CourierBuddy in the News

Paul McCoy: Courier Buddy (The Oregonian 7/28/2015)

The courier business is needlessly complicated, Paul McCoy thinks. A person who wants something shipped out first contacts a dispatcher. The dispatcher sends the package out with a courier. Mistakes happen with a middleman, McCoy said. A patent ends up in the wrong office. A driver is given the wrong address.

His app Courier Buddy aims to eliminate that middleman. When it launches, a shipper can log in and connect directly with a courier. It works similar to the way Uber does -- a person opens the app, and he can see contract couriers within five miles of his location. Those contractors can bid for the job.

McCoy initially imagined Courier Buddy would only book short, local jobs. The need is bigger than that, he learned.

"There is nothing to stop anybody from moving anything through Courier Buddy," McCoy said. "If you have solar panels coming from Florida, you can put a bid out. You may get two or three truckers who are coming from Florida anyway."