For Delivery Workers in Latin America, Affordable E-Bikes Are a Superpower

[rob74]

So, a 50 year old former "business manager in a government role" is now working as a delivery worker in Colombia, and the fact that the company gave him a loan for an e-bike (they didn't even provide it to him!) is listed as a "reason to be cheerful"?! I swear this is the most depressing thing I read this week so far, and that's something if you consider how depressing the news has been recently...

[dfxm12]

This sounds like one of those stories in the US about a community crowdsourcing a ton of money for a little girl to get some life saving surgery that would be covered by socialized health care in almost any other country in the planet.

These stories are cheerful for capital.

[thrownaway2323]

>So, a 50 year old former "business manager in a government role" is now working as a delivery worker in Colombia, and the fact that the company gave him a loan for an e-bike

Millions of venezuelan migrants are in a similar situation. It is not uncommon to see former university professors with PHDs, lawyers, engineers with decades of experience, etc. to find themselves in another country working as Uber drivers and other types of jobs. Having to migrate really fucking sucks especially if you are old. Consider yourself lucky if you live in a country that is politically and economically stable and you have some sort of net to support you when things don't work out for you.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

Your glass is half empty.

Whatever it is is better than the same thing with loud gas motorbikes being everywhere.

[sepositus]

From my reading, the article is about how e-bikes are proving to be economically viable and how that benefits the environment. Even more positive is that they are becoming available locally in a way that is accessible to a delivery driver on a fixed low income. Those things seem like something to be pretty optimistic about.

[alienthrowaway]

"There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in." - Desmond Tutu

Society is not ready for the conversation because more often that not, inquisitive people who dare go upstream find out that capitalism - directly or indirectly - is pushing into the river, and have to walk back down to while hanging their head, and continue pulling those they can out of the river.

[mock-possum]

Welcome to the Orphan Crushing Machine - https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/orphan-crushing-machine

[rererereferred]

Small 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 distribution would differ from walking but with some research perhaps they could carry more while staying more comfortable.

[Fradow]

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 restaurant / going back to a hotspot, most of the time the backpack is actually empty.

- a box on the back of a bike costs money.

[Scoundreller]

But now you’re cutting out all that biological shock absorption.

(Aka: why helmet cams are much smoother than any other bike mount)

[asl2D]

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.

[IPTN]

Agree with your points about load distribution assuming the weight isn't trivial. Instead of waist, the common term in English would be hips/hipbelt.

[triceratops]

> I've done most my hiking in Spanish

That's genuinely impressive, I've done most of my hiking in silence /s

I know what you meant though.

[samarthr1]

Over here in Bengaluru, our quick commerce folks seem to prefer Yulu bikes.

They are small, nimble, low powered electric scooters with a decent carrying capacity, whose biggest advantage is _cheap_.

If you ask anyone other than the delivery folks, the yulu drivers are a menace, as they break the already fragile equilibrium that is Bengaluru traffic.

[anovikov]

I 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.

[reaperman]

Not all cities are like yours - in Houston, it's reasonably common for a business to offer delivery "anywhere within the inner loop", which is just the smallest of three beltways which circumscribe the city.

The inner loop is 100 sq. miles (260 sq. kilometers). Right now (4:30PM on a Monday) drive times and cycling times are comparable (close enough its not really a deciding factor). But bicycling 6-10 miles for each delivery is a good way to get injured. Very few drivers here have any habit of expecting bicycles. When I bicycled to work, I got hit by a car roughly every other week - and that was just one 2 mile ride per day, not multiple 2-10 mile rides per day.

[euroderf]

> I wonder why is still anyone NOT using e-bikes for delivery.

In Helsinki, delivery (of food) seems to be dominated by larger scooters with flat beds between yoke and seat post/rear fender. Maybe because the food delivery boxes are quite large, maybe because they have lots of insulation for winter use ? Maybe because the fat tires on the scooters are more stable on snow & ice ? Just guessing.

