London’s food couriers need help accessing e-bikes

Campaign group Possible are calling for safer routes, fairer pay, and better access to e-bikes for London’s food couriers, following the publication of research they have undertaken alongside the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain.

Titled Hot Wheels: Working lanes for working people, the report looks into London’s booming food delivery industry- a phenomena replicated across the rest of the country – and have identified strategies which would benefit the couriers, the city and the environment.

10% of all cycle journeys in London involve the delivery of food while many more deliveries are made by mopeds and motorbikes.

In the Foreward to the report, Shaf Hussain, a London cycle courier talks about his eight years of experience delivering around the capital: ‘For us couriers, the lack of decent cycle lanes is definitely an issue. Because I’ve been doing this job for so long, I’ve learnt to navigate the busy roads pretty well, but even for me it’s still dangerous.

‘Couriers need properly segregated, high-quality lanes that recognise cycling isn’t just for leisure, but a key part of infrastructure for London’s courier workforce and the whole economy.’

In a survey that formed part of the research,  over 60% of couriers said they feel unsafe on the roads, and 80% said they would use protected cycle lanes or low-traffic routes if they were available.

The thrust of Possible’s report is not just to make life easier and safer for cycle couriers, but to persuade motorcyclists and moped users to switch to emission free transport. 

The environmental impact of the food delivery sector is not inconsiderable. The following table shows the estimated distance travelled by all food delivery workers, by mode and the carbon emissions generated (calculated for 2022).

• moped: 116m km – 5,648 CO2e tonnes
• bikes/ e-bikes: 94m km – 0
• motorbike: 43m km – 3,861 CO2e tonnes
• car/van: 24m km – 3,755 CO2e tonnes

Possible are recommending that local and devolved governments should introduce scrappage schemes or social leasing policies to make legal e-bikes, genuinely affordable for couriers who most need them.

They would also like to see measures taken to provide a safer working environment for couriers, based around high quality cycle infrastructure and lower traffic routes.

Their recommendations for the national government include producing guidelines for local authorities to tackle road danger, increase enforcement around dangerous driving, and tackle the rise in illegally modified electric motorcycles that – they point out a number of times – are wrongly perceived as e-bikes.

The full report can be read here.