An experience
BY NANCY CUDIS <> Friday, March 27, 2009
CEBU CITY, CEBU–Forward, backward. These two words came in mind in the middle of my interview with German bike enthusiast, Mr. Jens Funk, who is now based in Cebu for the past seven years. We were at Cafe France in JY Square in Lahug, Cebu City earlier this month-he was having a mug of coffee while I was battling running nose with a nice cup of raspberry tea-to discuss a unique business venture.
The venture has something to do with biking, which partly attracted Mr. Funk to stay in Cebu. While working as an information technology consultant for a reputable school here under a project of the German Government, he met new friends who happen to be cyclists like himself. His experiences eventually include biking with them in various parts of the country, including one of my favorite places, the Transcentral Highway that snakes its way from Cebu City to midwest municipalities of the province.
When his contract ended, Mr. Funk decided to stay for as long as he can. He said he still visits Germany several days or weeks in a year but he always come back because there is so much he could do here, so many faces of nature he could see and explore.
It was only late last year when he and his cyclist friends finally tapped the business potential of biking. How? Through transporting documents and consumer products from one area to another for a very small fee. Last December, Ecocouriers was born. It was organized under Outdoor Perspective, an outdoor gear shop along Juana Osmena St., Cebu City, which is owned by Funks’ Filipino friends.
I came across Ecocouriers when I was given a copy of Bite Magazine by a photographer friend from another newspaper. We were on board Cebu Pacific flying to Siargao on its inaugural flight there from Cebu. With nothing else better to do, I leafed through the pages, one of which shows a simple yet eye-catching ad of Ecocouriers, it services, rates, and contact number. It considered itself as Cebu’s first bike courier.
When I showed the ad to my boyfriend later that day, he disagreed to the tagline since there has always been bike messengers in Cebu as far as he could remember. True, but I pointed out to him that Ecocouriers is the first “organized” bike courier service in Metro Cebu with formal services and rates. To that, he made no move to argue.
The following week after the flight, I contacted Mr. Funk and we decided to meet in Lahug with the common aim of having Ecocouriers featured as a weekly enterprise story for the business section of Sun.Star Cebu.
Naturally, my first question during the interview, to get the ball rolling, was how Ecocouriers started. Amusingly, Mr. Funk answered that it was a long story. I was close to retorting that I have enough time and money (for several more cups of raspberry tea) to hear it. But he went on without delay.
When he mentioned that that bike courier business is a good concept because of an impressive package deal-it helps the environment, it satisfies transporting requirements, it is a source of income, and workers get to do what they love, which is biking-two words came in mind, as I’ve said. Forward, backward. Forward, because the cyclists look toward preserving the environment and stretching a longer and greener future with narra trees and Philippine eagles. Backward, because the medium-a bike-is a traditional one, something we commonly see since we were children. I think when one combines a forward perspective and a traditional medium, a uniquely greater idea is created.
The whole business concept, of course, is about several decades old, as far as the world is concerned. It has happened in places like London, Mexico, and India. But it is new and unique to Cebu, in the sense that it has no competitors of its kind (not yet), as far as I know. Cebu, though, is already home to several branches of more organized, bigger, and more tech-savvy couriers. Mr. Funk told me Ecocouriers will not compete with them but rather enhancing the whole industry by servicing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and private individuals-those who want to save in terms of time and cost especially with the ongoing global crisis now and those who doesn’t have a driver they can send on an errand immediately.
Since December, at least six bikers at Ecocouriers are making an average of 10 to 12 deliveries in a day. A couple of them have lost their jobs to the crisis that had significantly affected their former employers at the Mactan Economic Zone.
The business concept of Ecocouriers may be an old one (I remember a postman riding his bike to deliver letters to my aunt from her penpal when I was still a kid) but the positioning is unique. Why? Cebu, for one, holds a huge bulk of SMEs in the country. And people here prefer the cheap but best quality of service (the best of both worlds, literally speaking). I have been told that Cebu is a challenging market. If a new product works to the satisfaction of the Cebuanos, that product will work anywhere in the country.
Despite its uniqueness, Ecocouriers preferred to enter the local market at a relatively slow pace-through word of mouth and fliers upon deliveries. No launching events, no billboards, no print and broadcast ads, no press conferences, no gimmicks. Mr. Funk simply explained that it is a new service in Cebu. And new means change-a change in the process, in the system, in the way things are done. And change is something most, if not all, backward-thinking minds are not accustomed to.
If it means taking a forward perspective and helping save the planet from too much air pollution, I guess it’s about time to strike a balance between backward and forward ideas.
(Ecocouriers’ services include standard rate-P50 for pick-up and delivery and P80 for roundtrip-and one-hour express-P80 for pick-up and delivery and P120 for roundtrip. Its initial coverage area is Metro Cebu. For more details, contact Jens Funk at 0920-272-6472.)
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