Bungii

What is Bungii?

Bungii is a same-day delivery service that enlists freelance drivers to help people and companies move heavy and bulky items.

How it works

If you want to sign up to drive for Bungii, you’ll need to meet a host of minimum requirements. These include being over the age of 21 and able to lift and carry 125 lbs.

You’ll also need a pickup truck, cargo or sprinter van or have an SUV with a trailer that’s less than 25 years old.

The company also expects you to own a large waterproof tarp with tie-down grommets; four 12’ or longer ratcheting tie downs; two quilts or moving blankets; and bungee cords in a variety of sizes. These must all be in good working order and provided at your sole cost and expense.

And you’ll need to pass a background check.

However, the site says getting approved to drive usually takes less than 48 hours. After that, you have access to Bungii gigs in your neighborhood.

Bungii review

Like a lot of peer-to-peer delivery services, Bungii aims to make short-haul deliveries of appliances, furniture, flooring and other bulky items simpler for both businesses and individuals. It does this by enlisting thousands of freelance drivers to use their own trucks, trailers and cargo vans to make these deliveries on demand.

But, of the many freelance delivery services you can sign up to work with, Bungii requires the most physical strength. You must be able to lift and carry 125 lbs. Do not dismiss this requirement.

This site appears to specialize in construction deliveries, where Bungii drivers are picking up full pallets full of drywall, tile, marble, and other building materials. They often must then carry the contents of that load into a home or construction site.

The site says it offers a wide array of deliveries — from single TVs and sofas to construction materials. Drivers can pick and choose the type of deliveries that they like. But, heavy bulk items appear to be the site’s stock in trade.

Heavy lift

Because a pallet of tile is likely to weigh 2,000 pounds or more, drivers are generally expected to unwrap the pallet and deliver the pieces — say 20 boxes of tile — to the customer. This could involve lifting 2000 pounds in 100-pound increments. (Or lifting 100 20-pound boxes.)

Pickups are often done at home improvement stores, so loading your truck is often assisted by store employees and a forklift. But, the drop-off side is on you.

Drivers reviewing the app consistently complain about the weight of the loads and the fact that compensation appears to only reflect the distance from the pickup to the drop-off. It doesn’t adequately reflect the hard work drivers are being asked to perform.

Assembly required

Some jobs also require that the driver assemble the product — say, a piece of exercise equipment — in the customer’s home. However, these deliveries require drivers to get certified by watching videos on how to assemble these products. The video viewing is on your own time.

Job listings

Once you’re accepted to the site, you’ll have access to job offers. Each offer includes what you’re picking up; how much it weighs; where it’s located; where it’s going; and how much you’ll earn.

The site does not disclose how it sets pay, saying that it varies by the partner and what you’re transporting. However, the site’s director of marketplace support says that the average Bungii gig pays $68 and works out to an hourly rate of about $45 per hour.

This figure does not include tips, so you could earn more. However, tips are relatively rare with last-mile delivery apps. Some experts estimate that drivers get tipped about 10% of the time.

Also keep in mind that your net pay — after accounting for the cost for gas, insurance and maintenance of your vehicle — will be considerably less. Mileage is a particular concern in these days of near-record gasoline prices, since most vehicles capable of carrying Bungii loads get less than 15 miles per gallon when fully loaded.

Support

What happens if you get to a pick-up and the job isn’t as described?

You can text Bungii’s support team and either ask for more money or for a second driver to help with the delivery. The site prides itself on the fact that its support staff typically responds within two minutes.

In one such incident, a YouTuber who calls himself “The Gig Geezer,” says he and a partner were enlisted to pick up 4 flats of construction material. But when they got there, there were 7 flats which meant the delivery required two trips.

Bungi originally offered $88 each to Gig Geezer and his partner to make the deliveries. However, when he complained about the additional material, the site more than doubled the pay, paying each $191 — a total of $382.

Insurance

What if something you’re transporting is damaged — or gets damaged during the delivery? Bungii says the company covers damages unless the driver is overtly negligent.

This compares favorably to competitor GoShare, which pays more for deliveries, but holds drivers liable for up to $5,000 in damages, if you break or damage something during the delivery.

Commissions & fees

Bungi doesn’t disclose how much it takes from each delivery fee as a site commission. However, Gig Geezer says the customer in the previous example paid $800 for the delivery. So Bungii took more than half of the delivery fee — and would have taken considerably more, if the driver hadn’t balked at the poorly described work.

Normally, drivers don’t see how much the customer is paying. They only know how much Bungii is paying them. But in several reviews, other drivers also said they saw indications that Bungii was taking the vast majority of the delivery fee. Drivers appear to get only about one-third of what the customer paid.

