Nicci Scott, founder of the Commercial Transport Academy (CTA), is on an ambitious drive to have women join the male-dominated but fast-growing motorcycle food and goods delivery industry.
Although the sector is still in its infant stages, it is revved up for exponential growth as e-commerce, the key driver of the delivery industry, is projected to double to R400bn by 2025, with the number of people buying online expected to reach about 40-million by 2027.
Fast food restaurants, food and clothing retailers, and supermarket groups such as Checkers, Pick n Pay, Spar and TFG, are adopting home delivery as a sales strategy and new offering to clients. The entry of Amazon Marketplace and the continuing growth of the Takealot Group of companies, which include Mr D Foods and Takealot.com, are also fuelling the sector.
There are about 50,000 delivery bikes on the roads, with the number set to double in three years. The average salary for drivers is around R10,000 per month.
Scott’s programme started with a focus on the trucking industry in 2021, but last year, after seeing the growing trend and high youth unemployment, the CTA secured funding from USAID to assess the viability of introducing young women to the last-mile sector.
“We knew that the last-mile service environment was the only sector that was truly growing at a phenomenal rate and in some cases, even double-digit growth,” she said.
She said the aim was to get young women into the industry, even though riding motorcycles was not culturally a norm for women.
“I really wanted to tackle the unemployment of youth with this pilot of 100 women and more; getting women into the economy as quickly as we can.”
Since the beginning of the year, about 60 women in Cape Town and Johannesburg have been received training and licences to operate light motorcycles. However, only two have completed the programme and are now part of last-mile delivery businesses.
Among the reasons many of the women did not continue after receiving their licences were safety fears and anxiety over operating the motorbikes. Scott said most of the women found the bides intimidating to ride.
In March, Scott partnered with Stellenbosch-based MellowVans, which makes electric three-wheeler motorcycles. They provide added stability and are equipped with safety belts.
The motorcycle industry is a viable career and opportunity for entrepreneurship
— Nicci Scott, founder of the Commercial Transport Academy
Eleven women are on a 12-month internship and will from next month start delivering groceries for Spar supermarkets using MellowVans' three-wheeled scooters. Scott said the first 60 women that were trained earlier would be recycled back into the programme “to see if they are now more comfortable into the three-wheeler”.
She is confident that more companies coming on board, including Pick n Pay, will provide impetus for the programme. The aim is to train 300 women a year.
“So many organisations are committed to getting South Africans on to the last-mile delivery and penetrating the market that has been dominated by foreign nationals. The motorcycle industry is a viable career and opportunity for entrepreneurship.”
An Uber spokesperson said the company “aims to work with relevant industry partners to remove any barriers that exist for people to get on the platform”.
Last year, Uber Eats signed a three-year memorandum of understanding with the Gauteng department of economic development to implement the Township Economic Development Act and create earning opportunities for young people in townships as both merchants and delivery drivers.
The Takealot Group, which owns online fashion retailer Superbalist, Takealot.com and Mr D Food, entered into a similar programme recently, aiming to add 2,000 drivers who will join the Takealot franchise network within five years.
The group said last month that it has 15,000 drivers in its network. “Given the massive opportunities in the sector, our job is to make sure that drivers see this as a lucrative opportunity ... and a springboard into something greater,” said Takealot Group CEO Frederik Zietsman.
On the domination of foreign nationals as delivery personnel, Craig Langton, founder and CEO of Hero Motorcycles, said it doesn't have to be a South African on the bike, it has to be a South African “owned bike that is rented out to other drivers, whether foreign or local”.
Hero Motorcycles is running a programme training South Africans in the motorcycle delivery business, the e-commerce industry, the last-mile delivery market and how to manage and maintain the fleet, as well as customer service.
“We've managed to create quite a big rollout of learnerships where South Africans become micro-entrepreneurs. They are learning everything so that they can, in the next three to five years, own their fleet and understand the sector and how to manage it sustainably,” he said.
Hero Motorcycles is setting up an academy in Gqeberha.
Conrad Botha, owner of Big Boys Fourways, said motorcycles were viewed as a luxury product a few years ago, but many countries in the rest of Africa have been using delivery bikes for longer than South Africa. It was only in the last five years that the delivery market started to grow. The perception of “gig work” may be viewed as unstable, leading to hesitance among locals.
“Many South Africans might prefer traditional employment options or may not see delivery driving as a viable career path.”
He said licensing was also a major stumbling block as booking dates for licence tests for potential riders were not easy to secure. “Foreign nationals just need to show their International licence and they are good to go on the road.”
The industry is getting very competitive. The way forward is not to do cheap, that's never sustainable
— Craig Langton, founder and CEO of Hero Motorcycles
While the sector is set for exponential growth, Langton says the industry is facing a number of challenges. These range from exploitation of drivers, long working hours, unsafe motorcycles and safety on the roads.
“Their bikes are of low quality and are built to be cheap. They are not safe and this is not sustainable. The focus is on profit over people where there's very little concern for the rider's safety.”
Riders are also under severe pressure to meet the fast delivery times that food delivery platforms and retailers promise clients. The delivery model is sometimes outsourced or run independently from e-commerce and retail operations. The drivers are also independent contractors; some own the bikes or lease them.
Scott said regulatory intervention could be required in the future.
Hero Motorcycles has a software solution that monitors the behaviour of riders who have signed up to its platform.
“It's so bad that come 3pm we notice a change in behaviour that we interpret as fatigue. And you can see how it drops and drops, by early evening they shouldn't really be on the road - it becomes actually very dangerous for them. Most of the accidents happen because these guys are so exhausted that they're just trying to get in every single job.”
Riders were forced to make so many deliveries to make a living. “So the behaviour that everyone talks about is not actually the riders, it's the result of greed,” Langton added.
He said routes also need to be optimised so that the rider would get to the destination safely, consuming the least amount of fuel.
“The industry is getting very competitive. The way forward is not to do cheap, that's never sustainable.”
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