How Crowdmail works
Crowdmail brings two sides together: the person who needs to send something, and the person who is already travelling the right route. The service does not carry goods itself — it helps you find each other and agree. Here is how it looks in practice from each side.
If you need to send a parcel
1. Post a request. Say where the parcel must go from and to, roughly when, and what exactly you are sending. The more specific the description — weight, size, how urgent — the faster a suitable traveller will respond. You can post a request once you are signed in; signing up takes less than a minute. The account is also what lets you receive messages from travellers on the site and later edit or remove your listings.
2. Wait for a reply, or find a traveller yourself. Your request appears in the parcels listings. At the same time, look through the list of trips: someone may already be going where you need, and you will not have to wait.
3. Agree the terms. You can write on the site or through the Telegram bot @crowdmail_bot (Russian only). Discuss the date, the handover place on both sides, the reward and what to do if plans shift.
4. Hand over the parcel and stay in touch. People usually meet at a station, near a metro stop close to the road out of town, or at the airport. Agree beforehand how the recipient will recognise the traveller and how they will confirm that everything arrived.
If you are travelling and can take a parcel
Look at the requests on your route in the listings. Reply to one that matches your dates and discuss the details. You can also do it the other way round: post your trip in advance, so senders find you themselves.
Almost everyone has some free room in their luggage, and you will make the journey anyway. For many people it is a way to cover part of the cost of the trip — especially on regular routes.
How much it costs
The service takes no commission and sets no rates. The reward is whatever the parties agree directly between themselves; you can state it in the listing straight away or leave it open for discussion. Some listings are posted with no reward at all: people take a parcel along simply because it is no trouble.
The money does not pass through the service, so agree in advance when and how payment happens — on handover, on receipt, or in parts.
How to agree things safely
There is one key rule: always look at what you are carrying. The sender is responsible for the contents, but at the border or during a search it is the person holding the parcel who answers. Never agree to take a sealed package with unknown contents — however convincing the reason.
Before agreeing anything, read the rules and the list of items that must not be sent. On international routes this matters especially: the restrictions depend on the countries of departure and arrival and on the type of transport.
A few practical habits: keep the conversation in one place so you can go back to it; exchange a way to reach each other on the day of the trip; for a valuable item, photograph its condition at handover.
If plans change
Trips fall through and dates move — that is normal. Tell the other side as early as you can: the sender may have a fallback, and the request stays in the listings for the next traveller to see.
You can edit or remove your listings at any time under “My listings”. If something does not work, write to [email protected] and we will help.