Dasher extraordinaire, Dash Bridges, leads an interesting life – and his story about dashing via e-bike is no different! Below, Dash will cover how to deliver for DoorDash using an e-bike, how much you may earn delivering via e-bike, and some pros and cons of delivering on an e-bike.
Recently, I was at a restaurant waiting for a lunchtime order. I was in Palo Alto, the intellectual center of Silicon Valley and home of Stanford University. While I sat there, a man at the next table started asking questions about dashing, “How far do you typically drive for a delivery? What do you get paid per order? How long do you normally wait for your food?” I willingly answered questions from him and his colleagues because, hey, I have deep knowledge about this topic and very few people care! So it was refreshing to talk shop. Eventually, my order came up and we traded information.
Fast forward several weeks later: he texted me to meet at their startup. This company, founded by Stanford and MIT graduates (off-topic: the side conversations are amazing!), is working on a semi-automated vehicle designed to self-deliver food from restaurant to customer. Early generations of this vehicle, called the DART, will require Dasher operation. Later generations will only require remote monitoring, and the ultimate goal is for these machines to deliver by themselves, at what scientists call Level 5 automation.
(Full disclosure: I am now an official advisor to DART Robotics)
Because these vehicles are meant to replace short-distance orders, gathering data from my car deliveries is only half the story. The true replacement orders are the ones delivered by bike and e-bike. Who better to gather this data than the guy who knows nothing about coding, nothing about mechanical engineering and a lot about deliveries? Answer: me.
I agreed to replace my typical lunchtime car dashes with shifts using this e-bike they kept at their shared startup space in Palo Alto. Together we developed a number of data points I needed to collect, and off I went.
If you’re considering signing up for DoorDash and want to use a bike or e-bike, you’ll find my combined 250+ deliveries (via car and ebike) over a seven week period pretty informative! Here’s what I learned during my e-bike dashes.
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