TORONTO, Aug. 26, 2019 /CNW/ – PUDO Inc. (“PUDO” or “the Company”) (CSE:PDO; OCTQB:PDPTF), North America’s only carrier-neutral parcel pick-up and drop-off Network, is pleased to announce that US-based Give Back Box (“GBB”), has chosen PUDO Inc. to launch its highly successful products and packaging recycling and donation platform in Canada, effectively connecting e-retailers and online shoppers in North America and the UK with a convenient and economical way to give back by giving back. Under the terms of an Agreement, services will commence in September, 2019, when GBB partner ALDO Shoes (Aldo Group Inc.) begins including Give Back Box pre-paid donation box shipping labels and directions for use, in all of their e-commerce parcels.
Give Back Box founder and CEO Monika Wiela has created an integrated platform that leverages the multi-trillion-dollar e-commerce volume and the mountains of packaging and landfill it creates, in direct and immediate benefit of millions of disadvantaged people and the charitable organizations that serve them, plus the environment. Critical to the success of GBB is successful management and navigation of the last-mile, which is where PUDO’s coast-to-coast Network of carrier-neutral parcel pick-up and drop-off locations figure prominently.
“I was referred to PUDO by our UK partner Collect Plus,” says Monika Wiela. “In order for us to be successful, we must provide our retail, charitable and consumer users with convenient and seamless access to donation boxes, donation box drop-off or pick-up locations, pre-printed labels, and easy online activation. By partnering with PUDO and integrating our donation platform with their Network platform, we are confident that we can grow in Canada as quickly as we have grown in the UK and the US, where we have hundreds of forward thinking network partners, including ALDO, and where PUDO-like (pick-up/drop-off) networks are already ubiquitous.”
Like PUDO, Give Back Box is a next-generation green technology company whose business model disrupts and exploits a growing trend to solve problems created or exacerbated by that trend, to create a business sector that did not exist previously.
As a shoe retailer living in Chicago, Wiela was keenly aware of the impact of e-commerce, and that:
- E-commerce has created a virtual forest of cardboard packaging — over 1 billion trees worth per year, according to forbes.com — most of which ends up in landfill, all of which accelerates climate change.
- Poverty and homelessness are on the rise in North America; with 553,700 homeless in the US (BBC) and 35,000 in Canada(Homeless Hub), and 58.5M Americans living in poverty or deep poverty (UNHR).
- North American consumers have tonnes and tonnes of ‘stuff’ they don’t need or want — no longer fits, is out of style, is out dated — and they have no time or means to transport it for donation.
Give Back Box enables consumers, retailers and charities to positively disrupt the e-commerce supply chain in benefit of all stakeholders, plus contribute favourably to poverty and homelessness. In Canada, the PUDO-GBB partnership will enable consumers to use their e-commerce shipping box as a donation box in which to place unwanted items for delivery to a local charity, at no cost to the consumer. Consumers have the option of targeting their donation to a specific charity, by paying a small flat fee for shipping.
Participating retailers will include pre-printed and pre-paid shipping labels in all outbound e-commerce parcels, inviting consignees to fill their empty shipping box with unwanted but functional items of clothing, household, and small electronic items of any description; affix the supplied label to the donation box, and send it on its way via pre-paid delivery to the nearest participating charity outlet for disbursement or sale.
PUDO will manage the receipt, consolidation and delivery of Give Back Boxes to participating charities, allowing non-profits to concentrate on fulfilling their missions of feeding, clothing, housing, re-training, and otherwise assisting people struggling with disadvantage. In all cases, cardboard Give Back Boxes will be recycled and diverted from landfills.
“We are thrilled by this new partnership with Give Back Box,” says PUDO CEO Kurtis Arnold. “As a next gen green Company ourselves, we are very pleased to add another very meaningful layer to the suite of services we can offer not only Canadian consumers, but our existing retail and 3PL customers as well.”
As e-commerce continues to grow by double digits annually, last-mile gridlock grows in lockstep. The one and only cost, time and friction saving solution to resolve last-mile e-commerce gridlock in North America, is PUDO — every player can participate and benefit through a real time, scalable, pay-as-you-go virtual consolidation of their logistic assets and PUDO’s.
