Road Jockey Rides Into Door-Stop Food Delivery Market

Door-stop delivery services are becoming increasingly popular as persons spend more time within the safety and comfort of their homes due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Enter Road Jockey, a Montego Bay-based company, whose investors have employed the use of cutting-edge technology to facilitate food deliveries to clients from restaurants across Jamaica.

Speaking at a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank held at the agency’s regional office in Montego Bay on September 29, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Road Jockey, Rajiv Maragh, said the idea for the company was born out of observing the rapid rise of food-delivery companies such as DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub in the United States.

He said that COVID-19 and the fear of being exposed to the virus have made the delivery business very attractive and lucrative.

“Road Jockey is a technology company that will connect persons with their favourite restaurants in a climate of transparency and seamlessness,” he said.

“We do this where customers can sit back and relax after ordering their food and always with the knowledge that they can use global positioning system (GPS) from the app on their phone to track the driver/biker from the pickup at the restaurant to when it is delivered to their doorsteps,” he noted.

Mr. Maragh said that COVID-19 has wreaked havoc and despair across the world, and Jamaica is no different, where almost every single entity has been affected.

“What it has also done, however, is to create an opening for enterprising entrepreneurs to bring goods and services to the doorstep of customers,  where they don’t have to leave their homes unless they really have to,” he pointed out

Mr. Maragh, a Jamaican-born international jockey, who has amassed a stellar career, having placed twice in the Kentucky Derby, told JIS News that Road Jockey, which will be officially launched in the coming weeks, will also have an overseas component.

He said that customers from anywhere in the diaspora can use the app to place orders for deliveries to their loved ones in Jamaica.

“This will be a big deal for occasions like birthdays or holidays such as Christmas where persons living overseas can call and have us deliver hams (cooked and uncooked), seafood, groceries and Christmas cake to their loved ones,” he said.

Mr. Maragh further noted that with a lot of persons having been laid off from jobs because of the pandemic, Road Jockey will also be creating employment for persons with information technology skills, dispatchers, and drivers in many communities.

“While we are starting out in Montego Bay, the goal is to take the service across the entire island,” he said.

“We all have to start from somewhere and Road Jockey will eventually be covering the entire island, even when there is no COVID around. We are bent on being a multipurpose delivery company that caters to the needs of our clients in a climate of goodwill, transparency, and high quality. We are confident that our services will be seen as fast and efficient and where we will build for ourselves a track record of success,” he told JIS News.