CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - A group of UPEI students think they’ve found a way to make life easier for travelling business people who have landed at an airport and don’t have time to drop off their luggage before heading to a meeting.
CarGo Card is a start-up company in Charlottetown that allows travellers to request their bags are picked up and delivered to a destination, such as a hotel or tradeshow, all through an app.
One of the students involved with the project, Ben MacCallum, said the travellers luggage would picked up by a driver who scans a tag on the bag to identify it. Once that happens, the customer receives a notification through the app that the bag has been picked up. The customer can then track the bag’s movement through GPS.
“The app is the novel part of it – that they’re able to easily sign up, have a lifetime membership and a permanent card on their luggage so that any time they need it, within a moment’s notice, even if they’re on a plane, they can take advantage of the service,” said MacCallum, 20, a third-year engineering student at UPEI.
“Initially, we want to start testing it at one airport, so Charlottetown is the ideal model that we think would work. After that, we honestly can see this could grow in virtually any market that has travellers and a large airport.”
-Ben MacCallum
The group, comprised of MacCallum, Jeffery Yirenkyi, Jared Quinn, Adam MacLellan, Olivia Cox and Tiffany Cameron, pitched the business idea at a competition during Startup Weekend in November at Startup Zone in Charlottetown.
The group placed first, which means they can further develop the idea through mentorship, work space and other resources at Startup Zone in the new year as a resident company.
“There is a sense of community, I think, that comes out of it as well when you’re working there with the other start-ups,” MacCallum said.
The members are planning to further develop the idea.
Details that need to be worked out before the service hits the market include liability insurance for the drivers picking up the luggage as well as having a working relationship and understanding with the airports to perform the service — especially since drivers will be picking up luggage that doesn’t belong to them.
MacCallum got the business idea after visiting Disney World in Orlando a couple of years ago and observing that company’s luggage delivery service. He thought the idea could be expanded.
The plan is to have a product in place for testing by the end of the year.
“Initially, we want to start testing it at one airport, so Charlottetown is the ideal model that we think would work,” he said. “After that, we honestly can see this could grow in virtually any market that has travellers and a large airport.”
