In A PICKle is currently exclusive to Montana, and the town of Ainsworth, Nebraska. But there’s a good reason for that. Tim Moylan was born and raised in Ainsworth, but now resides in Shelby. He says that he got the idea for In A PICKle from seeing a lot of empty truck beds and trailers driving up and down the interstate from Great Falls to Shelby every day. That, and scrolling through Facebook.
But what is In A PICKle? “There are two pools of people here, those that need help getting an object from point A to point B, and I call those people requestors, and then those who are able to assist in the transporting of that object, and I call those people the runners,” explained Moylan. “Along with a captive audience, In A PICKle basically provides a tool that connects peers based on the route of transport. The requestor will post the pickup and drop off locations, and the runner will be notified of requests that match their service area or route within a planned trip.”
In short, if Billy needs something from, say, Frontline Ag Solutions in Great Falls, but he lives in Shelby, he can post his request online at inapickle.app. But that’s not the only thing that Tim has fashioned his service to do. You can ask for and provide rides to or from locations like airports, have someone pick up your groceries for you, and more.
If part of that sounds like ride services apps such as Uber or Lyft, it’s because the concept is similar, but Moylan isn’t concerned about competing with those services.
“That’s not my main goal to compete with those, but to learn from them, would be a better way to put it,” he said. “Learn from how those companies work and hopefully I can even get five percent of what their value is. My main goal is just to help the people the smaller communities because we live out here, and some places called the middle of nowhere, like Glasgow, Montana, and it’s a long ways from every Walmart, so any opportunity to just help the rural community.:
In A PICKle isn’t available on mobile app stores just yet, but Moylan says that’s a goal of his. Another goal is to spread the service to every state in the country. Tim wants to get 200 or more people in every community on the platform to begin with, a goal that might not be that farfetched considering he already has over 50 users registered, and the service just launched publicly on Aug. 31.
Creating and maintain an account on the website currently costs $4/month or $24/year. After you’ve created your account, you can post transport requests or accept an already existing request. In A PICKle matches peers whose requests and travel destinations align, then the requestor and the runner can discuss compensation for gas and other services.
The service couldn’t have launched at a better time for some people in rural Montana communities during the pandemic – including Tim’s own family.
“The elderly couldn’t get out and get to the grocery stores, and it even hit my family,” he explained. “My wife, Kayla, had COVID, and we were quarantined to our house for two weeks. We used this app, just recently, three times for people going to Albertson’s out here in Shelby to get us groceries. Then they would drop it off at our doorstep, so there’s no contact. It’s really impacted the app as a whole, in getting it moving forward as quickly as I did. I knew I had to have it as soon as possible so I could help the people in these smaller communities get to the more simple things that they weren’t able to get to now that COVID has run rampant in Shelby, especially along with other towns.”
Overall, Moylan hopes that his journey and his success inspires others to continue believing that they can accomplish anything that they set their mind to.
“Like everyone says, always go for your dreams, and I’m fortunate enough to have this happen to me and have people that have stepped in to help me,” Tim said. “I’m just thankful for that. It’s been a lot of fun and exciting. It’s really exciting to start out in an entrepreneur type of business. I wish everybody the best of luck on their dreams to start something up like I have had the chance to, and just don’t give up.”
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