By Dylan Afuang
Aside from the usual mail or pizza, motorcycles are now bringing virtually everything to people's doorsteps.
Honestbee has been bringing hardware, personal care, medicine, office supplies, infant supplies, pet care, water, outdoor needs, as well as food, meat and vegetables – sorts of things one can find in grocery stores – to their customers' addresses, with the help of just two wheels, since 2017.
These products can be ordered with a few clicks on a phone, through the online grocery service's app or website.
After being launched in Singapore in 2015, Honestbee has been operating in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
The service works by gathering in one place the products from grocery stores they are partnering with. Locally, it has partnered with Robinsons and S&R, among other groceries, and even some wet markets or palengkes.
Then, the customers’ orders are brought to them by Honestbee’s "delivery bees."
Michael Clemente, 24, is one of these motorcycle-riding, hardworking bees. He has been a rider for a year and a half.
Clemente bases in the Ultramega grocery in Taguig City, which is also a partner of Honestbee. He reports there at as early as 8 a.m, preparing for a delivery, or "job order."
"Sumali ako noong August 2017... niyaya ako ng kaibigan ko na mas matagal na na rider, (I joined last August 2017, a friend who was already working there recommended me the job)," Clemente shared.
Clemente beamed that when there are plenty of deliveries, he can earn from P1,500 up to P2,000 a day – something he was not able to earn from his prior job, a delivery rider for a fastfood chain.
Meanwhile, he said that the required number of deliveries depends on the "hub," or partner grocery, a rider is working in. For Clemente's case, "basta maintain ang (we must do) 10 deliveries per day.”
That poses no difficulty for him especially during Mondays to Fridays, because during those days, "malakas ang biyahe (there are plenty of job orders)." There are more deliveries from 8 a.m to 12 p.m, he added, and that from 1 to 4 p.m things get less busy.
What is the priority of Honestbee? "Yung quality ng items, dapat hindi sila expired, presentable pa rin kahit exposed siya sa kalsada, at yun loyalty ng customers… good communication sa customer, (The quality of items must be kept in check, they shouldn't be expired and must be presentable even after the journey, and the loyalty of customers must be maintained through good communication)," Clemente shared.