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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Brazil’s iFood Delivery Service Launches an E-Bike Program for Couriers

Brazil-based delivery service iFood announced today it has launched an electric bike program for its couriers in partnership with mobility company Tembici, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. The program has launched in first-pilot phase, and will provide e-bikes, manual bikes (courtesy of Bike Sampa), and other amenities to couriers working for the iFood delivery service.

The program will be available for a flat weekly fee of R$9.90 (~$1.76 USD). That includes 24/7 access to manual bicycles through Bike Samba’s Bike Itaú app. Bike withdrawals are limited to four-hour time blocks.

Couriers that want more bells ’n’ whistles as well as access to electric bikes will pay a little more. Access to electric bikes costs an extra R$2 (~$0.36 USD) per day. That fee includes up to two trips per day lasting up to four hours each, with a four-hour interval between them. (An additional R$5 charge is included for each hour.) Today’s press release notes that bikes can go 25 km/h (15.5 mph) and have a battery range of 60 km (37 miles) as well as a pedal assistance feature.

In addition to bikes, the program will also provide what it calls an “iFood Pedal Support Point,” which is a physical location at which couriers can check out and return the bikes. The facility will also provide restrooms, water and coffee, a cell phone-charging station, and a dining area. Couriers also get masks, hand sanitizer, and other safety and hygiene items. Use of the facility costs an additional R$2 per day, separate from the fees mentioned above.

Finally, couriers that join iFood Pedal will have access to the program’s Responsa Pedal digital education course.

Providing delivery workers with more bike access seems an obvious way to fulfill more deliveries in a place like São Paulo, which is Latin America’s most densely populated city. The addition of the e-bike option could also speed up delivery times, allowing workers to complete more orders within their given timeframe and make more money. 

We had similar thoughts back in 2018 when Uber bought e-bike service Jump — though that story ended with Uber offloading Jump to Lime in May of this year. That said, Uber never formally integrated the e-bike service with its Eats business.

On the other hand, iFood is merely partnering with Tembici, not buying it, and the new program may turn out to be a much more financially sustainable endeavor that makes mobility easier for more couriers. 

Since the iFood Pedal program is in pilot stage, its availability is currently limited to a select number of couriers in São Paulo. iFood said that by the end of this year, the project plans to have more than 500 bicycles on the streets of that city.

Uber Eyes Grocery Delivery, but Is It Too Late? (Maybe Not, Think: Jump)

In a move that should surprise no one, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowashahi said that it makes sense for his company to make the move into the grocery delivery space. Speaking at Vanity Fair’s News Establishment Summit yesterday (h/t Yahoo Finance), Khosrowashahi said:

“With Eats, we’re getting into the business of moving food around. I think that this product of delivering great quality food to you at home in 30 minutes or less is magical and is going to move into grocery in a way that’s fundamental and a lot more people are going to be eating at home…you can absolutely see grocery as being an adjacency.”

At the end of the day, Uber is in the business of moving things from place to place, be it people or Big Macs. As online grocery shopping is predicted to hit $100 billion by 2022 and retailers ramp up their delivery efforts to win your business, it makes sense for Uber to try and get a piece of that action. Everyone eats, after all.

But is the transportation behemoth coming in too late? Khosrowashahi even alluded to potential pitfalls during the same talk when he said: “The real challenge for us is where do we focus and where do we partner.” Finding a partner could be where the company’s grocery dreams get spoiled.

Uber had previously tried a deal with Walmart for grocery delivery, but that arrangement went bust, and right now a lot of grocery players already have delivery dance partners. Whole Foods has Amazon. Target has Shipt. Walmart uses Deliv, Postmates and DoorDash (an Uber Eats restaurant delivery rival), and also launched its own Spark delivery service. Albertsons uses Instacart. Kroger uses Instacart as well, but is building out its own logistics infrastructure through its Ocado investment and piloting driverless delivery vehicles with Nuro.

So who’s left? Unless Uber can promise a vastly better or cheaper experience, what is the incentive for the big retailers to partner with a company that is only partly focused on grocery delivery?

Uber has one weapon in its arsenal that could give it an edge in denser, urban areas. Earlier this year, Uber bought Jump and its electric bike sharing business. These electric bikes could be outfitted with some small-ish temperature controlled delivery trailers to hold groceries. This would give Uber a nimble fleet of delivery vehicles that won’t get stuck in traffic or need to find parking outside of residential buildings. While the delivery area may not be as broad, in highly populated areas, it could be more advantageous to use bikes than cars or vans.

We’ll have to see how Uber enters the grocery delivery market, and whether its eyes are bigger than its proverbial stomach.

Uber Buys Jump. Will Its E-Bikes Power More Food Delivery?

Uber announced today that it has acquired Jump, which provides dockless, electric bike sharing services. While much of the talk surrounding the deal has been about adding a new mode of transport for people trying to get around town, it seems like this move could also be a vertically integrated shot in the arm for the company’s growing Uber Eats platform.

Food delivery has been wildly successful for Uber. The service was available in 200 cities around the world last year, achieving profitability in 45 of those markets. Uber is expanding to another 100 cities around the world over the next year.

Adding Jump to the Eats arsenal would make sense in densely populated cities like San Francisco (where Jump already is) and NY, where traffic can slow car-driven deliveries down. Using an e-bike would allow Uber Eats drivers to bypass congestion for faster deliveries. Since Jump’s bikes have electric assist, those making deliveries could do so without breaking (as much of) a sweat.

A direct Jump/Eats relationship would also give Uber more integration throughout its food delivery stack. Uber Eats already allows delivery drivers to use their own bicycles for delivery — why not give them the option to use the Jump bike instead (for a small fee, of course)? As noted, an e-bike could allow drivers to make more deliveries for less “work” to ideally make more money, without the up-front cost of buying what is an expensive mode of transportation.

Uber has already shown its interest in owning more of its food delivery biz. Earlier this year it acquired David Chang’s Ando, a virtual delivery-only restaurant. So it’s not hard to imaging Uber pushing consumers to order from its own virtual restaurant and have that meal delivered on an Uber e-bike.

Having its own fleet of electric bikes in big cities could also help Uber fend off competition from GrubHub and DoorDash, which recently raised $535 million for its own restaurant delivery services. And such a move is not without precedent. Meituan, a Chinese food delivery company, recently purchased the Shanghai bike-sharing startup Mobike.

But potential Jump/Uber integration would also presumably be a win for consumers and restaurants. Getting food delivered faster means less chance of a lukewarm meal arriving at your door. Obviously hotter food is more enjoyable, and it also helps protects a restaurant’s brand from a bad eating experience.

We’ll see if Uber “jumps” (ed. note: sorry) at these opportunities, but this acquisition looks like a smart play, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see others following suit.