Two riders in 2020, sixteen of us now
We started delivering for one bakery and learned the whole business from its complaints.
What we learned about addresses
Vaguthu started in 2020 with two riders and one customer, a bakery that needed its afternoon orders delivered. Almost everything we do now came out of the things that went wrong in that first year.
The biggest of them is addresses. Malé has house names rather than street numbers, buildings get renamed, flats are described by the family who lived in them ten years ago, and a great many people do not know their own building's name because nobody has ever needed it. So a parcel addressed only by an address, however carefully written, has perhaps a four in five chance of being found quickly. A parcel with a telephone number that answers has essentially a hundred per cent chance. That is why the number is the field we will not accept an order without, and why we ring rather than search.
The second thing was proof. In the first months we lost two arguments about parcels we had definitely delivered, because we had nothing but a rider's memory. Now every delivery is recorded with the time, the name of whoever accepted it and a photograph at the door, sent to the sender the same day. It ended that entire category of problem.
The third was the bridge. A run to Hulhumalé that takes twenty two minutes at ten in the morning takes fifty five at half past five, and no amount of goodwill changes it. So the same day cutoff for Hulhumalé is two o'clock and we hold it, because a promise that depends on the bridge being kind is not a promise.
Fourteen riders, two drivers with a pickup for anything too large for a bike, and one dispatcher who knows every one of them by voice.
The people in the office
Mohamed Athif
Started with two bikes in 2020 delivering for one bakery. Still rides on the busiest afternoons and set the rule about telephone numbers.
Aishath Reesha
Runs the board and knows all sixteen riders by voice. If you ring to ask where a parcel is, she will tell you rather than promising to find...
Ibrahim Saleem
Settles the cash collections every next morning and sends the monthly invoices with every docket number on them.
Billing, cash and claims
How does cash on delivery work?
We collect at the door and the money is in your account the next working day, with a statement listing every parcel, the amount collected and who accepted it. The charge is two per cent of the collected value with a minimum of 10 rufiyaa.
We do not hold money longer than a day and we never net it against your delivery invoice, because a netted statement cannot be checked.
What proof do I get that a parcel arrived?
The time, the name of whoever accepted it and a photograph at the door, sent to you the same day. For documents, a paper docket signed with a printed name and identity card number, returned to you that evening.
We started doing this after losing two arguments in our first year about parcels we had definitely delivered. It ended that whole category of problem.
What happens if a parcel is damaged or lost?
We cover the declared value up to 2,500 rufiyaa a parcel, settled against your next invoice, and we will tell you which rider and which run rather than investigating quietly.
Above that value, tell us when you hand it over. A parcel worth more than that goes as a direct run and is noted on the docket, and if you did not tell us, the cap is the cap.
Come and see the dispatch board
Kaneeru Magu, Malé. It is not sophisticated and it is why parcels do not get lost.