Come dinner time, San Francisco’s hottest restaurant streets become nearly impassable with double-parked DoorDashers and Uber Eats couriers. One person’s urgent need for a Souvla wrap delivered straight to their door makes life miserable for just about everyone else traveling down streets like Valencia, Divisadero and Polk.
Zoomo, an Australian electric bike rental company that has been operating in San Francisco since mid 2019, thinks it has the solution. The company is on a mission to provide “the right tool for the job” for the booming food and grocery delivery business, said Joey Skavroneck, Zoomo’s San Francisco-based U.S. director.
“A bike is obviously much cheaper than having a 4,000 pound car deliver a one-pound burrito,” said Skavroneck. “A lot of the externalities and costs that are usually associated with cars, whether it be double parking, whether it be idling in congestion, whether it be ticketing, you don’t see that with e-bikes.”
Zoomo’s e-bikes represent a promising frontier in San Francisco’s otherwise quixotic quest to get people out of their cars. Delivering food on electrically boosted two-wheelers is simply easier, faster and — especially with gas prices what they are — cheaper than using a car.
“Our delivery times are way down now,” said Shane Curran, manager of the restaurant L’Costa in Union Square, which works with Butler Hospitality to deliver room service meals to nearby hotels. His business began renting two bikes from Zoomo about a month ago. “We can take on way more orders.”
E-bikes on a budget
Zoomo’s North Beach storefront and repair shop was abuzz with activity on a recent weekday afternoon. Tourists wandered in, looking for daily bike rentals, but left disappointed. Most of Zoomo’s customers are delivery workers who rent by the week.
The company declined to specify how many bikes are in its San Francisco fleet, but it currently offers three custom-built bike varieties: two pedal assist e-bikes with a max speed of 25 miles per hour and one throttle-powered e-bike with a max speed of 18 miles per hour. All bikes are designed with delivery in mind, including rear racks for storage, strong U-locks, phone holders and built-in lights.
Basic rental plans cost $25 to $61 per week in San Francisco, before insurance, fees and extras like swappable batteries and delivery bags. Some riders said they spent as much as $90 per week. The company se
