They say every brainstorming idea comes from pain-storming experiences. Similarly, the birth of Pidge, India’s only secure, on demand last-mile logistics service, emerged from several pain points in Ratnesh Verma’s life. The establishment of the company is a fascinating series of events that led to sketch a single solution for different delivery needs.

The Story of Pidge
We all have gone through experiences of missing out on stuff and forgetting something that was asked to pick up by our family members. Ratnesh also went through a similar scenario when his wife asked him to collect a saree from his mother-in-law while he was visiting Delhi from Dubai. The long day & busy schedule put him in a chaotic scenario. Attempting to drive to her home would make him miss the flight, so he tried several alternatives to get the saree from her home in South Delhi to his office in Gurgaon. At this point in time, he noticed that there was no dependable instant courier service available in the market. The few existing options were just not reliable or trustworthy when it came to timeliness or service fulfilment. The incident left him with a question – in a time where we have everything at our fingertips, from cabs to groceries, why is there no on-demand and secure way of moving our own things?

A couple of weeks later, now sitting at home in Dubai, Ratnesh wanted to surprise his friend in Gurgaon by gifting him a cake that he loved from Khan Market, Delhi. As we’re well aware, the dining apps serve only from the listed restaurants within a fixed radius. This inability to express emotion the way he wanted got him thinking, why is convenience constrained? Where is customer freedom & choice? “This ‘convenience’ makes you feel like an animal in a zoo – you think everything is perfect but somebody else has put glass walls and boundaries around you”

The seeds of grievance with the on-demand economy well and truly sown, Ratnesh couldn’t help but notice issues that had become normalized – especially the transactional nature of the platform economy. As a hospitality veteran, service is king to Ratnesh. So it really surprised him that despite using food delivery apps at least five times a week there was no recognition of him as a frequent customer, nor any value given to the consumer from the platform, the restaurants, or the delivery executive. “The riders would deliver with eyes glued to their phone screens and constantly be in a rush to deliver the package and leave. It seemed there was no training to even greet, let alone value, the customer” said Ratnesh. “When we say ‘atithi devo bhava’, or ‘the guest is god’, well, you need to know them before you can treat them as Gods.” he continued.“Any industry’s real competition is consumer grievance” said Ratnesh.

“In our case, traditional logistics has been around for centuries. But once technology became commonplace, it was evident that traditional logistics was either too complicated or too slow. It led to the ‘On-Demand of Everything’ environment powered by smartphones and gig economy workers. With these new companies reaching maturation, we’re quickly noticing that this convenience came at the cost of reliability. It actually leaves us perfectly poised to fill the evident whitespace – How can we be as convenient as the on-demand economy and as reliable as traditional logistics.” That ambition to combine safety, speed, and consumer delight led to the formation of Pidge in 2019.

Fostering Delightful Experiences
Pidge combines convenience and speed with trust and reliability. There is a significant focus on utilizing technology to effectively reduce consumer wait times, ensure package-level security, and create transparency in pricing and rider tracking. But equally importantly, ensuring the at-the-door experience is consistent and seamless is critical. Pidge achieves this by actually employing their delivery executives – that’s right, no gig-economy here.

“We poise our delivery executive differently. Apart from choosing the best riders we mould them into professionals and improve the way they think & behave with comprehensive training. In the office we chuckle, but also take pride in the fact that the acceptance rate to become a Pidge Executive is lower than that of some of the best colleges in the world.” Ratnesh continued, “Our full-time delivery executives deserve all the credit for the high consumer retention we see. It warms my heart every time a customer says ‘just seeing your executive brings a smile to my face’.”

Ratnesh is very clear about the vision. “Our goal is to be an extension of you. To go where you would go, to treat your items and things with the respect that you would.” Pidge does not list any merchants on vendors on the app, instead, they’ll travel from end of the city to another to get what you request. In developing a service that really inspired confidence, Ratnesh practiced much of what he learned during the Stanford GSB LEAD program. “We had to fundamentally question what it meant to trust a service” said Ratnesh.

Customer Delight and Employee Care defines Pidge

“We say trust is hard to earn, but actually it’s easy to earn and perhaps easier to lose.” Pidge’s focus on trust as a differentiator means every experience has to be consistent and delivers the brand’s promise of safe & reliable service. Pidge aims to achieve this through its fully trained on-roll delivery executives, proprietary tamperproof bag, dual OTP and personalized handling process.

In the last few years, India has seen a significant growth in e-commerce, with customers wanting everything delivered to their doorstep. Pidge aims to help these direct to consumer brands and businesses own their entire end-to-end consumer experience. By providing a consistent at-the door experience and timely delivery, businesses that use Pidge are able to retain customers better and have a delivery experience befitting their high product quality.

“When you think about it, Pidge customers are overwhelmingly likely to be consumers of other app-based and online services. As customers expect more directly to their door, Pidge can power that entire last-mile delivery ecosystem” shared Ratnesh “The goal is that every delivery to your door – e-commerce or personal – is a Pidge delivery.”
In just a few months, Pidge has become the preferred fulfillment service for a variety of business and industries ranging from PR agencies sending invites to influential people in the city, to newage e-commerce brands who need their ‘better’ items delivered better, to hyperlocal companies who need a reliable and data-driven partner that can facilitate scale and growth.

Pidge is currently operational across the 5 cities of Delhi NCR, helping consumers and businesses fulfill their local delivery & courier needs. It is successfully witnessing double-digit growth since inception. Looking to scale new heights every week, it eyes for organizational build-up with a larger rider fleet to service larger order volume and continue to improve its technology backbone for efficiency. It aims to expand footprints to other cities of the country including Greater Mumbai and launch additional features to better serve businesses and customers alike.

What makes Pidge Unique?
Guaranteed pick-up: Picks up orders in 60 minutes and delivers instantly.
No order rejection: Never rejects an order after placement.
No surge in cost: Pricing is fully transparent, consistent, and distance-based.
On-roll employees: They are background verified& well trained.
Anytime assistance: It has strong customer & employee support cell.
Safe& secure delivery: Each package from food to any expensive products, are sent in unique tamper-proof bags. Double OTP & unique package barcode ensures the right package reaches the right person.
No cataloging or commissions: The no commission policy has shaped the firm into a loveable brand for e-commerce businesses and premium cloud kitchens
Multiple locations delivery: Guarantees route efficiency to give an affordable and reliable solution for bulk and business orders.
No minimum order distance or commitment: Allows availing the service at any time, for any distance across the 5 cities - 7am-11pm, 7 days a week.
No contract needed Business Pricing: Volume-based discounts available for businesses.