So I often come here, even though I oppose the idea of saying “fuck cars”. And yes, I do know it’s not completely literal. However, I understand the logic.

With that being said, many people are using cars to be delivery contractors. It’s not a necessary utility, but it is useful and is used by the vast majority of (I’ll assume) 1st world countries. If vehicle use is reduced, what do you think would be a good strategy to keep this industry going? Yes, bicycles can still be used, but it would take more time, which would raise prices (capitalism). And another obvious solution would be to just do away with it and just go to restaurants. Do you have any opinions beyond those two that solutions I’ve already presented?

  • Tudsamfa@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I don’t know if it’s me, my country or my perception, but “delivery contractor” isn’t really a thing here. I believe because our government was just good enough to spot this obvious skirting of labour laws.

    Since they couldn’t as easily exploit the driver, they made the service more expensive and worse. Or they just acted as the ones who would forward your order to the restaurant… but then most people I know just order directly to have better service. I think we ordered via such a service once, after much delay the driver told us the order took 30 minutes to even get to them. Could have lied, but couldn’t have used that excuse if we ordered directly.

    Now to your point, as they are just regular employees, they don’t have to wait in the car, the company doesn’t want them to get stuck in traffic, and high urbanization means you can only drive 50km/h 90% of the time anyway, delivery is done with Scooters.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    Cargo bikes are extremely effective in dense European cities but I, at least, exclude commercial and emergency vehicles from my fuckcarsing… I mostly personally object to using cars for commuting - it’s an extreme waste of time and resources.

  • merde alors@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    And another obvious solution would be to just do away with it and just go to restaurants.

    that’s what everyone did and still most people do. It’s a great solution 😉

    in france even scooters are rare and almost all deliveries are made on e- or manual bikes (mostly by recently migrated cheap labor 🤐)

    • magic_smoke@links.hackliberty.org
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      4 days ago

      I figure delivery would be better because you’d have one vehicle delivering multiple families worth of food in a night, compared to one family per car.

      This is especially true if you’re using a two-wheeled vehicle for deliveries. This also allows people who are unable to or uncomfortable riding an ebike or something to have their meal transported by one.

      Transporting food will always take less energy and space than transporting hungry people.

      • merde alors@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        “transporting hungry people”!

        not everything is “management”.

        From hunter-gatherers to farmers to people who can’t even cook—a strange animal who has no time to feed itself. It wants to press a couple of images and voila, magically its food appears before its box.

        Soon it will pay people to put food to its mouth while it’s busy with its screen. Like a giant baby, it will say aaa and somebody will feed it, cause it takes less energy to be fed.

        • magic_smoke@links.hackliberty.org
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          4 days ago

          That’s a baseless slippery slope for food delivery which has been around for decades.

          Sorry your spare time consists of nothing outside using consumption computers, but that doesn’t mean you should project it onto the rest of everybody else.

          Do you have an actual argument here other than “phone bad”? Because adding extra cars to the road is a bigger problem, and you sound like an old man yelling at clouds.

          Chances are if you have the internet connection needed to post this, you’re not nearly independent from food supply chains to talk about “an animal that can’t feed itself.” Going to the grocery store isn’t any closer to what an a wild animal does to get food than using a delivery service.

          Until you’re ripping apart road kill with your bare teeth and sucking the marrow out of the bones, you’re just as strange as every other human, and you can stop acting like you’re better than everyone else.

  • Ooops@feddit.org
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    5 days ago

    I do know it’s not completely literal

    Are you trying to kink shame?

  • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    Recently, I read of a concept where they put delivery bikes onto trams (without disrupting normal usage). That seems like a cool concept for covering cities.

    But I also think that delivery cars are a net positive, because they allow people to not own a car themselves.

  • RagingHungryPanda@lemm.ee
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    5 days ago

    Actually, I’m down in Latin America right now and a lot of deliveries are done by bike or scooter. It actually often takes about the same amount of time when in town, maybe a tiny bit longer depending, but because bikes are more versatile than cars - ie smaller, more maneuverable - they can sort of cut through the traffic much easier. In these urban areas, bikes are often faster to get around with, especially if you have infrastructure for it.

    But most deliveries down here are on scooter, not in a car.

  • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
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    5 days ago

    Motorcycle…? Moped even? If it’s food, it’s the most desirable delivery vehicle currently being used in most part of Asia. Smaller than car, can filter to the front of the light, and faster than bicycle. If it’s for parcel, motorcycle still is the best choice if the item is small. Bigger item however, then yeah car might be ideal. But most parcel is usually small, so motorcycle is still much more viable and cheaper to run than a car.

    BUT if you want a world without personal car, for medium sized parcel, a motorcycle can have a sidecar added for more item. Big sized parcel can be delivered via a van.

  • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
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    4 days ago

    Making it a public service. With the ever increasing scale making it profitable only becomes more and more feasible. What doesn’t help is having it milked dry for every cent because these companies know we depend on them

  • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    “it is useful and is used by the vast majority of (I’ll assume) 1st world countries”

    no, the vast majority of delivery drivers use motor/electric bicycles/scooters/motorcycles

    Electric bikes have dozens to hundreds of miles of range, charge fast, have carrying capacity for most cargo.

    most countries do all delivery except for something like a refrigerator with motorbikes and e-bikes (and some of them deliver refrigerators with motorbikes and E-Bikes), it works great.

    that seems like the obvious way to do it to me, having seen it work in every country except the US, where driving is more heavily tied into ego than utility.

  • antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 days ago

    Serve Robotics, Coco Delivery, Nuro AI. Just a few examples. Eventually you’ll be able to order from Target and they’ll let you know when the drone is parked in the street. You walk out and get your stuff and it drives off. The cost of the vehicle decreases as well as the vehicles mass when you remove all the human occupant safety stuff. Future personal delivery will be wheeled drones.

  • VeganPizza69 Ⓥ@lemmy.vg
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    4 days ago

    End suburbia, install more cafeterias (like schools) to provide good food at a good price. Create schools and some decent incentives to get people to learn to cook.

  • KazuchijouNo@lemy.lol
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    5 days ago

    My idea of “fuck cars” is more about reduction of traffic and infrastructure, but services like buses, ambulances, fire-trucks and such may continue operating if needed. In this instance I don’t see why, a motorbike or an electric scooter couldn’t be used for delivery services, in case of food; or your regular ups/fedex/dhl/usps truck for packages and letters. I’m pretty sure that they are just a minority of the traffic in urban areas.

    My main gripe are individual drivers and commuters that take-up a lot of space, create a lot of traffic and are needlessly polluting the environment. I also take issue with car centric design, since everything is incredibly far away or too dangerous to be reachable by bike.

    Perhaps we could have very specific licences given to these service providers that would require their companies to pay a hefty amount to operate and issue. And in case of emergency vehicles there could be a government discount or something. That way you “fuck” cars with policy. idk

  • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    We get rid of the delivery industry and have mail depositories that you have to travel to for most of your mail. Large and fragile/important delivery can and should still be delivered directly when necessary. I think its worth considering how much energy is wasted directly delivering everyones mail.

    Just realized you probably didn’t mean mail lmao. The answer is cargo bikes

  • superkret@feddit.org
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    5 days ago

    There should be “parking” spots reserved for delivery services (with a special permit) only, so they don’t have to stop on bike paths and sidewalks.
    Those need to be monitored closely and any private vehicle parking there needs to be towed right away.