As in any European city today, in the center of Nantes, delivery people on bicycles or scooters come and go. But, in Nantes and more and more French cities, those are no longer always the Uber Eats and Deliveroo logos. In addition to their own logo and orange bags, those of Naofood are also recognizable by their pellets, plush bears in all shapes and sizes that have become the trademark of the Naofood deliverers. Jennifer Ruffalo reports about it.
Naofood is an alternative delivery service in France trying to break the quasi-monopoly of Uber Eats and Deliveroo, controlling 88 percent of the French market. There are Sicklo in Grenoble, Les Coursiers Bordelais in Bordeaux, Les Coursiers Rennais in Rennes, Les Coursiers Montpelliérains in Montpellier, the Riders Social Club in the northern suburbs of Paris. These companies are part of the CoopCycle federation, which has developed an app that members can use. Although France is dominant with 45 members, CoopCycle already has a foothold in Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
CoopCycle was born after the bankruptcy of the Belgian start-up Take Eat Easy in 2016, which left many deliverers with a financial hangover. With CoopCycle, the deliverers would take control of their fate. “Defend the employment status against that of false self-employed, fight the dictatorship of the platforms, and prove that logistics also CO2-neutral”, co-founder Adrien Claude summarizes the philosophy of CoopCycle.
Source: Jennifer Ruffalo