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Everyone could use a little more money at Christmas. In Vancouver, a new firm is offering people the chance to make some by making local deliveries on their way to work, or elsewhere. They’re dropping off anything from gift baskets, to water bottles, to chocolates — and they’re all part of the new, shared economy.

Zipments, which launched in early December, is effectively a franchise of an existing U.S. operation, said Robert Safrata, its chief executive. Mr. Safrata, who owns courier company Novex, saw a gap in the market in Canada.

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“The hotel industry did not start AirBnB, which did nine million room rates last year. And the rental car industry did not start Zipcar, Car2Go, or Modo in Vancouver. The taxi industry did not start Uber,” he says. “I saw these industries being disrupted, and I thought ‘what is going to be the disruption in the delivery and career industry?’ ”

Mr. Safrata believes in the sharing economy, which has spawned these companies and tens of others. A common characteristic of this economy is its ability to let people use each other’s resources, generally for a fee. In some cases, as with Car2Go and Zipcar, customers use the company’s resource, but technology enables them to do it for shorter periods, making it more cost-effective.