A new online service, boasting that it is Jamaica’s answer to Uber Eats, is promising to revolutionise the door-to-door food delivery sector in the island.

The Jamaican tech start-up, Driva Ja, will launch this month in Montego Bay, St James and is aimed at allowing customers to order food or other products for delivery directly to their doorstep.

Jamaica-born international jockey Rajiv Maragh, the chief executive officer of Driva Ja’s parent company, Courier Driver Ltd, said the company’s website and Android and iOS compatible app will allow consumers to track any food or product orders in real time throughout the country.

“There are a lot of people going into the space because they see the demand, so there is definitely a necessity. We are taking what they currently have, and we are expanding on it,” Maragh said.

“We are using a more advanced technology that is going to make the process of ordering food and the product very fast and more convenient than it is right now.”

Orders can be done with a credit, Visa debit or Mastercard as well as through clients topping up their Driva Ja accounts.

“It works [well] for everybody. The consumers who are logging on, it is going to make their lives easier. They are going to be able to access whatever they want from the merchants. The restaurants and so forth that are in the area, they are going to get their business going better [and] provide jobs for lots of people such as the drivers and the workers in the restaurants,” he added.

Maragh said deliveries would be subcontracted to bearers who sign up with the service. They will earn on a commission basis and undergo training in customer service and other areas in order to ensure customer satisfaction.

“We are creating a free market for drivers to go on [the app or website] and work their own hours, be their own boss. They will earn per delivery that they make [and] be able to work as much money as they want,” he said.

Maragh indicated that Driva Ja will expand from Montego Bay and into the rest of the country, over time, before moving into the wider Caribbean.

The Courier Driver Ltd CEO beamed with pride as he stressed that the platform is “completely home-grown”, with four Jamaican founders and its first two employees currently students at the University of the West Indies and University of Technology.

“I always thought about how I can contribute to the place [where I grew up) and really put me on the map. This is a perfect opportunity to provide something that is really a necessity in Jamaica right now due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.