Stay Lock

What it does

Stay Lock is an auxiliary support for the Riders. Narrow to the waist, it supports the load of the food container and minimizes any type of unbalance with a structure that fixes it to it with Velcro surfaces.

Your inspiration

The inspiration comes from the intention of solving the daily struggles of Riders while delivering food. They often have to deal with rough roads, intense traffic jam and abrupt brakings; all combined with the hurry of delivering the goods in the shortest amount of time as possible. Since it's impossible to act on the legislative aspect, that regulates the right of the GIG economy's workers, we intervened on the topic of safety, designing a product accessible to everyone, which could help the stability of the backpack, distributing the weight on both the shoulders and the lumbar vertebrae.

How it works

At the start of the working day, the Rider positions the bag inside the support, making the Velcro parts stick together so as to lock it inside the structure. After putting on the backpack and putting on the straps, the strap is tied to the pelvis and is ready to work. As the working day goes by, it is not necessary to separate the bag carrying food from the product as it does not impede its opening. The structure accompanies the Rider in every inclination and driving attitude, without going to influence the movements; the padding adjacent to the lumbar area cushions the blows dictated by the bumpy road and by any steps, not going to hit the spine. At the end of the working day the Rider releases the bag from the product and can wash them separately.

Design process

The design approach started with considerations about safety, in particular for the new working category of Delivery Riders. We started by looking for problems that can be solved with the tools that Design makes available. The contractual working conditions were therefore immediately discarded. We focused on the physical discomforts that users found during his working hours. After also having listened to and contacted natural persons and after having carried out more research, we agreed that our project field was aimed at physical discomfort dictated by significant aspects of this profession. The load on the shoulders and the spine results in postural and deformative discomforts; the oscillatory movement of the bag given by the driving simply or by bad roads, steps leads to imbalances of driving and skidding and leads to falls. First of all we started by considerably reducing the oscillation and blows on the lumbar area with a structure that embraces and blocks with Velcro surfaces, without limiting the opening or closing of the bag. Later we went to fix it to our user with an elastic band so as to partition the weight and not burden on the shoulders.

How it is different

The developed product doesn’t exist on the market yet, as well as any similar product. Its perks are the lightness, cost-effectiveness, the total integration between the subject and the backpack he carries and the speed in wearing it and taking it off. “Stay Lock” could also become integral part of the basic equipment provided by the food delivery companies, if it was for example personalised with the identifying colours of the company itself or with the logo brand on it. In addition to the already described characteristics, the product is comfortable to wear and use, considered that in the front of the band it is made of there is a pocket to store the change of the received payments, in order not to confuse the personal money with the work one.

Future plans

In the next months we aim to upgrade the performance of the product in terms of distribution and lightening of the weight and at the same time of the adherence of the backpack to carry the goods to the support, in order to diminish the number of bumps caused by the shaking of the backpack on the rough roads or the different driving style of the Riders during the deliveries. We will also work on the production and sale of the support, even showing it to some Food Delivery companies to see if they may be interested in integrating it in the basic equipment they provide the riders with.

Awards