Ypsilanti’s Lonnie Brammer created Courier Mates, an application that lets contract delivery drivers share information about delivery locations and vital details such as parking and customer behavior.
“These drivers can share information in a way that’s safe and respectful and can actually help. It’s an information platform that allows drivers to keep track of all of their own information, while passing information to the next driver.” Brammer said.
According to the website, Courier Mates empowers independent delivery drivers by providing community and key insight tools while maintaining strict privacy standards.
“Most of my life was spent in the hospitality industry. When COVID hit, I took work for a grocery delivery service. While on delivery, I received no tip on an order that took me 12-15 miles on $300 worth of groceries,” Brammer said. “It’s the same issues that my servers dealt with in the restaurant industry for the most part. There is no support system for gig delivery drivers. So for me, it was filling that gap of what a good manager might do for his employees.”
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In addition to advocating for fair pay and treatment, Brammer said the app gives drivers the information to decide which deliveries to accept.
“Any information that’s useful or that you would want to pass on to the next driver before they get there. We want you to pass info that could be anything from parking situations, dangerous animals, or aggressive and abusive customers,” Brammer said. “We do it through keywords. They’re basically color-coordinated words that we use without somebody writing an essay. It is a quick way to get information about the location. That would include tipping, communication standards, whether or not they’re quick to text back, or if they text you back at all, and whether there’s an animal on the property or a dangerous animal.”
The app offers both a free and paid subscription for $8.99 per month, which offers the aforementioned benefits of tipping insights, community information on problematic locations and delivery experiences from other drivers.
“Community was the only way I could think of that had the best chance of reaching specifically gig delivery drivers,” Brammer said. “Membership is moving, and we’re getting plenty of data, especially around here in Southeast Michigan. And we started picking up a little bit of data in some other states as well. But it is difficult to target or to acquire a customer in this particular industry.”
Regarding safety, Brammer said that his application is designed to protect workers and customers from tracking.
“Customer safety was something I put a lot of thought into in the beginning. Using the keywords really limits the information that you can share with another driver. So you can’t spell out some crazy story and give that to another driver. It is limited to keywords that range from anything to “dog,” “stairs,” “difficult parking,” or “verbal abuse,” Brammer said. “It is all location-based, so there are no names involved. You are never going to see “Susie ordered this.” It will be an address. This was essentially us creating a Google Map that you could drop pins in and leave very specific information without oversharing or putting anybody at any risk.”
Brammer, who launched Courier Mates in early May, said he wants to allow gig workers to build community and stay safe on their deliveries.
“The goal is to have an opportunity to create a positive change in the way that we view labor and pay, in the sense of what an hour of labor is actually worth, despite the work,” Brammer said. What is an hour of labor? Is it supposed to pay for an hour of their living? That is such a gray area for contractors, and I would like to see it changed nationally. I want to see people paid for the work they do instead of corporations constantly gouging the person doing the work in the name of profit. I gave up a job in finance to start this years ago, and I’ve never been so broke in my life. But this is the first time in my life where I feel like I am making a difference.”
Antonio Cooper is a freelance journalist from Detroit, Michigan. His coverage of music festivals and interviews with local celebrities appeared in The E-Current Magazine, The Detroit Metro Times, XXL Magazine, RichMagDigital, The Ann Arbor Observer, and Pop Magazine.
