How to send a parcel in Kottayam

Four things, and you almost certainly have all of them: the pickup address, the destination address, a phone number for whoever is receiving the parcel, and a rough idea of the size. That is the whole list. There is no consignment note to fill in, no weighing, and no form asking for the contents in triplicate.

The receiver's phone number is the one thing worth getting right. It is where the handover code is sent, and only the person holding that code can take delivery. A wrong digit there means a runner standing at the right door unable to complete the job.

Kottayam addresses are hard to write down and easy to point at. A house on a lane off the Ettumanoor road, a shop on the first floor above a pharmacy, a ward entrance at the Medical College — all of them are a sentence of directions and a single tap on a map.

The booking flow lets you drop a pin and add a landmark line underneath it. That line is what the runner reads on arrival, so 'above the pharmacy, second floor' is worth more than a house number nobody can see from the road.

Three tiers, chosen by what the parcel looks like rather than what it weighs: Small up to 5 kg (documents, medicines, keys, a cake), Medium up to 10 kg (a carry bag, groceries, a laptop), Large up to 15 kg (a carton or crate). Nothing is weighed at pickup — you pick the closest fit and the runner confirms it when they collect.

Above 15 kg, this is the wrong service. So is anything on the refused list: cash, jewellery, alcohol, narcotics, weapons, anything flammable, and live animals.

Collection runs in three windows — morning, afternoon and evening — between 07:00 and 20:00, seven days a week. You pick one when you book, and the app only offers windows the fleet still has capacity for, so a window you can select is a window a runner is actually held for.

There is no 'as soon as possible' option, and that is deliberate. Every parcel is scheduled into a window because a seat on a runner's day is what makes the promise; 'now' reserves nothing.

The full fare appears on the review screen before you confirm anything — a base charge, a distance charge worked out on the road distance between the two addresses, and 18% GST, itemised. A short town run starts around ₹36 all-in, whatever the parcel size.

There is no surge pricing, nothing is added after the fact, and nothing is charged until a runner accepts the job. If nobody accepts, you are not billed.

A one-time code is checked when the runner collects the parcel from you, and a second one when the recipient takes it. That is why a parcel cannot be collected from the wrong person or released to the wrong one — the code, not the doorstep conversation, is what authorises the handover.

Between the two you can watch the runner on a live map, and you can forward a public tracking link to whoever is waiting so they can follow it without an account.