Another entrepreneurial success story from Croatia.
Stevica Kuharski is a serial entrepreneur who has had several successful projects, and the last one is Locodels – a service for urban package delivery reminiscent of global taxi service Uber, reports Index.hr on June 19, 2016.
In recent years, Croatia has had a rapidly developing start-up scene, and some projects have already achieved global success. Stevica Kuharski started his private business in 2003, after he developed logistics software for a company in Zagreb. The idea to launch his latest project – Locodels – came in the United States where he extensively used Uber.
“After the two-month trip to the United States and the intensive use of Uber, I realized that there was a niche where I could capitalize my experience gained in the development of software for logistics companies. When I returned to Croatia, City Express has just closed down its business operations and there were 700 people who were left out of work. At the beginning of July 2015, I talked with my colleagues and potential customers in order to see whether there was interest in this type of service”, said Kuharski.
Locodels service is similar to Uber in that anyone can sign up to be a courier, but also anyone can order its delivery service. The courier gets 70 percent of the price of delivery, after VAT is deducted. Users can trace their packages from origin to destination, as well as evaluate the service.
“We realized that the market was not used to the really fast delivery. My vision of speedy delivery is ‘here and now’. It often happens that a delivery man appears at your door in less than fifteen minutes. Our customers use Locodels delivery service to meet the needs of their customers and surprise them with fast delivery”, said Kuharski.
“Locodels system is the only one that allows the delivery of goods within two hours of purchase or order, and in the Zagreb area we have 65 drivers. We are organized so that we can deliver about fifty packages every two hours. Drivers who perform the service are taxi drivers or small delivery companies with one to three employees. But we also have ‘flying freelancers’. All drivers have passed an interview before they were approved to enter the system, regardless of whether they are professional drivers or not”, added Kuharski.
Apart from Croatia, Locodels plans to expand to cities in the wider region. They are interested in cities with over half a million inhabitants.
