StartUpArabia

Darrb is a new and interesting service launched from Dubai, UAE, that aims to solve people’s shipping needs, at better prices and faster than the conventional methods of shipping.

The idea behind Darrb, which means “way” in Arabic, is to build an online community around an auction based marketplace, that connects people willing to send items from one location to another, with people willing to deliver these items and earn an income as a return.
When users auction their deliveries, deliverers (Darrbers) compete with each other by offering the lowest price and fastest delivery time in order to win the bid. This will ensure that users get the best rates and fastest delivery service.

Payments are arranged outside the system between the sender and the deliverer for each delivery, but a rating and reputation system is integrated into the system to enable senders to rate the quality, price and speed of service of the deliverers once the shipping is done, and help other senders compare and choose which people to work with in the future.

Darrb is a free service for all parties for the time being; People can add delivery orders for free and Darrbers can offer their delivery services without any cost. They do plan to start charging membership fees for Darrbers in the future though, but still have no plans to start taking commissions from users.

I find the idea really interesting and useful, but the big challenge here and where I think the effort and focus should be for Darrb’s team is succeeding to build a wide community of delivery providers and a good user base for the service. Once that is done, many options and opportunities can open up for them for future development.

# Darrb