What's this? A taxi company innovating?

SPECIAL REPORT: COVID-19 ADELAIDE

The move to Uber was swift and merciless for the CityMag reader.

No more would we be told ‘our trip wasn’t far enough’ or, when running late for a meeting and needing to teleport quickly over to the other side of town that, ‘we could walk from here.’

But this week 13cabs sent us an email saying, ‘that’s not them anymore,’ and that ‘they’ve changed’… or news to that effect.

13cabs is now – also – 13things! It’s a cute name that speaks to the fact that they used to move people, but they can and will now move your things as well / instead.

With people not moving around as much anymore, and incredibly painful and protracted waits for couriers and Australia Post, 13cabs has seized on an opportunity to pivot their business into the logistics of moving objects – including food fresh from restaurants – to your door.

“Basically, we don’t take anything from the business, we don’t take anything but the cab fare,” says client relationship manager at 13cabs in Adelaide, Katerina Staikopoulos.

Katerina says 13things happened because it made sense to the company.

“Everyone is going through this (COVID-19) and for us, our thing is transport. For us, there’s not a huge difference between transporting things and people – the car’s still moving the same way. We just re-thought it and how we could do an hourly hire rate for people rather than metered rate.”

Katerina says the business started out with existing clients, offering their service, and this was taken up by businesses as diverse as pharmacies and hospitals needing to move parcels and equipment, and more recently has seen pubs needing to move schnitzels (thank goodness).

“It’s helping businesses thrive in this market as much as they can,” says Katerina.

“So if they don’t have that delivery model there and the courier model doesn’t work with them and the Uber Eats model doesn’t work for them, we’re just trying to let them know there’s another option. You can still do it and not lose out and we’re 24-7 immediate deliveries as well, which is a pretty big thing.

“We all need to help each other out at the moment, to be honest. So any option we can provide, we’re doing it.”

CityMag couldn’t agree more. To learn more about the 13things offering, pricing or to get in touch with the company to design your own logistics solution as either a business or individual, it’s best to visit their website.

13things.com.au