Truth about delivering for UberEats , DoorDash, Postmates, Grubhub, and Caviar on bicycles
Staff Writer
2019-07-04
.bugnews.bloggieblog.com .
If you want to know from experience about food delivery on bicycles while working in the gig economy, you should keep reading. You may have seen various you-tube videos about food delivery for uber, doordash postmates, grubhub and caviar. The videos and some of the articles that informed you talks about the money made but not the work or the conditions one faces or, the things needed while working. Whether the person in the video is on an electric bicycle or regular bike, the person appears to make the process look good, fun and euphoric. If you keep reading, this will give the truth about the food delivery game in this gig economy.
The first truth is a regular bike for food delivery in today's world maybe dead. A delivery person can still make money with a regular bike but , the hills may kill you once or twice. The hills with a 90 degree angel are the hills that may make your food late. You can learn how to attack the hills by finding your hill gear on the bike but, the hills still kill.
To add to the hill, the correct bike needs to be used. Many people don’t consider the weight of the regular bike . The lighter the better but, don’t go broke with some expensive bike. With the bike weight, you may want to get those new tires that fight flats aka puncture resistant bicycle tires at least.
To enter the game of food delivery with a regular bike, you can either by one used or layway that joint at the correct store. If you credit is good, you can buy one with payment plans such as credit or leasing. These payment plans are either online or in the store. Remember online shopping is your friend for the regular bike approach. The cost of an online bike maybe lower.
For the used bike, you can check out thrift stores, pawn shops, Facebook, let-go, and other bike shops. If you do purchase used, one should look the bike over very well by checking all moving parts.
Moving on to the second truth, electric bikes are hill killers for fat out of shape people. Before the electric bicycle, the food delivery game on two wheels was reserved for people that were in shape, riding a motor scooter or motor cycle. The electric bike has open the door for anyone to get in the game if you apply the rules. The rules that don’t show up in video or on the know it all blog post similar to this one.
With the electric bike if you did good price comparisons, you will may have noticed the battery is the major cost to the bike. If we take tour down electric bike lane, we may notice these terms 250w, 350w, 500w 700w ,1000w. You can get any of the bikes with those terms but the performance my very.
In the youtube video or blog post, they never talk about your weight in relationship to the motor of an electric bike source . One thing to find out is the weight capacity of the e-bike. A 6’2 250 pound person can obtain a 250w motor but , the 250w motor may not last as long as the motor for the proper weight category. If you are a person around 200 pounds or more try to at least to get a 500w or more. The 250w will work but , the hills will force you to stand up and ride. The push up the hill will be easy but, the throttle only will not push far and the pedal assist will just be nothing.
With the riders weight to factor into the e-bike equation, you have to determine when the power will run out from the battery. You don’t want to do 15 , 20 or 30 miles and be out of battery juice fast. Many may not know that a bicycle delivery order can be 3 miles from the restaurant. Hmmm, the distance to and from the restaurant on average is not in the video. The distance from various sources work like this for uber on average 1.7 miles from the restaurant to the delivery location , and door dash is about 1 mile. If you factor in your return to a target zone, you may do like 3 miles per run on a bicycle. If you have an e-bike with 20miles on full throttle, you will only be able to do 6 runs before you have to get a fully charged battery or ride without the extra power. If you use pedal assist , you can normally double the distance of the battery usage. If you are in a area with many condos or apartments, the distance to delivery can be shorter.
To verify any e-bike theory, try one of the on demand bike services such as Jump or Lime. This will give you a good idea of how the e-bike is a good option with out the commitment. When you are ready to purchase the e-bike , DIY(Do it Yourself) is a cheaper option. If you want to purchase an affordable e-bike , you will need some luck with that choice at your local store. The online option maybe best and ,online has financing options too if cash is a problem.
Now, you have one of the bicycle selections, the things you will need with the bike are a bike rack front or back. Front may work better because you don’t have trouble swinging your leg over the bike unless you have the low cross over type bicycle. You will need lights for the front and back of the bike. You will need a helmet. The last and most important is locks.
If you want to leave your bike in a area, you will need to two u locks. Some people in some cities are able to lock their bikes up at the local subway or major bus hub. While locked for along period of time, you will want the a big chain lock too. You can leave the chain lock at the lock up location because it is locked. When you return, you can use the chain lock with all the other locks to lock up the bike.
In addition to the locks, you will need an extra charge cell phone charge, wipes for bathroom, and a cellphone mount for the bike.