Delivery workers can't insure their e-bikes against theft

Gig delivery workers using e-bikes worth $1,500-$4,000 cannot get theft insurance because traditional insurers classify e-bikes as 'toys' or 'sporting equipment' excluded from homeowner/renter policies, and commercial vehicle insurance doesn't cover two-wheeled electric vehicles under 750W. So what? When a delivery worker's e-bike is stolen — which happens frequently, with NYPD reporting 4,000+ e-bike thefts annually in NYC alone — they lose their primary income-generating asset with zero recourse. So what? Many delivery workers are immigrants earning $15-20/hour who financed the bike; they now owe payments on a stolen asset while unable to work. So what? They either buy the cheapest possible replacement (uncertified, fire-prone batteries) or drop out of delivery work entirely, deepening precarity. So what? The delivery workforce becomes a revolving door of financially stressed workers, which degrades service quality for platforms and consumers. This persists because the insurance industry's actuarial models have no loss data for e-bikes as commercial vehicles — the category literally doesn't exist in their risk tables, and building a new product category takes 3-5 years of data collection that nobody is funding.