PickMe joins hands with RHODA for e-bike food delivery

Shortly after Uber Eats Sri Lanka announced its shift to bicycles, PickMe has come out with its own bicycle initiative. The ride-hailing company will be partnering with local e-bike manufacturer Rhoda to facilitate food delivery services via e-bikes as Sri Lanka grapples with a crushing fuel crisis owing to the country’s current economic situation.

Founded by Eyas Fazul, Fazul Mowjood, and Lee Bazalgette, RHODA is a startup focused on electric transportation. Its flagship product is the RHODA All Terrain smart bicycle aimed at “commuters and thrill-seekers alike” as a means of an alternative to Sri Lanka’s traffic problem. However, RHODA’s recent partnership with PickMe signals a possible solution to a more pressing and current issue, the fuel crisis and its resulting effects on sectors like delivery services.

In a tweet announcing the collaboration, PickMe CEO Jiffry Zulfer states that the company has already begun registration for bicycles and e-bikes for delivery and that PickMe is “doing our bit to come out of oil dependency and saving on $$.”

Not much has else been shared about the specifics of the partnership yet. As of now, it’s likely these e-bike deliveries will be limited to select areas in Colombo with hopes of expanding into other areas. PickMe Food currently operates in Colombo, Gampaha, Negombo, Kalutara, and Kandy districts.

Make room for e-bikes?

While delivery via bicycles is common practice in many parts of the world, even more so for e-bikes, the same case cannot be made for Sri Lanka. Deploying bicycles for delivery comes with many challenges including unfavorable road conditions, lack of dedicated cycling lanes, hot weather conditions, and the physical toll on the riders, to name a few. RHODA claims its e-bike offers 30km on cruise mode (fully electric driven) and 60km in hybrid on a single charge. It further states that a full charge would typically take four hours. It may not possibly tick every box, but the e-bike solution provides a more viable alternative compared to its bicycle counterpart, at least on paper.

As the move to e-bikes is currently in the testing stages for PickMe, it will be a while until we see how far this approach can be scaled in the country. Regardless, now that both PickMe Food and Uber Eats have deployed alternatives to their food delivery operations, it will be interesting to see how this will impact customer experience and operational sustainability for the space.

We’ve reached out to PickMe for comments and will update this article accordingly