Singaporean reservist? Spaceship teleports your barang-barang to your army camp

Lugging your heavy, bulky army equipment to camp under the hot sun is dreadful. Bringing it home is worse – because everyone’s jostling to get into the limited supply of taxis. And once your barang-barang reaches home, they take up storage space and collect dust.

But what if there’s a van waiting outside your camp that will hand over your equipment, and retrieve it after your training stint concludes? And in between the annual in-camp training, your items will be cleaned, replenished, washed, and even disposed of when you complete your ten-year cycle? A Singapore startup called Spaceship is offering this service, aptly named Kaki, or “buddy”.

Pick-up, storage, and delivery of your duffel bag and field pack will cost S$60 (US$44) a year. Sewing and replenishing of items are pegged at “Beach Road” rates (where army equipment are usually bought), washing of uniforms and PT kits costs S$20 (US$14.70) for 10 items, and disposal will be S$25 per trip. Deliveries can be made with a two-day notice.

Spaceship was launched in late January this year by Zhi Wei Yeo, and has a team of seven full-timers. Yeo wouldn’t say how popular this service has become, but if it resonates with a lot of Army guys, it has the potential to be huge.

“Can you imagine […] once you ORD, someone waits to put your army stuff [into storage]. Everytime you go back to camp, somebody sends it back to you. It’s a change in behavior,” he says.

The service runs independently of the Ministry of Defence (Mindef), for now. “Visitors from Mindef came. We would love to speak to them to see how we can work together. If Mindef says yes, let’s work together.”

Of course, scoring a Mindef contract would be a coup for the young company, though there’s nothing stopping the ministry from cloning it outright. Yeo counters that Mindef typically outsources a lot of services to contractors.

That’s putting the cart before the horse, though. Is Kaki even a service that’s useful enough to be financially sustainable? As a start, it won’t appeal to all servicemen. Some drive, some have plenty of space in their home, and some won’t pay the 60 bucks for a little more convenience.

Personally, I find it challenging to part with my money to deal with a problem I’ll face only once a year. Singapore isn’t like Hong Kong either, where 820,000 homes don’t even have a storage room. Then again, maybe I’m just a luddite who hasn’t awoken to the wonders of on-demand storage.

Not just for National Servicemen