Should we all have our food delivered?
During the Covid epidemic air quality in Britain improved dramatically. Given, economic activity tumbled - we had lockdowns that stopped people going out of their houses for months at a time except for absolute essentials. However there was a by-product. The roads soon echoed to the sounds of delivery drivers, taking fast food to customers who sorely missed their burgers, pizzas, kebabs and curries. The insurance industry had a beano, selling specialised insurance for fast food delivery drivers.
The government had ordered many shops to close. Fast food outlets were only able to stay open if they offered a delivery service - takeouts were banned.
Not only fast food outlets were affected but restaurants suffered too. They had to choose between offering their (often pricy) food for home delivery, or closing completely. Some shut up shop, some staggered on with no income, others accepted the inevitable and sent their steak dianes and lobster thermidores to their customers in insulated boxes on the back of a food delivery driver's scooter.
In the meanswhile many people, particularly the elderly or those with healt issues, were unable even to get to the shops for essential foodstuffs. The supermarket delivery systems switched to overdrive but they were still not really able to keep up with demand.
Here's the interesting thing - once lockdown restrictions eased, the number of food delivery drivers actually went up! We British had got used to having our brought to us, instead of having to collect it ourselves, and we found we actually liked it!
So; here is a question. What is more environmentally efficient: millions of people driving their cars to and from supermarkets several times a week? Or thousands of vans delivering their shopping to them, or delivery drivers on bicycles mopeds or scooters bringing them their takeouts? With far fewer vehicles on the road, burning much less fuel in total, could we be on the brink of a cleaner air revolution?
The government had ordered many shops to close. Fast food outlets were only able to stay open if they offered a delivery service - takeouts were banned.
Not only fast food outlets were affected but restaurants suffered too. They had to choose between offering their (often pricy) food for home delivery, or closing completely. Some shut up shop, some staggered on with no income, others accepted the inevitable and sent their steak dianes and lobster thermidores to their customers in insulated boxes on the back of a food delivery driver's scooter.
In the meanswhile many people, particularly the elderly or those with healt issues, were unable even to get to the shops for essential foodstuffs. The supermarket delivery systems switched to overdrive but they were still not really able to keep up with demand.
Here's the interesting thing - once lockdown restrictions eased, the number of food delivery drivers actually went up! We British had got used to having our brought to us, instead of having to collect it ourselves, and we found we actually liked it!
So; here is a question. What is more environmentally efficient: millions of people driving their cars to and from supermarkets several times a week? Or thousands of vans delivering their shopping to them, or delivery drivers on bicycles mopeds or scooters bringing them their takeouts? With far fewer vehicles on the road, burning much less fuel in total, could we be on the brink of a cleaner air revolution?
