OK, what business are we talking about today?
The sustainable moving company, Tiptapp.
Great! I’ve been getting really into sustainability lately. I even stopped showering last month in order to save water.
Eugh, that explains the smell. I think you should start showering again and become more sustainable in other ways. Using Tiptapp would be a good place to start.
Fine. I’m going to need more of an explanation than that, though. Can you tell me what Tiptapp is?
Yes of course! Anything to alleviate this odour. So, Tiptapp is an app that acts like a marketplace, connecting people who need to move something by car with people who have wheels and are willing to help with the transport. It’s for transporting objects of any size, and the main services on the app are: move & deliver, buy for me, remove & recycle, and give away.
Can you give me some examples of how I could use it? I have a well-documented lack of imagination.
Sure, imagine you are making a trip to the recycling depot to drop off an old TV that is broken. Someone else may have an old TV that needs to be dropped off too. You have plenty of space in your car, so instead of you both making the journey, you can just take one car and double up. Or maybe someone has bought a lovely cabinet from Kleinanzeigen and needs it picked up and delivered. You could pick this up in your car on your return journey and deliver it.
That all sounds good in theory, but I’m not doing all that extra moving for free. I’m not an idiot.
You wouldn’t be doing it for free – it’s a marketplace, so people will pay you for the extra pickups and deliveries. You simply pre-arrange a small fee in advance and make the secure payment in-app. You are an idiot though.
Okay okay. You keep saying things like, “You have plenty of space in your car”, but I don’t own a car. I don’t even have a driving licence. Who’s the idiot now?
It’s definitely still you. This was just a hypothetical example, and in this instance you could imagine yourself to be the person who needs something moved who does not have a car or licence.
That’s easy to imagine! I actually do have an old TV that needs recycling, and I bought a nice big speaker from a friend last week, but it’s still at their apartment because neither of us drive and I don’t know how to get it.
There you go, you’re actually the perfect use case for Tiptapp.
Fine, it sounds like a hassle though and like it would take ages to connect with someone.
You’re wrong again. The average time it takes to get a response through the app is 35 seconds.
I’m really running out of excuses here, damn you. How can I trust this newfangled app though? It’s probably a scam.
It was set up in 2016 in Stockholm and now operates in Sweden, Portugal, Germany and the UK. So far, more than 880,000 pickups have been made through the app, and it has more than 300,000 users.
Okay, I take it back, that’s a good track record. But what makes it sustainable? It all sounds a bit too good to be true at the moment.
Well, it primarily cuts down on the emissions from single car trips. Think of it like ride-sharing, but for things instead of people. The fewer the car journeys being made, the less the emissions.
Ah! I get it. That sounds difficult to quantify though.
Tiptapp say the app has so far saved around 400,000 car journeys. Car traffic is a major source of carbon emissions and anything that helps to reduce it is a positive.
I completely agree and I am in. How do I get started?
You just download the free app on your mobile and create an account. It’s available for both iOS and Android.
Thank you so much! Now it’s goodbye old TV and hello phat new speaker.
My pleasure. And don’t forget to check out tiptapp.com if you need any more info.
