A study found  one-third of Amazon Fresh and DoorDash workers are on some form of public assistance, and 14% of all delivery workers lack health insurance. (Craig Lee/The Examiner)

A study found  one-third of Amazon Fresh and DoorDash workers are on some form of public assistance, and 14% of all delivery workers lack health insurance. (Craig Lee/The Examiner)

Nearly three dozen San Francisco delivery drivers will soon get some relief at the pump.

Instead of getting gas rebates, these 35 workers will get a free electric bike through a pilot program run out of San Francisco's Department of the Environment. 

The idea is to lessen the carbon footprint of the booming food delivery business without financially burdening the low-paid workers doing the delivering. As an added benefit, getting these workers out of their cars and onto bikes should also help reduce traffic and improve street safety. 

The program, which will proceed in two groups starting in September, is under development, said Lowell Chu, program manager for the Department of the Environment, but the basic parameters have been laid out. 

App-based delivery drivers working for companies like Doordash, Instacart and Uber Eats will be selected for the program based on to-be-determined criteria, with a focus on social equity. The drivers will receive bikes, helmets, locks, saddle bags, rain jackets and other accessory gear free of charge and indefinitely. The program, administered by the nonprofit GRID Alternatives, will also include complimentary insurance as well as safety training from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. 

All told, the program will cost $559,000, which will be covered by a grant from the California Energy Commission.  

Staff at the Department of Environment will collect anonymous vehicle data from program participants and a control group of car-based delivery drivers, looking at routes, pickup and drop-off locations and deadheading time. At the end of the study period in 2024, researchers will compare the costs and emissions from the two modes.   

“The business case we would like to make is that you could earn more per mile per delivery on an e-bike than you would in a car,” Chu said. 

Already, some delivery drivers are being converted. The global e-bike company Zoomo opened a San Francisco outpost in 2019, renting e-bikes to delivery workers for $25 to $61 per week, before insurance and extras. Zoomo also sells used e-bikes starting at about $1,000 and new ones starting at $2,700 — close to industry standards. 

Nesrine Majzoub, a spokesperson for the S.F. Bike Coalition, said the program will help delivery workers clear the financial hurdles to becoming e-bike owners. “This program could potentially be a huge opportunity to really incentivize folks to make that switch.”

The program is based on findings from a 2020 study of gig workers commissioned by the San Francisco Local Agency Formation Coalition (SFLAFco) and carried out by UC Santa Cruz researchers. The study polled 643 workers in San Francisco from all of the major gig economy delivery companies, as well as ride-hail services. 

Of the delivery workers, 70% said they would be open to doing deliveries by e-bike. 

The study also found that delivery workers in San Francisco are struggling financially. One-third of Amazon Fresh and DoorDash workers are on some form of public assistance, and 14% of all delivery workers lack health insurance. 

Vehicle expenses represent a major cost for delivery workers, the study found. Nearly half of delivery drivers’ weekly revenue was eaten up by vehicle expenses, and close to one in five DoorDash drivers earned net negative income after taking gas and vehicle maintenance cost into account. Gas prices are considerably higher now than when the study was conducted.

Still, bicycle delivery comes with its own downsides. Of the approximately one-quarter of respondents who already use a bike for delivery (the study does not specify whether these are electric bikes), 70% said they felt unsafe while working. 

Benjamin Schneider is the Examiner's housing, transportation and infrastructure reporter.

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