Delivering a package within a city like Lagos can be such a daunting task. The traffic alone will not let you shine. An average Lagosian can spend as much as 5 hours in traffic – that seems like an exaggeration but I bet it’s true. So you can imagine a business owner trying to deliver a package to a customer within 4 hours. That can be nearly impossible. Well, that may be a thing of the past as Max.ng says it can defeat all those traffic wahala and deliver your package within 3 hours or less!
MAX which stands for Metro Africa Xpress, is a last-mile delivery service that operates in Lagos for now. Co-founded by Adetayo Bamiduro and Chinedu Azodoh, MAX aims to change the game of delivery services not only in Lagos, but Africa as a whole.
MAX charges the merchants based on distance instead of weight and other factors that logistics companies often use. For example, I wanted a price estimate of sending a package from Surulere to Alausa, and I got a pretty decent price of N1,350.
In addition, traditional logistics companies currently can’t offer that kind of speed, which is largely the focus of MAX, according to the co-founders.
“We hated the way things are done today — you have kilograms, measuring, everyone wastes time,” Azodoh said. “Typically, the whole process wasn’t well-organized or well thought out, so for us we do it to simplify the process and make it easy to use our platform.”
To use Max.ng, you simply make a pickup request via the website or the mobile app. Once the order is packed and ready, it is picked up by a Max.ng champion and starts the journey to its destination. The package gets delivered speedily and you pay the appropriate charges.
Another thing I found quite interesting with MAX is their way of providing jobs with their ‘Champion’ program. This program helps a person to sign up to be one of the company’s delivery persons or ‘champions’ like they call them. To be a part of this, first, the company says you need to know Lagos like the back of your hands. You need to have a valid rider’s card, a motorcycle with 200cc or more engine capacity, and your valid motorcycle registration documents. After all these have been put in place, you’d be required to take a test. So how do these champions get paid? MAX says it pays out sourced champions per delivery; I don’t know what the cut is though.
So far, Max.ng has made over 40,000 deliveries in Lagos. MAX says by the end of the year, it will be launched in Abuja and Port Harcourt and within 18-24 months, MAX will be operating across West Africa.