By Edward Henderson
There’s nothing more exciting and terrifying than getting a notice of when a package you’re anticipating will arrive. On one hand, you’re salivating over the image of finally possessing the electronic item, clothing or new book you’ve been dreaming about. On the other, sweat starts to build up on your brow when you imagine the packing sitting outside of your door for hours because you’re work schedule permits you from being at home during the delivery time. Danny Harvey, Roderick ‘Snap the Pro’ Chase, and Charles Burress are familiar with this feeling and created their business iDropOff to alleviate the fear and discomfort that comes from it.
The idea for the business came in June of 2015 while Burress was watching the business pitch show ‘Shark Tank’ and saw an idea that was similar but not yet developed for a demographic like San Diego. He invited Chase and Harvey over to his house, shared the idea, and the concept for iDropOff was born.
“Everyone was gung ho,” said Harvey. “We would take turns driving, handling marketing and other responsibilities. From there, we went online and built the website. We’re currently working on an app at this point.”
iDropOff serves as a middleman between customers and package shipping companies to guarantee delivery at a time that is perfect for your schedule. Before ordering your merchandise, you can contact iDropOff and insert their office address as the delivery point for your package. From there, they will contact you when the package arrives and coordinate the best time to bring it to you, ensuring the delivery reaches your hands instead of your front porch vulnerable to the elements or theft.
“Our tagline is ‘we’ll receive it when you can’t’”, said Harvey. “One of our challenges is to help customers understand where we come in. We’re not here to replace Amazon or UPS. We want to make sure you’re happy with your service experience and make sure you get your package when it’s best for you.”
Pricing for their services is $6.99 per package and $2.99 each additional package delivered in the same day. The pricing resets the following day. At this point of the business, iDropOff customers consist of new arrivals to the city and pharmaceutical health care businesses. They’re looking to expand services to the communities that need them the most.
“We started out with billboard signs for advertising,” said Chase. “We had close to 30 around the city. We also started pushing the brand on social media and word of mouth to be in a position where the market can go to another level.”
On first glance of the iDropOff website, you wouldn’t be able to tell that it was a black owned business. The diversity of faces you’ll see in the advertising leaves an ambiguous feel. Chase made this as a conscious decision for the San Diego market, however, he doesn’t shy away from proclaiming that the business is black owned.
“When you go to the initial page, we try to keep it as diverse as possible,” said Chase. “When you’re dealing with an area like San Diego, you have to show that. But, when we table at festivals, you’ll see four black guys in iDropOff t-shirts and you see that we’re black owned and proud of it.”
With the chaos of the holidays coming up, the iDropOff team is geared to show the worth and reliability of their service to the community. Visit www.idropoff.com for more information on the business and how to schedule a package drop off.
