Yard Delivery bypasses sorting centre for more efficient, same-day deliveries

With the growth of e-commerce, various startups, including Sparqle, Starship Technologies, and Picnic, have been working to solve the last-mile delivery challenge. 

Ukrainian-founded startup Yard Delivery has developed a new approach that bypasses traditional sorting centres, streamlining the process and cutting costs. It offers a variety of delivery options within urban areas in under three hours. 

The Yard Delivery platform connects businesses, customers, and couriers, creating a seamless ecosystem for efficient and fast same-day deliveries. While the product ordering process remains standard, the delivery itself is entirely different. 

Packages bypass traditional sorting centres, with Yard Delivery couriers - operating under a gig economy model similar to services like Glovo or Wolt — picking them up directly from stores or warehouses and delivering them to customers. In response to customer need, the startup also introduced a second option focused on local parcel lockers. Here, the sender can drop off a package, and nearby couriers pick it up and deliver it to the recipient or a specified location. 

Both options ensure that the entire process takes less than 3 hours while remaining cost-efficient.

Developed by a Ukrainian team, the solution has succeeded in its local market and is now planning expansion into other European markets.

According to Oleksandr Korniychuk, CEO of Yard Delivery, traditional courier methods often fail to meet customer demands or come with exorbitant costs. 

“Deliveries handled by our “Movers”—Yard Delivery’s couriers—are typically comparable or even lower in cost than standard solutions. Our key advantage, however, is speed: packages often reach customers in less than 2 hours, with a maximum guaranteed delivery time of 3 hours.” 

In March 2024, the startup launched a pilot in Riga and has successfully delivered over 10,000 parcels. 

The company is also developing partnerships with companies that manage parcel lockers and are simultaneously in the process of fundraising. 

After successfully operating in Latvia since the start of the year, the company is now into new markets, including Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Germany.

Lead image: Yard Delivery. Photo: uncredited.