Role model for cycle power

Rhonda Dredge

All around Docklands share cars are waiting – in high-rise car parks and on side streets – to be picked up by their next user.

The cars offer a great opportunity to Good Cycles, a Docklands social enterprise that is gradually gaining more contracts in the gig-economy.

Users of share cars download an app that directs them towards an available vehicle and it needs to be ready to go.

In Village Street, a grey sedan is due for a clean so Good Cycles employee Max Hollow is called out on his phone and is soon on the job.

“If it hasn’t been cleaned in three days it get’s a high alert,” says Max, who joined the Good Cycle pedal employment program two years ago and is regular on the Docklands circuit.

Max turned up on his e-bike with a range of cleaning products in his panniers, including a vacuum cleaner, ready to remedy the problem.

“I love Good Cycles,” the enthusiastic worker said. “They turned up at my court case. They gave me a new lease on life.”

After experience on the job, Max is now an advocate for environmental issues in Docklands and has a full-time job dealing with them.

“I don’t mind doing the dirty work,” he said. “It’s a step in the right direction for the community.”

If the solar bins down near Southern Cross station overflow Max will be there as well to deal with organic waste.

Good Cycles has a contract with Citywide that takes the enterprising cyclist down to the recycling depot in Flinders Lane and into the city picking up waste from cafes on his bike.

He also does bike repairs in the Good Cycle shop on Collins St and is a role model to 20-30 workers on the program.