The rising demand for fast-delivery food has spawned small armies of couriers in major cities – and raised concerns. Scooters, motorcycles and mopeds whiz through traffic and jump onto pedestrian-filled sidewalks as their drivers race to deliver salads and sandwiches.
Officials in Boston, New York and Washington, DC, have begun cracking down on delivery corporations by sending warning letters, impounding vehicles registered or driven illegally and organising special street patrols to implement speed limits. The resistance will not be limited to the US: Numerous crackdowns have also taken place in London and other British cities.
For their part, delivery corporations have pledged to work with city authorities to be certain that all their drivers operate legally and safely.
In a letter to food delivery corporations DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber this week, Boston authorities spoke of an “alarming increase in the illegal and dangerous operation of motorcycles, mopeds and scooters” that they are saying puts drivers, other motorists and pedestrians “in immediate danger.”
The letter claimed that some drivers were driving unregistered vehicles and violating traffic laws, and warned of an impending crackdown on those vehicles. It also demanded that the businesses explain how they may ensure the security of their drivers. Massachusetts State Police said they’ve identified dozens of mopeds and scooters that weren’t properly registered or were being driven by drivers without licenses. In one Boston neighborhood alone, 14 illegal mopeds and scooters were seized on Wednesday.
In New York City, authorities have seized 13,000 scooters and mopeds up to now this 12 months; greater than 200 illegal mopeds and other delivery vehicles were crushed on Wednesday. Authorities in Washington, D.C., launched a program called Operation Ride Right on Wednesday to be certain that riders of two-wheelers obey the law. Since this system began, authorities have made five arrests and seized 17 mopeds.
“They have terrorized many of our pedestrians, especially our seniors and elderly,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday at an event where two-wheeled motorized delivery vehicles were vandalized. “Drivers who believe the rules don’t apply to them will face an aggressive enforcement policy.”
As food delivery services resumed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, most drivers used cars to deliver their passengers, increasing traffic congestion and prompting a shift to motorcycles and other two-wheeled modes of transportation.
The drivers, a lot of them immigrants from Latin American countries, but additionally from West Africa and South Asia, say they’re simply attempting to make a living and offer a service that gets customers their food quickly.
“We’re not all bad,” said Luis López, a delivery driver from the Dominican Republic who spoke to The Associated Press on Friday from his motorcycle in a neighborhood dotted with fast-food restaurants near the Boston Public Library. “We come to work, to make a living, to pay the rent and to send something to our families.”
López, who got here to the United States about three years ago, acknowledged that some drivers are unlicensed or driving unregistered vehicles. He has seen them run red lights and drive onto the sidewalk, threatening pedestrians. Some are so reckless that they endanger other delivery drivers, he said.
He said he joined a gaggle of 10 delivery drivers outside a Chick-fil-A store on Thursday night when a police officer approached them with a flyer explaining register their scooters and mopeds. The whole group agreed to do exactly that.
“We have to respect the law,” he said in Spanish. “We will respect the law so that they let us work here.”
Drivers of motorized two-wheelers at the moment are under much greater scrutiny than other car-using gig employees, akin to Uber and Lyft drivers, were years ago because they’ll more easily violate traffic laws, says Hilary Robinson, an associate professor of law and sociology at Northeastern University.
The move to those vehicles “is really an attempt to make low-wage, high-risk work available so we can all get cheap goods and services,” Robinson said. “That’s perhaps one of the reasons why people are starting to realize that there really is nothing free.”
William Medina, a delivery employee in New York and leader of the Los Deliveristas Unidos campaign, blames the delivery corporations.
“This problem arose because companies force you to make deliveries over long distances,” he said in a phone interview Friday. Medina initially delivered food by bike, then switched to an electrical bike and now uses a moped for longer distances.
“If you have to make a delivery over 6 or 7 miles, you have to make it,” he said.
Among those pushing for stricter enforcement of the foundations in Boston is City Councilor Edward Flynn, who said on Facebook that “the streets of Boston can no longer be like the Wild West.”
“Anyone using city streets must obey the rules of the road. If you are capable of driving 25 miles per hour like a car, you should have a license and registration and carry liability insurance in case of an accident and injury,” he wrote.
Some Bostonians are calling for tougher motion against scooters.
“It frustrates me when they don’t obey the traffic laws,” says Anne Kirby, a 25-year-old college student eating lunch in a Boston neighborhood just a number of hundred yards from several scooter riders. “I feel like I get hit almost every day when they cross the crosswalk when it’s not their turn.”
But Jaia Samuel, a 25-year-old hospital employee from Boston, was more ambivalent. While she agreed that delivery scooters may be dangerous, she also acknowledged that she relies heavily on delivery services to get her food.
“I think weaving between cars and not stopping at red lights is unsafe to some degree,” she said. “But I believe everyone should earn a living, so who am I to say anything? It would be unfortunate for me. I would be hit by the crackdown on them. I order a lot from Uber Eats and DoorDash.”
Three major food delivery services have pledged to work with authorities and community stakeholders to deal with the issue.
“The overwhelming majority of Dashers are doing the right thing and must obey the rules of the road like all drivers. If they don’t, they face consequences – just like everyone else,” DoorDash said in a press release on Wednesday.
Grubhub said its employees have already committed to following all local traffic laws. “While enforcement of the law is best done by police, we take safety seriously and will take action to investigate all reports of unsafe driving,” the corporate said in a press release Thursday.
