Originally Posted by jeff-o
Well yeah, a bike is great for moving stuff short distances, and in thrid world countries where people don't expect you to get someplace in 20 minutes. In those countries, a customer or friend (whoever you're riding to) may expect you to be taking a bike, along with a significant potion of the population. Thus, the longer travel time is a variable that is worked into the work-day.
In the developed countries, people expect you to take a car. They want something delivered within a set time period, and get upset if it isn't. If your job is o deliver thing, there's no way you can make more than a few trips per day. And if you can't do that, then you can't make a profit or a living.
And that's the big difference here, it's the fast-paced society. We either need to slow down and simplify our lives, or accept that there are some things that a bike simply isn't suited for. And don't even get me started on flight.
I don't know, maybe someday your new couch will be delivered by four young strapping lads on a heavy duty double-tandem delivery bike. If that day does arrive, just be sure to invest in energy bar manufacturers...
Okay, let me tell you about my friend who delivers things by bike: he operates in Toulouse, France, a city of 750,000. He offers a 1h guaranteed delivery time between pickup and delivery, any time of the day, in the greater Toulouse area, and a 30 minute "express" guarantee. He can haul up to 200kg of stuff, which he does regularly (mainly cases of wine delivered to a wine dealer, and electrical appliances like washing machines or fridges). The base price of a delivery is 5.50 euro, and less for scheduled repeat deliveries (he brings wheat to bakeries every morning, I think they pay less than 3 euros a run). On top of that, in the high season, he offers sight-seeing tours of the city for 20 euros/hr for tourists. Finally, he uses his fleet of trikes as rolling billboards, and charges for ads put up on the side of the trikes at 300 euros/mth. He and his associate ride 60km a day on electric-assist trikes, or regular two-wheelers for express deliveries.
Toulouse isn't New-York, it is much less dense, and yet he turns a profit because (1) he's faster than regular delivery services on his bikes (who else can haul fridges on cycle paths, bypassing traffic jams everywhere?), if he's late the customer gets his money back, and he appeals to a growing demand for clean transportation by the general public. Plus his bike rides are a blast, I hired him for 2 hours and he pedalled 2 of us 30km away along the historic Canal du Midi. Can't beat that really...
So, unlike what you think, bike deliveries aren't incompatible with a fast-paced society, and aren't reserved to third-world countries. That sort of service makes sense economically and ecologically in many places around Europe, and in the US as well, albeit admittedly much less so. It's all a matter of identifying a need and fulfilling it with the right tool, like any other business.