Legislation would unfairly target delivery cyclists

It’s not every day that you get to decide the condom a couple will be using, but if you are a delivery worker, it can happen (for the curious, I chose Trojan Her Pleasure since the one they requested was out of stock).

If you work making deliveries for, say, Uber Eats, DoorDash, or Grubhub, you can end up making medicine runs or dropping off food for a disabled grandma, which makes our work seem meaningful and appreciated.

But the delivery could go to the top floor of a high-rise where elevators are completely automated, and you need a concierge to take you to the exact floor. The apps don’t consider the extra time it takes to do all of this, so we are perpetually “late” since people in luxury high-rises tend to be the ones ordering food (or one latte).

The problem with letting an app run the show is that they often get it wrong. Recently, I was on the phone at 9:30 p.m. with the app’s help desk, located outside of the United States, where people get paid less, to explain that I couldn’t follow the app’s instructions since bicycling from Jersey City to Secaucus in 12 minutes on the highway is neither possible nor advisable. I returned the orders to two different restaurants, the customers were refunded, and I got two strikes against me for two incomplete deliveries and zero payment for 45 minutes of work.

While we are considered independent contractors who pick our own times to work, we are completely dependent on the app’s demands, and a few strikes against you — even if the app/restaurant/customer was at fault — can mean having your account deactivated, no questions asked. It’s not just a new form of delivery but a new form of exploitation.

While getting companies to pay us minimum wage is a struggle, and not all customers see it fit to tip, the biggest threat to our income may be coming from lawmakers in Trenton. Bill S-2292 seeks to equate low-speed e-bikes — those that max out at 20 miles per hour — with cars by requiring users to register and insure them.

In cities, e-bike delivery is more time-efficient. We face fewer traffic jams and don’t need to double park. And in general, e-bikes are more sustainable. Buying or renting an e-bike is more feasible than getting a car to do delivery work, although the expense cannot be underestimated since each rider is an independent contractor and everything up to the price of a pizza bag falls on us, not on the delivery app. Adding the extra cost of registration and insurance might put many of us out of business and would prohibit many from starting up.

Immigrant e-bike delivery riders have the additional issue of having paperwork that doesn’t always align with what would be required by the state. Getting a license or even a state ID is hard for non-citizens. New Jersey’s “six points of ID” is no joke if your paperwork is not just from out of state but from out of the country, usually in a different language.  

E-bike delivery ordinances in Jersey City and Hoboken, which would require regulations for e-bike workers not imposed on other e-bike riders, have united delivery workers in New Jersey and New York City, and we are both grateful for the support we are getting from the Workers Justice Project.

New Jersey should make it easier to ride an e-bike over a car or scooter, not harder. Our colleagues in the newly established group Los Deliveristas Unidos NJ, associated with the well-known Los Deliveristas Unidos in New York City, stand behind us when we say that a law to register low-speed e-bikes would be a financial hardship for us.

Customers depend more and more on delivery apps to get their food and household items delivered to their doorstep, and that means the app companies need more e-bikes to make more money. Instead of New Jersey lawmakers making individual delivery workers responsible for registering and licensing their e-bikes, app companies should be required to contribute to providing safe e-bikes and better infrastructure to handle their use of the streets.

This May Day, know that delivery workers are doing their part: they are organizing for better workplace safety, which means safer streets for all. The app companies should do their part, too!

Antonio Solis and Karin Vanoppen work making deliveries for app-based companies in Hudson County and NYC.