from the station. With trainings everyday with no off at work, it had become increasingly difficult to collect my vehicle. Hesitant to ask my friends or colleagues, I really wished someone can do this for me and deliver my vehicle to my workplace or home.

Nearly after 2 years after this event , I remember that my colleague Ravi at work bought a two wheeler for his dad. His dad stayed in Bellary. He decided to buy in Bangalore as the documents required for loan belonged to Bangalore address and also he wanted to surprise him by sending the vehicle through railways and then getting it delivered through his friend .It wasn’t an easy task for a ‘pleasant’ surprise as taking off from work was difficult and also this logistics cycle from Bangalore home to railway station and then from Bellary railway station to his home at Bellary was more taxing than he imagined it could be.

Year on year on I heard many such stories from colleagues and friends and I am sure everybody who wanted to ship the two wheeler must have faced such irksome experience as there was no other choice as railways is still the most economical way to transfer the two wheeler.

This year in March I met Naveen C T in a train journey. Naveen introduced himself as an entrepreneur. Well, I assumed he must be carry forwarding his family business and casually asked him about the business. He explained that they take care of dropping the two wheeler from one city to other through railways and I instantly could relate to it with my experience. Someone at last has tried to address the real problem than just living with it.

Naveen has been able to understand the problem as he was constantly been consulted by his friends and folks on transporting two wheeler through railways. Naveen’s dad worked in railways and by this time he had become very helpful and resourceful friend for all those who seeked his help. He saw an opportunity here. GOODDROP is his brain child to bring in solution to this problem by providing end to end logistics solution. A bit of research and he knew where to cash on .

In the year 2015, Naveen along with his couple of best friends started GoodDrop. If you want to deliver the vehicle to different city, just place a 5 click order on www.gooddrop.in with your Name, address, vehicle details, departure &destination city details, they will pick the two wheeler from your home, pack it as specified by Railways, get the documentation done, courier the documents to the destination place and handover the keys to you or courier them and all this while you finish your business meeting at work. No need to take off from work and no other logistics headaches, everything will be offloaded from your shoulder. You don’t even have to visit the railways website to check the train schedule and timings. Very soon they will be launching the service to drop the two wheeler from destination railway station to destination place, i.e. your last leg of your logistics will also be covered by GoodDrop.

If you are biker and want to do Leh ladak trip or any kind of biking trip, you now have to worry about packing your bags only and offload the tension of transferring the bike to GoodDROP. Your bike will reach the destination railway station and wait for you.

His strength is an amazing team who bring in lots of energy and ideas, who don’t lose the opportunity to work together and also encourage each other to bring in smart work and consumer service attitude. Naveen has been armed with strategic marketing skill, operations & execution, his partner Akshata is an expert in technical skills, takes care of web designing and technical operations and Simer takes care of expansion & product innovation. All three have engineering and masters background. Naveen mentions that at GoodDrop they are also passionate about the idea have customer service attitude and they have plans to expand the business on a large scale by having their own logistics across metros, to start with and then spreading their tracks to smaller cities across India.

Till date they have shipped and delivered 65 requests and still counting. Being Pioneer in the market ,first to launch such a unique service ,it took time to spread awareness but the Word of mouth, facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter posts, posters, awareness among college students, biking community have generated lots of enquiries and team is now busy shipping .

An app, various means of payment options, sms alerts of the status of delivery will make customer’s experience with GoodDrop delightful.

Team is looking forward for the target of shipping 550 two wheelers by end of 2017.

Well this only made me think that all you have to do is believe in your idea, look around and every single problem can become an opportunity and if you have passion every opportunity becomes a success story. With Passionate and budding entrepreneurs like Naveen, Akshata and Simer putting on their mind and energy together, there is another success story from GoodDROP in the making. Watch for it!