One of Zimbabwe’s leading startups Fresh In A Box (FIAB) has just announced that they will be charging a delivery fee of $5 USD. This optional fee is for customers who want a guaranteed delivery the following day.

The delivery fees will be as follows:

Guaranteed Next day delivery $5 ( or RTGS Equivalent currently $95)
Guaranteed 2 days delivery $2 (or RTGS equivalent currently $40)
Free Delivery which can take up to 3 days to happen.

So why the change?

According to FIAB you can blame this on fuel shortages.

Happy 2020 everyone! As we kick off the new year, we have spent the last few days analyzing our wounds and scars from 2019. Needless to say: it was a brutal year, but we thank God we survived.
One of the fresher wounds we had to look at and try deal with was the serious issue we have had with logistics and your deliveries. December was an absolute nightmare when it came to fuel availability and the time spent trying to make sure we could cover the huge combined distances with the pretty large fleet we needed to fulfill orders on time.
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Daily, your important deliveries where being hurt by the urgent and desperate need to procure fuel. We often ended up having to turn to more expensive sources (meaning real ??) , just to get your deliveries on the road. This quickly made our boxes not profitable.

As most Zimbabweans with a car are fully aware, owning a car might actually be a headache. In addition to the fact that spares are often priced in US dollars, there is the small problem of finding fuel. The fuel crisis that started in late 2018 has shown no signs of letting up.

Like the public businesses have not been spared. In fact, a lot of businesses need fuel not only for their fleets but due to power cuts, many businesses rely on generators. Sadly these costs often end up being passed on to customers.