All the food delivery riders I see have carrying capacity for 2 or 3 orders at most - there's no way it's a dozen. Most of the time I'm pretty sure they're only carrying a single order.
But how would they get to that sort of carrying capacity? They almost never use cars around here and I doubt it would be viable (parking issues, cost of vehicle ownership/maintenance etc.).
And if battery prices continue to decline, electric "motorcycles" (i.e. 3-wheeled cars) with low maintenance costs will be available for similar prices.
If that were a feasible option I'd think we'd be seeing at least some already in use (actually the postal service here does use vehicles not unlike that). They still take up a lot more space to park and are subject more to traffic congestion than the e-bikes/scooters actually used.
> If that were a feasible option I'd think we'd be seeing at least some already in use
First you'd need enough customer traffic to fill the vehicle. There is no point in buying a vehicle that can serve 12 customers if you never get more than 4 at once.
Space to park doesn't seem like a huge problem when they're making deliveries. The mail truck is bigger than these things. Buildings with tight parking commonly have a loading zone or a space with a 15 minute limit specifically for deliveries, and it's big enough for a light truck.
It absolutely is for pick ups though, many restaurants in our area have almost no parking available at peak times. The delivery riders just leave their bikes on the footpath/sidewalk.
Larger delivery vehicles can make use of loading zones but even then it'd only be feasible for a very small number of them. My point is there's no sign these delivery companies are expecting to be able to significantly educe costs by combining deliveries and using larger vehicles, and it's hard to see how it would be feasible.