[Gigachad]

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.

[numpad0]

I think it's because Uber Eats et al relies on social leniency for meatspace presence and not paying for parking lots and bikes themselves. E-bikes and EV vans are used successfully by couple large orgs globally albeit at small scales.

Or maybe because EV transition is not low hanging fruits at all, idk.

[nemomarx]

up front costs compared to non powered bike maybe?

[kh_hk]

When I was doing it, for rush, fun and sport. I guess it's a privileged take on it though.

[Gerard0]

Not the majority at all, but some people like me do it for fun :)

[tim333]

In 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.

[brokenmachine]

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.

[Yeul]

E bikes can be used by 15-16 year olds so Dominos uses them a lot here in the Netherlands.

[kibwen]

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.

[conductr]

They article quotes $1400 for these bikes as initial investment. Add that to my personal assertation that anyone working on a bike should be handy enough to DIY for all things related to service/repair. Bikes are not hard to work on at all. If you agree with that, then you should be able to convert a standard bike to an e-bike with a couple hundred dollar kit that is readily available. Unless there's some kind of market capture here where they can't access the cheap parts I have access too via Alibaba/Amazon, this could easily be a DIY with a few simple tools and some research on YT. I've done this myself with no special electronic experience (however, I did service my own BMX bikes when I was a kid/teen).

[luma]

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.

[JKCalhoun]

In my mind there's a "standardized", probably cargo, e-bike that has not yet been invented. A e-bike (or scooter) that is mass-produced and inexpensive like the Volkswagen Bug and popular enough to breed an ecosystem of aftermarket parts, mods, etc.

Let the clones follow using the same parts, connectors and you could have a world-wide phenomena.

[rurban]

For USD 1400 you also get a good E-scooter from Taiwan. I got mine here in Germany for that price. It's far better than an E-bike.

[JKCalhoun]

I think the scooter is going to be the winner in the U.S. People not used to biking are averse to being unable to sit and have both feet solidly on the ground at a stop.

And it will also be a "cargo" scooter because carrying things.

[yellow_lead]

> It's far better than an E-bike.

Why? Not doubting you, but would love to hear more.

[codedokode]

I am surprised that people here are saying good words about food delivery workers. They are at least annoying when they break all the traffic rules, crossing roads in every direction on every traffic light color, and often dangerous when they ride on the sidewalk with a high speed. I wish they were at least banned from the sidewalks.

Also recent police raid (they should make them every day) showed that some of the delivery workers were illegal migrants, which shows that companies do little effort to check their documents when hiring.

[josefresco]

Recently spent about 2 weeks driving to Boston every day and 100% of the delivery vehicles I noticed were gas powered scooters. Maybe the electric bike delivery people don't ride on the road?

[yesfitz]

Boston where? This article is about Latin America.

If you're interested in e-bike delivery in Boston, Massachusetts though, there was a pilot program starting in August of 2024: https://www.boston.gov/departments/transportation/boston-del...

[megamike]

I just returned from Brazil and Argentina and yes these E-Bikes are everywhere

[Dwedit]

"E-bikes produce virtually no greenhouse emissions after manufacturing"

Except for the electricity to charge it, which could either come from clean or dirty power. True about the lack of exhaust though.

Then it leads to the question about the efficiency of generation, distribution, and battery charging vs the distribution and burning of gasoline. Also the weight of the bike. Perhaps someone else has already done the math on this.

[goosedragons]

You have to have a really really dirty energy supply for an electric vehicle to be a higher emitter than an ICE vehicle. E-bikes also will replace things like two-stroke mopeds which are especially dirty for ICE vehicles.

[timewizard]

Food delivery is some of the lowest quality and highest danger work with the least options for matriculating into a better position.

This article is written from a very colonial perspective. I wonder if the authors have pondered that.

[knowitnone]

It's a job and it pays the bills. Nobody is calling it a career.