The life of a delivery worker who uses a scooter

Scooters are becoming popular and their uses are not limited to hobbies alone. More people are using them for work especially not that online shopping is becoming popular due to the pandemic. In this article, we interviewed one guy who has been doing deliveries using his kick scooter and electric scooter alternately.

This 28-year-old Denver rider already has a full-time job and an honest salary. However, in recent months he has decided to experiment with the delivery of UberEats and DoorDash meals with both kick and electric scooters. It alternates according to his needs depending on the distance. Richard shares his experience with us after 3.

The scooter, a perfect tool for home delivery.

“Obviously, the scooter has the big advantage of being able to be taken anywhere with you. Thanks to its lightweight, you don’t have to leave it outside when you pick up food from the catering professionals, or when you have to enter the halls of customers’ buildings. The portability and practicality of the means of transport. It’s “light”, it’s portable, you have your eye constantly on it and it goes absolutely everywhere, then the “mechanical” maintenance is almost absent, just to clean the device a little on rainy days and inflate the tire from time to time.” adds Richard.

Compared to other means of transport?

“A motorcycle needs to be attached every time if you have to enter the building. The bike requires a frequent engine stop/start which in addition to the loss of time is bad for a motorcycle. 

The bicycle is complicated to attach or take with you on stairs/elevators. The same goes for tight corners in the city or u-turns it’s more complicated than a scooter.

Finally, the motorcycle also requires fuel, which greatly reduces profitability,” confirms Richard.

One could add that the cost per mile is very small for an electric scooter and it’s almost nothing for a kick scooter. A study showed that the electric scooter consumed 30 to 50 cents per 62 miles (100 kilometers) 

What about security?

Whether it’s on a bicycle or on a motorcycle, we’ve all come across haggard couriers who take crazy risks to save a few seconds. A drift that can be quickly tempting when you are still on your mount. What about Richard?

“I have long pestered the delivery men against their attitude on the road and especially the code of the road. I’ll be frank. I ask myself non-franchisable limits such as red lights, roundabouts, trams, priorities on the right, etc. But sometimes I don’t mark the stops, I force a little in the pedestrian streets or I pass on the pedestrian crossings red but always trying to apply to me what I blamed the delivery men it’s not obvious and the temptation is strong but I would have no figure, after all, I said about the delivery men.

To the general surprise, I chose not to put headphones in deliveries. But I keep the rest of the equipment (motorcycle glove, elbow pads, back bag) because it’s absolutely not practical in delivery, especially in full and carry it by hand in addition to my GPS and my bag is small as possible. On the other hand, I limit my speed to avoid a crash too seriously and I move as much as possible from sidewalks or dangerous objects”

Let’s end with an anecdote

One evening on the way home after a busy evening, I decided to take the way home and as I am about to go offline on my courier app, I receive an order.

I think a few seconds, wheel at 70v (low battery), but yet the restaurant in question looking on the map is …. To my right at 10m!

But I do not yet know the address of the final customer, who can be theoretically 3 miles max from the restaurant …

Potentially the opposite of my direction, I took the risk of having to assume a 6-mile round trip with a low battery.

A stroke of luck so I accepted the order, it’s 10:45, I go to the restaurant, I wait for a little … 10:55 the restaurateur gives me the order, I validate the support on the application and discover at that time the address of the final customer …

A great moment of anguish when I see the GPS tracking draw and show me the way to… The house!!!

The order I took on the way back was intended for a neighbor’s 3-door door below my home.

So I went home on a delivery mission happy to have had such a stroke of luck, on a 3-mile radius around the restaurant itself in the city center it was very unlikely that I would deliver below home.

After a few weeks of almost daily practice, at the rate of a few hours in the evening, Richard is rather satisfied with his experience. Among the elements that will have most marked our Uberscooters, there is also the re-discovery of his city that he travels back and forth. The scooter delivery allows him to discover his city in depth, its streets, its squares, it develops its sense of direction and its knowledge of its environment. 

Of course, it is an extra for him so he gets the benefits. When you’re a rider, the practice of the scooter quickly becomes addictive, so delivery can become a real alibi to use it, even more, take on small challenges and enjoy your city until the end of the night. It should be stressed, however, that this profession remains precarious, Richard is aware of it and he intends to continue “as long as it does not represent a constraint and he will continue to combine pleasure and lucrativity.

Richard added that he usually uses a kick scooter early in the morning as part of his routine exercise and after a couple of nearby deliveries, he changed to an electric until the end of the day.

“Doing this system would give me enough time to both work and exercise,” he said.