Roadie app can carpool your items for cheap shipping

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Whether you're a shopper who wants things right now, a seller trying to figure out a way to ship, or someone with a car looking to make some extra cash - there's a new app that can help.

It's called Roadie and it just launched in Philadelphia. Consider it sort of like Uber for your items.

"Anybody can sell and anybody can ship without the effort of going to the store," said Roadie user, Greg Lewis.

And it all starts with an empty trunk and a willing driver

"We match up people who have stuff to send with people headed in that direction," said Valerie Metzker from Roadie.

That means you can buy, sell or send anything, if a driver accepts the gig.

"A mom trying to send a care package to a student at Temple or buy a couch on eBay and I don't know how to fit it into my car," said Metzker.

In fact, Greg Lewis bought a tandem bike on eBay from a seller in North Carolina and a roadie driver brought it right to his home in Newtown, Pa.

"Getting a big giant bike to a shipment place to UPS store is hard becasue you can't even put it in your car it's so big," said Lewis.

Leave your car keys somewhere? One guy had a roadie driver deliver them and for small businesses, they say the app is keeping the shopping local.

"We've got florists, we've got bakeries," said Metzker.

And these businesses now have access to a fleet of couriers.

"Roadie allows 50 different drivers to make 50 different deliveries for you and increase your capacity," said Metzker.

And for those looking to make some extra cash, all you need is empty space in your car.

"There's a billion square feet of unused cargo space in people's vehicles and if we can take a fraction of that space and put it to use its taking trucks off the road," said Metzker.

And so they say, it's also good for the environment.