When Pin Code gets replaced by Zippr

Bengaluru: A dear one has to be rushed to a hospital, you have called the ambulance service but are having great trouble explaining to the ambulance driver your address and how to reach your place quickly. Oh, how you wish there was an easier way to do it!

Actually, there is. It’s called Zippr, and the 108 Ambulance service in states such as Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are using it.

You send your Zippr code to the ambulance’s Assisted Vehicle Location Tracking device, and the driver gets a navigation map right to your doorstep.

The man behind Zippr, Hyderabad-based Aditya Vuchi, says that a Zippr essentially an eight character alphanumeric code that encapsulates an address, is like “a Bitly for physical addresses”.

“When I came back to Hyderabad after seven years in the US, for a time, I used to shuttle between Delhi and Hyderabad. So, every Monday, I would take the 6 am flight to Delhi. The cab guy would start calling me at 3.30 am for directions. You are sleeping, and this guy calls; you are taking a shower, and this guy calls again for directions and you can’t afford not to take those calls. That set me thinking that there has to be a better way. That’s how the idea for Zippr germinated”, says Aditya.

How does it work? If you have an iOS or Android phone, download the Zippr app, sign up and feed in your home or office address, and submit it to Zippr.

You will immediately get a Zippr code for that address. Each time you have to give out your address to a friend, a cab driver, or a pizza delivery guy, just text or whatsapp the Zippr code to the person.

When he/she clicks on it, a map opens up either in the app or on the phone’s browser, pinpointing the address and the directions to reach there.
You don’t have to type out or spell out the whole postal address and directions and landmarks.

Now, Aditya is going a step further. He’s tying up with cab services, e-commerce delivery companies, restaurants that offer delivery services, etc., to integrate Zippr into their ordering and delivery systems.

The 108 ambulance service is already using Zippr in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and will soon do so in some 13 other states that it operates in; restaurants like Foodmingo and Hello Curry in Hyderabad have caught on, too.

“I had this idea in 2011. But the ecosystem was not ready as smartphones costed us above Rs 20,000, and 3G phone services hadn’t taken off yet. However, things have changed as logistics companies are equipping their delivery boys with smartphones”, says Aditya.

“If we build enough partnerships, and get millions  in on board that do these kinds of commercial transactions, it will become a whole ecosystem play”.

But he might be onto something even bigger: “We are talking to a government in Africa, and those guys are asking us, can we rip off our postal address system and use Zippr, instead. That’s an interesting possibility. I don’t know how it will pan out. What if instead of postal addresses, buildings have Zippr codes stuck to them?”  says the app developer.