Starting a list of initiatives that we may want to include as case studies for the summit. Got one to add? post it in a comment below!
CoopCycle: âCoopCycle is the European federation of bike delivery coops. Governed democratically by coops, it enables them to stand united and to reduce their costs thanks to resources pooling. It creates a strong bargaining power to protect the bikers rights.â
Hi, Alex from CoopCycle here
Ask me anything
Yayy!
welcome and super nice to hear from you! I donât know if you saw this post which is a good context for what we were discussing when CoopCycle popped up as an example: https://edgeryders.eu/t/draft-covid19-resilient-livelihoods-an-online-summit
It would be super nice to hear about your story and experiences in setting it up and the work so far. Maybe even how things have worked in the different countries where the app is being used?
ping @noemi and @yannick hey guys remember the session at the summit you guys were discussing about helping food businesses tackle the crisis, and ethics ? CoopCyle is in Liege but not yet Brussels. I think - might be a nice starting point for exploring something together
CoopCyle is in Liege but not yet Brussels.
Well actually⊠we are indeed in Brussels, for years litterally
ooooh! thatâs even better!!
Maybe thereâs a misconception about what CoopCycle is.
I suppose that when you say:
You mean that the local co-op in Brussels, Molenbike, doesnât propose a service to deliver restaurant meals in 30-40 minutes, like well-known capitalist gig economy platforms.
Actually, Molenbike mainly does last-mile deliveries (for example they deliver the groceries from the organic supermarket Au Rayon Bio).
If they donât propose this âasapâ service, itâs because they think delivering hot meals in a such short timeframe is just something crazy that should have never existed.
They may be interested in building something like this, but never under the same conditions. i.e, maybe with only cold meals, and with customers ordering in advance (for ex, ordering before 11AM to get delivered later, pooling deliveries to make sure itâs profitable for them).
Oh, I was referring to the options that showed up the CoopCycle android app - it doesnât look like Molenbike is on it so I didnât see itâŠ
Yes, itâs because they donât make B2C deliveries, only B2B.
Our app is both B2C & B2B, but the B2B part is kind of âhiddenâ, so that ârandomâ customers are not lost.
Spot on!
Nice to meet you, I suspect you already know @Yannick, because well⊠Brussels is a village
We would like to set up a virtual session to discuss new opportunities for food businesses and look specifically at how cooperative structures can help, especially because the corona crisis will hopefully bring the case for localisation and short food chains home (finally!).
Brussels is the city we live in and it could be a good case study for the broader edgeryders network (with members from 30 countries or so),
Would you be interested in taking part in the discussion during an online event with potentially other people looking in this direction?
Weâre talking to others who could also share logistics and infrastructure for non-essential food. Yannick is with Fermenthings, and I am preparing to launch a food business with a fermented product myself (at Greenlab).
Sure, send me a private message for this.
Iâm not sure to actually understand what you want to do, but as I said to Kaja (do you know her?) from your group who sent us an email, thereâs no point in starting yet another thing, when something is already there (Molenbike). Weâre not really really pro free market, letâs sayâŠ
Iâd like to include Molenbike in the discussion, I told them to register on this forum.
I think @Yannick knows Raphaël from Molenbike.
Would it be ok for you and @kajafarszky to copy paste the contents of email exchange here so we are all on the same page?
Will do, super!
I use the words âfood businessâ loosely, not as a capitalistic money making machine obviously⊠but we will have maybe a better wording.
Is there anyone you would like to see joining or any kind of input you would be interested in?
It will give us ideas about who else to invite,
Talk to you soon Alex!
maybe âincome generation activityâ?