Utility Cycling - Grocerery Delivery

Well I've been a pedicab here in Orlando, Fl and I've recently thought about hauling groceries or whatever people want. Has anyone else tried a business like this? How did you run it, charge, advertise?

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http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/index.html

That would be a fun business- get paid to ride your bike all day.

What's your line of thinking on payment? By size or by pound or by the job? Sounds interesting.

Well i know from doing pedicab I would have had to have a special license, ie a taxi license. If i can charge i found a business that does it by car but they do a set price per total bill of groceries. Maybe do a mix of by how many groceries/distance. Or do it free just suggest a tip like pedicab

A while back, somebody suggested the idea of delivering pizzas by bike (and they actually make bikes for this). As was pointed out in that thread, most customers or business owners would not see any advantage to doing this by bike if it was slower. I think you'd have a similar effect in your market. The same people that might pay you to deliver groceries by bike would probably be happy to have it delivered by steam locomotive if it was a nickel cheaper, so it'd be hard to work up a good market.

The ideal way for this business to work is for the grocery store to run the delivery service, not having individuals doing it on their own. You'd have more time involved in picking out the groceries than in delivering them in a lot of cases.

You're also competing with taxis and with those motorized carts they have at Walmart, which can let a lot of people get out and do stuff that wouldn't otherwise.

Some minor issues- the ideal bike for a small load is one of the Low Gravity type bikes, but you can't haul a whole cart of groceries in something like that. And a bakfiets is expensive. You'd probably wind up with a trailer or two, including a large ice chest. And be prepared to tote those groceries up two flights of stairs when you get there.

There's a business similar to what you are talking about (though they also do basic courier stuff too) in Bloomington, IN. While it is a much smaller area than Orlando, I would think a pricing structure would be similar. Here (http://www.bloomingtonpedalpower.com/groceries.htm) is a link to his "grocery" page.

We have two in Portland.
http://icycledelivery.com/
and
http://www.hungersquad.com/

They both do different parts of town. I haven't used either seeing as how I'm out of range for both. We'll see how they both thrive considering they've both been open for less than a month.
Also, they pick up things other than groceries. Pretty much any thing from one place to your door.

Hope this helps,
Dylan

You do not need any special license. You can be bonded if you want, but it probably is not worth it. But I will tell you something, it may be hard to find clients. I tried to start a business in Orlando, too. So far though with no luck.

I bought these guys book: http://www.bikesatwork.com/cycling-for-profit/. It was written a while ago, and I updated my prices a little. Plus I did a lot of research looking at other companies in Oregon, Washington and North Carolina. I found myself competitive with car based couriers, just not enough business to go around.

Anyway, if you want and are near downtown, I can let you look at the book before you decide if you want to buy it. PM me if you want, we can meet up near Lake Eola.

Well I've been a pedicab here in Orlando, Fl and I've recently thought about hauling groceries or whatever people want. Has anyone else tried a business like this? How did you run it, charge, advertise?

I've been considering starting a similar operation here in Toronto: using cargo bikes to deliver everything from produce, flowers, coffee, packages, groceries, books, health food and even fast-food (pizza, chicken, Chinese, etc.).

Let me know how your research is going.

My only concern is winter. If we have a winter like we had last year, deliveries will be difficult to say the least. If we have what we have come to know as a standard winter, only 5 weeks out of the year will be a challenge. But one never knows what the future holds, so....

I had a business like that....Jim's Delivery service. I was 14 (bell bottoms were in and hot albums were Santana Abraxas and Iron butterfly Inagaddavida), took a loan out to buy a 3 wheel Schwinn for $125.00 (I had a job washing test tubes, etc at the doctor's office so the loan was approved)

The plan was groceries and drugstore runs, focusing on the little old lady community in my hometown of Chinook, MT. $.50 an errand. I ended up makeing enough money for the 11 dollar a month bike payment, but it wasn't thriving....sold the bike and became a Fuller brush man (teenager)

Writing this....I think I need to get back to being an Entrepreneur :)

Well I've been a pedicab here in Orlando, Fl and I've recently thought about hauling groceries or whatever people want. Has anyone else tried a business like this? How did you run it, charge, advertise?

Any chance you do this at Universal Studios? My family and I vacatoin there usually once a year and love that option for getting back and forth to the parks. Sorry to derail.

Your idea sounds interesting. Would definitely need some sort of cooler attached to the bike and probably target the retired as your target consumer group. What about setting up a shopping service online where the customers make a shopping list for you and you do the shopping and delivery?

I'm a bit late getting to this topic, and the information is similar to information linked to in a previous response, but oh well.

In the town I live in there is a couple that has a curbside recycling business. We have a recycling center, but no curbside pick up. I think it's $20 a month and they give you a couple of bins to collect your recycling in. Once a week or so they come by with a trailer with 6 30 gallon bins, and haul off your recycling for you.
The nice thing about it is that people who see the benifits of recycling, will more than likely see the benifits of doing it by bicycle. And unlike pizza delivery, it doesn't matter how long it takes you to do it, as long as it gets done.


Salida is on the Arkansas river in central Colorado. In the warmer months I sometimes run river shuttles with my bike for fishing guides. Get paid to go on a bike ride.