For this use case you really care about reducing the lifetime total cost of ownership, which means making the bike as reliable, serviceable, and repairable as possible. I love e-bikes, but IME they have a long way to go to get to same level as normal bikes in this regard. It's good that the bikes in the article are locally-built, but I'd like to know whether or not they emphasize using standardized parts with high availability.
For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower
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Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower
#32In London e-bikes have basically take over delivery of small stuff. A decade or so ago they tended to use motor scooters but there are a lot less restrictions on e-bikes.
In Australia too. They don't follow any road rules and ride on the footpaths at insane speeds. They're not actually legal - I believe the law is that if they can go over 17kph without pedalling then they must be registered, have indicators, etc. But nobody seems to do anything about it. I guess some elderly pedestrians must die before something is done.
Nothing is being done because it’s not an actual issue. No one is dying from being hit by delivery bikes. They are just annoying.
Meanwhile elderly drivers regularly have incidents that kill entire families and we shrug and say nothing can be done.
Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can see numerous reasons why you'd want the backpack rather than a box on the bike for food delivery (may not apply for other deliveries): - no need to fuss when you mount/dismount your bike, your backpack is already on your shoulders. Speed is key. - the focus is not on carrying capacity, it's on speedy delivery. There's only so much food in their backpack. - because of the time waiting for orders / going to the r…
Counterpoint: when biking, you generally desire to have your center of mass be lower rather than higher, for better stability and handling.
Uno reverse/Yu-Gi-Oh trap card: They're not pushing the handling limits.
Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower
#34I wonder why is still anyone NOT using e-bikes for delivery. This is the lowest hanging fruit ever. No charging issues (just a normal wall socket is more than enough), no range issues - trips are short and battery can be swapped by a person in seconds to the one that was charging. Almost zero running costs compared to a two-stroke.
It pretty much is like that in Australia. Aus post utilises e-bikes and golf cart like things for a lot of deliveries. Most food delivery is done by e bikes.
They still have the traditional vans though since they get loaded up once in the morning to deliver a ton of large packages.
Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a job and it pays the bills. Nobody is calling it a career.
You read the article, listened to the stories, and looked at the pictures, right? This is obviously the only source of income for many of those people. They're economically trapped and you're just happy to sell them e-bikes and pretend that it materially improved their conditions. Oh, but it's greenwashing nonsense, so everyone turns off their critical reasoning skills, and pretends it's a secret virtue that they do…
>They're economically trapped and you're just happy to sell them e-bikes and pretend that it materially improved their conditions.
What in the hell are you going on about with your criticisms? Here's an idea: Ask these people who buy the e-bikes to do their fairly menial but bill-paying jobs if they'd rather not have at least that option so that you can lecture them about their trapped economic state.
That things should be better and more versatile for more people in the world doesn't mean that shit should be thrown on every small benefit someone can extract from life because it's far from some ideal.
Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower
#36In London e-bikes have basically take over delivery of small stuff. A decade or so ago they tended to use motor scooters but there are a lot less restrictions on e-bikes.
E bikes can be used by 15-16 year olds so Dominos uses them a lot here in the Netherlands.
I don't think it is fair to compare Netherlands to other countries like UK or France because Netherlands has a well established culture around bikes and bike lane infrastructure is one of the best in the world, so it will be the last country that will have any issues because of e-bikes.
Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower
#37Small off-topic, I see those boxed backpacks and think of their shoulders. On motorbike the box rests in the back of the seat but here all the weight is in the shoulders. People who have done some mountain hiking knows that the weight of the backpack should be mostly in the waist, thanks to the waist belt (sorry if I don't use the right term, I've done most my hiking in Spanish ;) ). I don't know how weight distribut…
I can see numerous reasons why you'd want the backpack rather than a box on the bike for food delivery (may not apply for other deliveries): - no need to fuss when you mount/dismount your bike, your backpack is already on your shoulders. Speed is key. - the focus is not on carrying capacity, it's on speedy delivery. There's only so much food in their backpack. - because of the time waiting for orders / going to the r…
Capacity is still needed, or you will miss out on a lot of deliveries in peak hours, where you load up several orders and then deliver them all in one route and you dont really need to carry whole bag to client/restaurant, just fish up the package.
Also boxy bags allow for bigger packages(pizza, water bottles) and usually help to pack orders in a way that damages them less.
Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower
#38Small off-topic, I see those boxed backpacks and think of their shoulders. On motorbike the box rests in the back of the seat but here all the weight is in the shoulders. People who have done some mountain hiking knows that the weight of the backpack should be mostly in the waist, thanks to the waist belt (sorry if I don't use the right term, I've done most my hiking in Spanish ;) ). I don't know how weight distribut…
In my experience hauling deliveries on the shoulders generally sucks, especially if weight is bigger. hence why most active couriers around my parts prefer to fix some sort of baggage rack to their ebikes.
Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower
#39In London e-bikes have basically take over delivery of small stuff. A decade or so ago they tended to use motor scooters but there are a lot less restrictions on e-bikes.
In Australia too. They don't follow any road rules and ride on the footpaths at insane speeds. They're not actually legal - I believe the law is that if they can go over 17kph without pedalling then they must be registered, have indicators, etc. But nobody seems to do anything about it. I guess some elderly pedestrians must die before something is done.
An elderly pedestrian I know was recently struck by a car. Compound fractures, dislocated joints. He’s looking at a long recovery and a pile of medical bills, because the driver was barely insured and in the US we’re somehow fine with that. So it comes down to momentum transfer, and I’d much rather he’d have been struck by an e bike.
Re: For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower
#40For this use case you really care about reducing the lifetime total cost of ownership, which means making the bike as reliable, serviceable, and repairable as possible. I love e-bikes, but IME they have a long way to go to get to same level as normal bikes in this regard. It's good that the bikes in the article are locally-built, but I'd like to know whether or not they emphasize using standardized parts with high av…
Do you deliver packages in a tropical climate? If the answer is no, maybe you have a different use case than the people in the article. Being able to make it through the day might carry more significance for these users than being able to tear the thing down without any electrical knowledge.
HN in a nutshell - you see an article full of first-hand reports of the users and their use case and your immediate reaction is that you know better about what they want and need than they do.