> With that said, they only charge a $5 fee for this service, which seems unsustainable.
From the article:
> Because it ships so many packages, Gibbon says Shyp gets significant discounts from the major carriers. This makes sense because pooling packages saves their drivers a bunch of trips. “It’s actually a lot cheaper for them to just go here,” Gibbon says. Meanwhile, he says Shyp charges customers the cheapest retail price they would pay to ship an item, which still ends up being more than what the company pays. Shyp keeps the difference.
As for paying the couriers: if they can pick up several packages in one trip, that could add up to a decent hourly rate. Large items that result in fewer trips will produce a large shipping cost, out of which Shyp could pay the couriers, while small packages will produce many fees for the couriers.
From the article:
> Because it ships so many packages, Gibbon says Shyp gets significant discounts from the major carriers. This makes sense because pooling packages saves their drivers a bunch of trips. “It’s actually a lot cheaper for them to just go here,” Gibbon says. Meanwhile, he says Shyp charges customers the cheapest retail price they would pay to ship an item, which still ends up being more than what the company pays. Shyp keeps the difference.
As for paying the couriers: if they can pick up several packages in one trip, that could add up to a decent hourly rate. Large items that result in fewer trips will produce a large shipping cost, out of which Shyp could pay the couriers, while small packages will produce many fees for the couriers.