Happy Helper Moving Company owners want to eventually develop the software further so clients can track the movement of their possessions in much the same way as Uber rides.
Founder Tony Joyce started the moving company three years ago and was joined a few months ago by software developer Fabian Johnson, who has taken an equity share in the business.
Joyce said the new logistics and booking app had sped up the service and helped remove the stress for clients of moving houses and their prized possessions.
‘‘We have developed an app that is changing the way of the moving industry, with its three-click booking system that from start to finish you can have a delivery within one hour of booking in Christchurch.’’
Large furniture and other delivery companies can take two days before goods are delivered.
Joyce began the business with a small Mitsubishi L300 van with 450,000 kilometres on its clock which he still owns.
‘‘I was a one-man band and went up most of the doors in Moorhouse Ave and tried to get our name out there and got rejection from most suppliers. I think our rate was $35 and we didn’t get any work. I got back in the van and prayed because I was worried. Straight after the phone went and that’s where it started.’’
As a skilled labourer he was working in construction by day and operating the moving van at night.
Starting up a moving business came to UK-born Joyce after an initial side-gig of building planter boxes failed to work out.
The thought occurred to him he could do the same as a moving man who delivered a dog kennel for him.
‘‘From day dot I was $9000 in the hole and I left my job so I owed that for the van already. We advertised for free on Facebook and got a lot of traction. I had $1000 from my job after I quit to literally make it all work. So I had $400 going out in rent and then I’ve got food and I’ve got a little kid and at the time a partner and I’ve got to survive. That was a rocket I needed to keep going and it worked.’’
Within a few months the financed van became too small for orders and a larger Isuzu Elf was followed by a Nissan truck with a tail lift.
A Woolston office was set up last December as home base for the fleet of two trucks and two vans - to be added by another truck in a few months.
To smooth and speed up the moving process each vehicle has upgraded sack barrows, retractable strops and lists on walls for movers to follow.
Drivers carry GPS on their phones and the app emails jobs to them.
Joyce said he had been thinking of an app for a year, but a $12,000 estimate by a professional developer was too costly.
This coincided with Johnson becoming a part-time driver and he shared his own business experience.
The qualified architect with a masters degree began leaning towards visual effects, animation and coding. He shifted to Christchurch to become part of a start-up business creating learning software at the Ministry of Awesome last year.
‘‘Time went on and that project became less feasible and this discussion about the app came to me,’’ he said.
‘‘We talked about it and I was really interested in taking up the opportunity for an equity stake.’’
By January the first version was out after two months of software building and several rebuilds.
Additions include a back-end calendar so clients can book in job orders with website bookings also centralised. This bypasses a quoting system and order delays for moving jobs.
Clients download the Happy Helper app and in less than two minutes can log in, put in their addresses, see the hourly rate, order how many movers they might need and book their date and time in the calendar.
‘‘Rather than walking through the fog of calling companies to figure out their services and what’s their hourly rate and terms and conditions this is really improving the transparency and efficiency and speed of moving,’’ Johnson said.
The next phase they are working on is to bring in GPS tracking hopefully within the next year. Eventually automatic invoices will incorporate start and finish times visible to clients.
About 1000 clients use them a year for household to single item moving, serviced by a pool of about 10 to 20 contract drivers.
Most of their business has come from word of mouth and repeat deliveries from residential, furniture, warehouse and other business customers.
‘‘That’s what you want, if you’re a good business people will talk for you because they believe you are the quality you are trying to be,’’ Joyce said.
He said they were trying to ‘‘shake up’’ a moving industry little changed for many years.
The app would be kept in-house in Christchurch at this stage, with plans to expand further afield dictated by further business growth, he said.
