TaskRabbit Matches Errand with Runner

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - A new website is offering you the chance to hire someone to do the running around when you don't have time to.

TaskRabbit.com claims to have hundreds of "runners" available, already background checked, who can hop to a task. The user of the service posts a task as well as a maximum price, and the site states that a "runner" will accept the job.

TaskRabbit invites runners to bid on a job and, if an agreeable price is reached, the runner completes the task and the client is invited to rate and review the runner after paying.

The site claims the runners are "your neighbors," including stay-at-home moms and dads, students, young professionals and retirees.

Recent tasks included "poop patrol for small dogs," cleaning gutters and installing gutter guards, cleaning a house and calling chair rental companies in preparation for a wedding.

The Wall Street Journal said the average pay is $15 per errand.

Using TaskRabbit may even be a form of public service as the Christian Science Monitor reported that about 70 percent of runners are unemployed or underemployed.

Anne Moellering, chief marketing officer for the company, suggested that goes both ways.

"What's fascinating to me is the incredible human connection that people make," she said to the newspaper. "Our runners realize our customers are across the board and really need help."

VentureBeat said the company makes money by taking 12 to 28 percent of the runner's pay.

Only Boston and the San Francisco Bay area can use the service so far. Fans of its Facebook page are making suggestions as to where they would like to see the service offered next.

According to VentureBeat urban, wired cities like Chicago, Austin, Texas, and Portland, Ore., have been discussed as possibilities.

Gawker reported that TaskRabbit's clients include Google, which is providing employees with TaskRabbit credits as a perk of employment.