Citizen Shipper

Basics:

Citizen Shipper connects long-haul truckers with consumers who need help moving possessions and animals

Expected pay: You set it

Husl$core: $$$$

Commissions & fees: $25 monthly

Where: Nationwide

Requirements: 21 or over; pass a background check, which includes driving record, references and credit

Citizen Shipper Review:

Citizen Shipper plays matchmaker between people who need help moving pets or possessions long distances, with the drivers willing and able to do it. And, since some jobs involve moving animals, you don’t even need to be a burly guy with a truck to participate.

How it works

Customers say what they need to ship, where, when, and, sometimes, how much they’re willing to pay. Drivers get notified about new jobs in their area and decide whether to bid or accept a proposed job.

Citizen Shipper also promotes on-the-way deliveries by creating a stack of up to five other potential deliveries that are between the driver’s current destination and the one that was accepted. Citizen Shipper postulates that drivers can provide more competitive bids — and make more money — by adding deliveries in the stack.

This is a nice feature that should work well for both customers and drivers.

Subscription model

Drivers can try the service for free for three months. After that, however, they must pay $25 per month to remain on the site. The site also charges shippers a fee that’s calculated as a percentage of the shipping cost. This fee does not come out of the driver’s pay. It’s an added cost to the consumer.

The site does not collect payments, nor charge commissions to drivers. Drivers make payment arrangements directly with shippers, determining, for instance, whether to demand all cash or take checks. Payment is usually made at the time of delivery. Naturally, customers can also tip.

One concern

Our only concern with the site is a gag-clause in their driver agreement. This clause subjects drivers to a $1,000 fine if they “defame” the site’s business integrity or “make damaging statements regarding our business and services.” Gag clauses are usually a bad sign. However, we saw no indication of trouble in this case.

Want to check out Citizen Shipper?

Click here

Recommendations

You can find other driving, delivery and moving options that might be of interest at GoShare, Dolly, and Amazon Flex.

What their users say: (from an in-person interview)

I’ve only been on the site for a month, but it’s worked out really well so far. We’ve had more than a half-dozen deliveries.

The site has a wide array of happy pet owners, who have posted about using Citizen Shipper on SiteJabber.

7 responses to “Citizen Shipper”

Heather

May 30, 2019

As a driver it stinks they want you to make low bids barely makes your gas and some you don’t make enough gas because bids are so low as well if you break down unless your rich your stuck so why be a driver when it don’t pay what the people should all they think about is cheap but they don’t think of the gas food mileage breakdown also most customers want you to supply whatever bubble wrap carrier the list goes on it should not have to be on the driver these are extra expenses

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1. Juan O
  
  June 18, 2019
  
  Too many cheapskates on the site.all people care about is cheap transport. Newsflash all the bad reviews anyone posts starts with cheap rates. Example puppy from FL to tx 1032 miles some idiot bids it at 250.00 dollars do the math .most these shippers haul 3 to 5 dogs at a time that’s not quality care. People say they love their pets but wanna cheap out on shipping. If your gonna ship ask yourself can I afford to do it for the price I’m willing to pay. If not don’t ask someone else who has bills to pay to do it. Know your worth.
  
  Reply
  1. CitizenShipper
    
    August 30, 2019
    
    Hello Heather, we sincerely appreciate your feedback on using our website. In a lot of cases the lowest bid on a shipment isn’t the one a customer chooses. The shippers rather rely upon driver experience and previous customer reviews. Also, since hundreds of drivers are using the platform every day, there are plenty of them that bid on shipments that are actually their return trips, or they stack multiple loads to increase their rate per mile, and therefore they sometimes do post bids that might seem a bit low from a perspective of someone who’s trying to win that shipment as their primary source of income. Reputation is definitely the best possible leverage a driver using our platform can and should rely upon, so we encourage you to keep on bidding and build your experience. Since we don’t charge any fees from the quotes you provide to the customer, and using our website is free during the first 3 month trial period, we advise anyone that signs up to our platform to use this time period to work on building up their experience and gain a good amount of positive reviews that will help them claim all the economic benefits that come as a result of using CitizenShipper.
    
    We also sincerely appreciate Juan’s insights, and as for the quality of service provided, we welcome anyone who’s skeptical about using our service to book a professional pet transporter to read all the satisfied customer reviews on our social media, driver profiles, TrustPilot and all other platforms people are using to express their satisfaction in the service provided.
    
    Reply
2. Jim
  
  May 14, 2021
  
  But isn’t it on the driver to bid or not to bid?
  
  Reply
Jerry

January 15, 2020

Delivering pets dogs cats or birds. if they don’t want to pay anything just wondering how much these animals really mean to them.. I know everybody wants to save a dollar but when it comes to a pet you would think you would pay to get the best delivery method just my opinion. I have read alot of reviews and money seems to be the object..My pets mean more.

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Risa

April 8, 2021

I have been doing CitizenShipper since January. I really enjoy it. My only concern is the support you receive from them. I have have questions several times, I have responded to someone named Robert through email and have never gotten an answer. I have also asked the question through a chat bubble and that was not responded to either. Sometimes drivers need questions answered there should be a 1-800 number we can call to actually talk to someone. I feel very frustrated.
My questions:
* How do I add an additional driver? I added my son when I first signed up now I want to add another driver, how do I do this?
* do we get a 1099 at the end of the year? I know CS doesn’t pay us but I wasn’t sure if they reported to IRS as to what bids were accepted and the amounts.

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Paul W

December 1, 2021

I booked through Citizenshipper to ship a pair of speakers from mid west to east coast via West Coast Sunset Service (Sarah Smith). I consulted with Citizenshipper when Sarah Smith asked for 50% upfront and they said it is okay to do so. When she was late for 2 weeks and finally picked up the speakers, she asked for another 25% which I paid. Since then, she never updated me the delivery date and refused to respond on ETA or her current route. When confronted, she threatened to put my speakers in storage and put a lien on it (really, do you know what a lien is for). I gave her the benefits of doubts that she may deliver eventually. Eventually, is another 4 weeks and no updates. I’ll file charges against her mid December. Stay away.
Tip for consumers:
Do not trust reviews or background check. It does not mean anything. Citizenshipper cannot do anything to help you if scammed by drivers.

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