Foodora to replace electric mopeds with bicycles and e-bikes

Food delivery company Foodora will switch entirely to bicycles and e-bikes in response to a ban on electric mopeds using cycle paths from October 1, ORF reported. The company said it would support affected drivers during the transition.

The newspaper Der Standard reported on Monday that around 5,000 electric mopeds in Vienna alone could become unusable overnight, creating difficulties for drivers. Foodora plans to make seven-figure investments by 2027 and held information sessions for its drivers over the summer. Drivers in the sector are generally not employees but work under freelance contracts.

Foodora said customers and business partners would notice no significant effects from the change. “E-bikes are already being used extensively in our delivery model today, so the next step of switching our fleet entirely to bicycles and e-bikes is both logical and well prepared,” Dragan Milovanovic, Foodora Austria’s managing director, said in a press release.

The company said it was aware of drivers’ concerns about the potential costs and the practical implementation of the new rules. It said drivers had been informed about its support options but did not provide details of those measures.

Under part of the latest amendment to Austria’s Road Traffic Act, which takes effect on October 1, an estimated 5,000 electric scooters and so-called fatbikes will no longer be allowed to use cycle paths because they will then be classified as motor vehicles, Der Standard reported on Tuesday. Many drivers may lack the documents needed to register the vehicles properly and obtain number plates. Administrative, financial and language barriers could add to the difficulties.

Der Standard also quoted Robert Walasinski of the Riders Collective, a drivers’ representative group, as saying that food delivery companies such as Foodora and Lieferando did not want their drivers using motor vehicles because they would then have to be paid by working time rather than by delivery. According to Walasinski, Foodora couriers are also being offered e-bikes through partner companies on an instalment-payment basis.