Pay

Drivers are paid twice weekly — Tuesdays and Fridays — via the Branch app.

Big demands, modest pay

If you are extremely cautious about the gigs you take here, you could make decent money. However, we’d advise you to pay close attention to the weight of the load and the number of miles that you’ll be driving.

As we already mentioned, this site expects you to do a lot of heavy lifting, in addition to transporting goods. In our opinion, the pay is often too low to compensate you for the wear and tear on your vehicle and your body.

If you’re a body builder and this kind of work appeals to you, go for it. Otherwise, check out the “recommendations” below for delivery options that are lower maintenance.

Recommendations

The best way to work with last-mile delivery apps is to sign up for several and cherry pick the jobs. Some other apps worth signing up for: GoShare works similarly to Bungii, but promises higher pay and less lifting. Frayt pays similarly to Bungii, but also requires less lifting.

UShip and Citizen Shipper also enlist freelance movers. However, these apps provide the mover with more control over the bidding and delivery process. Importantly, both sites allow you to arrange “on the way” deliveries to fill your truck, which is a particular advantage to those with larger vehicles.

If you want to sign up with Bungii, you can find them here. 

What their users say (from the Gig Geezer)

They are ripping drivers off. I received a request to pick up and deliver a pallet of tile in Charlotte, NC. The pallet weighed 2500lbs the offer was $47 to pick up, load, deliver and unload. I live in Columbia, SC. $47 would only be enough to cover my gas to and from the delivery location. This is insane and should be illegal.

I had a bad experience with unloading the tile. They are definitely not playing fair as far as paying for extra handling that isn’t specific in there delivery instructions. In my opinion you need a box truck for them loads

From Reddit

I’ve been at it 4 months now ….. it’s a breeze as long as you pay attention to the destinations …

I was one of their first drivers and I really enjoy doing it. FWIW, all my interactions with them have been great. They’re one of the few sharing-economy companies that seem to actually care about their contractors… at least that’s been my experience.

I have done 16 trips on the app out of Denver and let me tell you it is a poorly run company and not worth your time. I did 17 trips in between starting a new job. The app is complete B.S. and you’re grossly underpaid. They charge minimum 150 to the client in Denver and payout 47 or less to the drivers. Thats loading and unloading an average of 800 to 2000#s of materials per trip. They state you need shirts, if you order and pay, they never come. If you’re early for a pickup at a store they ding you. Its micro managed by children on a laptop. The last straw was today 7hrs of driving, 360 miles round trip, delivered 900#s of tile to a cabin for 207.00. After delivery i contacted support said my last day is tomorrow. They cancelled tomorrow’s trip, and deactivated my account.

From Google Play

Absolutely horrible company to work for. Wanted me to load over 1300 lbs of stuff and drive it to a customer then unload it for $46. I could clearly see on the invoice the customer paid a $199 fee. What a joke.

Company response: In app we provide the scope of work as well as the earnings so that each Driver knows what they accept before they accept a delivery. Unfortunately, the price the store charges for delivery may not line up with what we do, and why you see a difference on the invoice.

Crap pay

I have a full size truck trailers and everything to haul around easily. But $30 bucks to drive an hour away, another hour at the store and delivering then another hour home and all for a staggering $35 bucks! Duo lift is killing this. Pallets can be unloaded and loaded by one person no need to double dip. Every offer i get is 4 hours of my time for $60 is the highest I ever seen. Not worth the time effort or fuel.

The pay is ridiculously low. The driver customer service is rude, slow, and will talk to you and treat as you are nothing and usually has no knowledge about anything going. If you have to speak to customer service while on a job. Gaurranteed 30 plus minutes added per job. The app crashes consistently. I would avoid at all cost…. Then if you make a suggestion or a complaint they will point out immediately that they can delete you without even acknowledging or talking about the problem at hand.

App would be great if payouts weren’t so low , you take 1500+ lbs and get $40-$68 gas has increased the more weight the more gas payouts need to be higher I have a cargo van that can take weight but alot of the jobs do not seem to be worth the work and I’ve been in this fields for over 3 years weight like that should be paying much higher.

Great concept overall but can’t change location. 6mos in & Deliveries are paying much less. 2000lb + pallets going 10-40miles pay $40-$70 & you offload by hand. You’ll average $1-1.50 loaded mile or $25-$30hr but you’re lifting heavy flooring driving your own truck so its less. Bungii takes about 2/3 $$ of the load. Also no instant way to accept multiple loads If you have a 1 ton pickup/trailer having to txt (no call option) bungii takes time and second load is usually gone by then!!