Think back a number of years to when we used to have groceries, medicine and meat delivered by bicycle. Mom or Granny would phone the store and a fit man on a ‘dik wiel’ would cycle around to drop off your purchases.

It worked, provided employment, saved time and was environmentally friendly.

Soon after we had motorbike delivery drivers whizzing around on our roads delivering medicine, food, meat and groceries. In Gqeberha we even used to have an annual motorbike delivery race on the Scribante Race Track.

Then we moved on a bit and people had to travel to the shops to purchase their food.

With the advent of COVID we moved back in a modern forward way at a rapid pace in terms of technology and same day deliveries became the norm with some companies guaranteeing a sixty minute delivery time.

Brightly coloured small motorcycles have now become the norm on our roads as these delivery drivers race the ‘last mile’ to deliver to eager customers.

But now we have a small concern over these deliveries – the expense in terms of entry requirements for the drivers, maintenance costs on cheap motorcycle imports, accidents and an increase in carbon Dioxide emmissions from boy racers delivering on a timeline.

Lets look at the (could be xenophobic) elephant in the room – food delivery drivers are mostly of foreign extract, have motorcycle licenses and experience and are more familiar with piloting motorcycles. If we take away the requirement to have a motorcycle license to be a delivery driver we could lower the entry level requirements quite significantly.

How do we do that?

With e-bikes of course! In South Africa you do not need a motorcycle license to pilot an e-bike on our roads.

Of course price plays a huge part in which delivery motorbike is used. The most popular motorbike currently is the Big Boy 150 which, with delivery box and bracket, comes in at around R20 000. With a fuel consumption of around 2.4l/100 km (41km/l) on an 8.5l tank, it has a range of around 350km for around R180.00 per tank.

Let’s compare a popular e-bike with the Big Boy:

A comfortable WOWeBike e-Trike with lots of storage room will clock in at around R67 000.00 – just over three times the price of a Big Boy.

You can expect a similar range to the Big Boy from a battery top up that will cost less than R3.80 – imputing around 93 000 km of range before breaking even agaonst a motorbike JUST on the petrol price. Servicing of the E-Trike is much cheaper owing to less moving parts so one can assume that you will save a minimum of R2000 every 5000 km which brings the savings on service to R37 000 over 93 000 km and making the purchase of an E-Trike even more compelling.

Throw in other small benefits such as no need for a license or renewals, no traffic fines, safer driving, lower insurance costs, ability to use roads and pathways excluding motorcycles, no engine noise, more exercise and the ONE HUGE BENEFIT – the ability for the supermarket/chemist/security company/fast food outlet to crow to the heavens about their commitment to Green Energy along with an added commitment to lowering the entry level costs for delivery drivers and we could well be on to a winner of epic proportions.

Most delivery drivers are paid per order, between R25 to R30. It is estimated that they then earn around R3 000 per week, making 20 to 24 deliveries a day on average.

At present the e-Bike market in South Africa is fragmented as players battle to gain dominance. There are a few players, like WOWeBikes in Patenoster, that assemble locally which augurs well for continuity of supply and countrywide support.

Video: Which Heavyweight Short Haul Delivery Service Will BE First to E-Bikes?

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Read the full article by Alan Straton here: MyPR