
Show HN: Send your items worldwide with travelers or make money while traveling - cargo2share
https://cargo2share.com/
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justin_vanw
And then you go to Prison in $COUNTRY.

This idea:

1: Only makes sense in the first place as a way to avoid VAT and other
tariffs, and so eventually you will get shut down and prosecuted, this is
literally smuggling.

2: Certainly going to be used to move around _very bad things_.

3: In the extremely unlikely chance that people don't go to prison for the
various crimes this either requires or encourages, and this idea takes off,
Airlines will respond by finding ways to prevent it from working. That 'extra
space' in your bag is currently being sold, or the airline is saving money on
fuel. They have a huge financial interest in shutting this down.

If I were a country with people smuggling in, say, macbooks in this way, I
would just confiscate any unopened macbook that came through the airport. In
most cases people would appeal the confiscation and the macbook would be
returned, but how many macbooks have to be held for good before it is foolish
to use this service?

This will never work and it is a very stupid thing to try. Even attempting
this requires the people carrying items to lie to airport security and
customs, every single time (did you pack everything yourself? Were you given
any packages to carry for another person?)

OMG this is dumb.

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eecks
Wow.. how did this idea get so far? From initially thinking of it.. to
purchasing a domain name, building a functional website, creating a video to
advertising/creating awareness (all of which were done very well)

~~~
fgtx
> Our project is a result of more than 7 years of industrial and consulting
> experience in different sectors

[https://cargo2share.com/about-us](https://cargo2share.com/about-us)

~~~
justin_vanw
>> Our project is a result of more than 7 years of industrial and consulting
experience in different sectors, including transportation, automotive
industry, retail and finance.

While technically the careful wording leaves open that Retail could mean 'sat
on the board of Walmart' we all know it really means 'worked at a BestBuy'.

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waqf
There is an established business model for doing this. I think it was more
viable 20 years ago than it is today.

Here's a summary of how it works/doesn't work:
[http://wikitravel.org/en/Air_courier](http://wikitravel.org/en/Air_courier)

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nicolasiac
Good idea but: traveller will need to know what he/she will be carrying. Will
they deliver in person? Airport could be miles away from the receiver's house.

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phantom_oracle
I thought about this idea myself, so let me point out the flaws in it (from my
perspective):

\- There is very little incentive for carriers to carry the goods and this
company to turn a profit as well

\- Global shipping will not be that much more expensive. Customs is what makes
imports expensive

\- ^^ customs. You will be skirting them a lot. What happens during a random
luggage stop-and-check when the carrier is found with a $1,000 Apple laptop?
Who goes to jail or is held accountable?

\- What stops nefarious carriers from keeping the goods for themselves? Most
carriers won't carry unknown items and when they become known (and their
value) - and because the receiver won't go reporting about their Apple laptop
they were expecting - theft becomes very real and likely

\- Traveler logistics: Airports aren't 5/10 minutes away from most folks.
Getting the goods from the sender -> carrier -> receiver can and will be a
major headache

There's plenty of issues, but I'd like to see where you guys go with this, as
it will be an interesting experiment.

~~~
Lanari
And at last, when someone discover that this is a good risk-free idea to drug
trafficking.

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oska
This is actually how DHL got their start in the late 60s. They paid _the
entire_ flight ticket for people on select routes (initially SF to Honolulu),
in exchange for those people giving over their luggage allowance to DHL to
courier valuable documents (such as bills of lading). [1]

Two points: 1) they were more innocent times and 2) DHL restricted itself to
asking third parties to only carry paper documents

[1] [https://www.flexport.com/blog/dhl-bills-of-
lading/](https://www.flexport.com/blog/dhl-bills-of-lading/)

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kylehotchkiss
Another risk: there are various small rules for individual countries on what
you can't carry in and a person carrying somebody else's luggage may not know
those specific rules. (For example, flying into the Middle East with certain
types of religious literature is a no-no). Huge risk for the guys carrying
somebody else's personal items, even if they appear to be safe and innocent.
International courier services handle a lot of risk, offer insurance, and have
really improved the past few decades globally since every ships online these
days.

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cargo2share
Hey folks, thank you very much for the insightful comments. To our supporters:
we will keep in touch ;)

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throweway
This may just be a hackathon project. Doesnt seem to give much away and is
just a lead gen. May not be serious at all. Almost an unintended early April
fools for HN?

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unusximmortalis
Besides the obvious risks involved I find the presentation a big turn off.
Highly subjective of course.

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filvdg
The perfect way to ship narcotics ?

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nomkaaoa
Man, the gold rush really is over.

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gonyea
I think you should pitch this idea to the Cartels.

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throweway
Do i need bitcoins and a tor client?

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heroh
this venture will not takeoff

~~~
throweway
And they wont have enough runway

