Get Our Help
James Joseph | May 5, 2020
BIKE SHED COMMUNITY RESPONSE VOLUNTEER RIDERS – WHAT ARE WE?
Backed by Team Rubicon UK our volunteer riders offer FREE courier-like services to individuals and organisations responding to the Covid-19 crisis.
WHY MOTORCYCLES?
First Responders, the Emergency Services, Police, Couriers and Delivery companies use motorcycles because they are fast, efficient and flexible; ideally positioned to deliver last-mile help to those in need, navigating the city or the countryside more easily than a car or van.
WHAT TASKS CAN WE DO?
Anything that a motorcycle courier could do, and more – taking advantage of prompt response and a great deal of flexibility over cars and vans.
Most of our work currently involves collecting PPE parts from multiple private locations and delivering them to Hubs for assembly, and then we re-deliver completed PPE from those Hubs to those in need, especially small-volume users or those with an emergency shortage.
We are also able to pick up and deliver medicines, food, documents and anything else that will fit on a motorcycle. Many of our riders have a surprising carrying capacity and some are DBS/CRB checked.
We can also take on Needs Assessments of the vulnerable in the community, health test kits, or other jobs that require checking-in on people who might need front-line support.
HOW MUCH CAN A BIKE CARRY?
For standard jobs we can carry medium sized loads up to 15kg in boxes/packaged of up to 60 x 60 x 60 cm. (smaller is better, average 50 x 50 x 40). We are able to do multiple jobs with multiple bikes if you have larger deliveries to small surgeries, individuals, care homes, etc.
HOW MANY JOBS CAN YOU HANDLE?
There is no max or minimum amount of work. We have more riders than tasks at the moment. There is also no minimum, and no commitment on your part. You can use us for a single, one-off job, or give us 30 tasks a day. Try us once, and see what you think.
HOW FAR CAN PACKAGES GO VIA MOTORCYCLE?
At short notice, or on the same day, we can easily cover jobs up to 100 miles.
For anything more than 100 miles we require at least one day’s notice (i.e. file the job by 6pm the day before), so we can find a rider in good time.
Anything over 150 miles needs more consideration. We do run a lot of cross country jobs via relay, so we can go from London to Aberdeen – BUT – we will ask you to provide volunteer relay points about every 150 miles, so we can create a chain of separate pickup-delivery journeys, undertaken by different riders, to get your packages over a longer distance. (Remember, these riders are all volunteers, just like you, paying for their own fuel and other mileage costs).
HOW MUCH OF THE UK DO WE COVER?
Our network of 1,200 riders covers the whole of the UK, from Lands End to Inverness.
HOW DO WE WORK?
We use a Courier App, and a back-office support team, to allocate your jobs & tasks to our riders, who are safe-guarded and road legal, with every job individually tracked, monitored and recorded live via a link we will send to your pickup and delivery contacts, monitored via any browser.
HOW DO YOU USE THE VOLUNTEER RIDER SERVICE?
Start by E-mailing TaskForce@TheBikeShed.cc and write HELP in the subject line.
We will get back to you, just to make sure you understand how it all works. Assuming all is good, we’ll share the Task Form password with you.
From there, all you need to do is fill-in the online form with each job’s details and press submit, and we take care of everything else. Same day, urgent jobs are fine, but you can also book days in advance.
If you have a lot of regular work or require multiple pick-ups or drop-offs we may offer more flexible tools for bookings, but using these tools does require some guidance.
WHO IS BEHIND THE VOLUNTEER ORGANISATION?
The Bike Shed Motorcycle Club has set up the Volunteer Riders Group in collaboration with Gophr and Wavestone, working along side Team Rubicon UK and backed by Indian Motorcycle.
This is entirely a charity venture, and no organisers or companies are being paid in any way.
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