Errand services in Dubai are thriving and ready to assist

At least two companies in Dubai — Assist and Mashaweer — are running businesses by providing errand services to homes and offices.

Picking up groceries, fetching laundry, paying utility bills (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Etisalat, du, Ejari, tenancy contract pick/drop) — the staff of these companies will stand in the queues for you, collect visas, water your plants when you’re away, walk your pet, deliver packages, pick up the kids — the list of chores you can outsource is endless. You just have to ask, and as long as the errand is ‘legal, ethical and moral’, they will do it, even if it hasn’t been done before.

A few other companies, advertised online and contacted by Khaleej Times, seemed to have folded up soon after their launch. Like co-founder of Mashaweer Hani El Sherbini says, “We have no market competitors. At least not for now. It won’t last long.”

Mashaweer has been around now for 26-27 months. They operate six days a week from 9am to 9pm. Fridays are off days. “We are neither a concierge nor a courier company, Sherbini says. “We run errands. We always get asked what kind of errands we do or can do, and I found the best answer is to think of us as your driver at home, or your driver/messenger at office. Anything you can assign to your driver to do, we can do.”

Their customers are 65 per cent female, with the majority of requests from corporates (60 per cent).

New kids on the block

Three months ago, Mohamad Jomaa took over and started running assist.ae. Jomaa used to be in corporate finance at British American Tobacco till last year. But the yearning to be an entrepreneur (“being my own boss”) caught up with him. It’s early days yet for Jomaa, who does not hesitate from running errands himself.

“My car is my office — it has my laptop, chargers, even changing clothes!” he says. Being on the ground helps him understand nuances of the operations. “You learn what errands take most time, which clients are most ‘price-sensitive’, and which ones value time more than money, as well as figuring out delays due to traffic.”

The price per errand is determined by how long the errand will take and distance of the commute. Approximately, DH100-150 an hour is the given. But it varies. If the errand is picking up some papers from Marina and delivering them somewhere nearby — to JLT or Internet City — then the price can be brought down to, say, Dh75. The conditions have to be agreed upon beforehand, and an email filled out clearly stating the nature of the errand, starting point, end point, specifics and duration so as to minimise the scope of error.

“Friends and family and former colleagues, of course, get a discount — 20 per cent. I value their business, and it doesn’t make sense for me to quibble about 15-20 dirhams. We need our customers to be happy, and we depend mostly on referrals.”

Jomaa plans to expand operations and yet keep the company running at a smaller level, “boutique style rather than very commercial”, so as to pay maximum attention to detail. “We want to move away from a typical concierge service, and help people with their errands around home.”

Offices too provide business, “especially one-man shows, small companies of 5-10 people, who need someone to run around and help them with paper work” — cheques to pick up, to deposit, that sort of thing.

The mood and errands of residents

For most people, these services are a blessing for the time saved and the convenience involved. For others, it could be a love of remaining inactive. How else does one explain a request received by Assist from a client to have a burger delivered from The Dubai Mall to Souk Al Bahar at 10am?

These company records hold a gold mine of odd requests, not all of which can be revealed. Some requests are a little more complicated. A person wanted car hub cap bolts scouted for from Dragon Mart, and if available, bought from there. The person paid for two hours of service, and the particular type of car bolts were found.

Mashaweer also recently got an e-request from a lady to change some blouse and shoes she had bought from a mall. “The blouses she wanted in a bigger size, the shoes for one size smaller, and a credit note if the sizes weren’t available,” says Sherbini.

But a somewhat skeptic Indian expat about to go out of town feels the services aren’t for her. “I’d rather manage my time a little better than make someone else pay my bills. As for watering my plants when I’m on vacation, if I have to leave my house keys behind, I’d rather tip the building security guard whom I trust and ask him to do it.”

Other expatriates feel differently which is why the businesses are still running (see box for customer testimonials). But are there any errands that they won’t run? Jomaa says, “No. If it’s legal, moral and ethical, we will do it. But we try to not take on too many hotel reservations and travel bookings for which there are already many companies and agents out there.”

Average errands per week is not something they like to reveal. Sherbini says, “Weekdays are mainly the busiest. But on weekends too, we get many cakes, balloons to deliver. Also on month ends, a lot of our work is paying bills on behalf of our customers”. As for the slowest month in the region business-wise, it’s always July. He says “More than 90 per cent of our customers’ errands are requested on same day, even a few hours, and sometime minutes beforehand.”

nivriti@khaleejtimes.com