6.2 Cycle logistics | Mobility and Transport

Overview

Cycle logistics services can improve goods delivery and transport passengers in a more efficient way compared to motorised transport. Examples include last and first-mile delivery services, home deliveries, transporting children and other persons, goods shipments in cities as well as bicycle servicing at home by professionals and other providers using cargo bikes.

Considerations for applicability

Level of cycling

Cycle logistics services can be introduced in cities with both low and high levels of cycling. Cities with a low level of cycling may require additional motivational support aimed at stakeholders or potential users of the services, and the implementation of appropriate cycle infrastructure required to support their use (e.g. cycle parking facilities, cycle lanes etc.).

Urban layout/topography

Cycle logistics are likely to be appropriate in city centres, as deliveries like first and last mile services benefit from a concentration of businesses in one or several locations.

Cities with particularly hilly topography may face initial barriers to introducing cycle logistics, which could be overcome through the use of electric powered cargo bikes. Their commercial use may also increase the readiness of people to use cargo bikes for private journeys (shopping/transport of children etc.).

Population

Subsidies for the purchase or rental of cargo bikes and the ability to test services could motivate families to use cargo bikes for the transport of children/facilitate shopping etc.

Finance Resources

The finance required depends on the services on offer. Working with private actors, such as a cycle logistics provider, can help to keep investment and ongoing costs low. Financial resources required also depend on the scope of the measure. They often see rather an initial investment with then lower or balanced financial resource use. Extreme variation can be seen e.g. in high costs of establishing a consolidation centre hosting several logistics actors or in saving costs by transferring courier and mail services from own organisation to an external cycle logistics provider.

In Hamburg, the use case of the micro consolidation centre in cooperation with UPS cost €15,000 for the business district and €30,000 for UPS.

The consolidation centre of Vicenza is working in balance without any public subsidies and needed an initial capital of €50,000.

Vienna's subsidy scheme for cargo bikes invested €300,000 for 322 purchases.

Time & Human Resources

Time and human resources required vary with the scope and nature of the measure. While some measures are mainly organised and managed by private actors, others need years of preparation and planning with input from the city. Resource needs are highest during the preparation and planning phase and for the promotion of services. Time and human resources are often needed for the acquisition of stakeholders and negotiating/defining the setting of a service.

Measure impact highlight

Modal share

Cycle logistics services and options directly promote a modal shift in favour of cycling. The options to replace a car, van or lorry include direct, first and last mile delivery of goods and services by bicycle; and the use of cargo bikes for service trips (e.g. by craftsmen and other services).

Note: An overview of the direct and indirect impacts resulting from correctly implemented cycling measures is available in Challenges that cities face and how cycling can address them.

In-depth measure analysis, case studies and further guidance

Detailed description of the measure

Key features

Cycle logistics services concern the delivery and transport of goods. They rely on the use of cargo bikes, trikes, special design pedal-driven vehicles, and conventional bicycles with trailers, which can be conventional or electric. Their use allows the transport of cargo weighing up to 100 kg, and sometimes even more. There are many possible trip purposes: business, social services, running errands and purchase of goods. These trips are either undertaken solely by a bicycle or involve logistic specific infrastructure such as consolidation centres.

Function and objectives

Cycle logistics services shift good deliveries and service trips from motorised vehicles to bicycles. As well as resulting in a modal shift to cycling in the delivery and service industry, cycle logistics can optimise the trip in terms of cargo volume, trip length, time of delivery, efficient use of resources and reduced impact on the urban environment. These benefits and other objectives of cycle logistics are presented below:

Less use of space: deliveries by cycle logistics services need less road space as well as less loading space. They can make use of cycling networks in addition to the overall road network - reducing congestion.
Fewer emissions: vehicles used are mostly zero-emission vehicles, only depending on the source of electricity generation. In action, cargo bikes in their different forms cause no greenhouse gas or nitrogen emissions and only little noise emissions.
Increased safety: in areas such as busy city centres, cycle logistics vehicles offer better safety for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians or other cyclists. Cargo bike users are more visible in traffic than usual cyclists due to the cargo bike's size and appearance. This increases motorists' awareness of them, increasing safety.
Better accessibility: bicycles have the advantage of being able to access areas of a city where access restrictions prevent motorised vehicles from entering. This includes pedestrian zones, where motorised vehicles are only allowed to enter for limited period of time or not at all.
Improved inclusion: no driving licence is needed to cycle and costs are lower than operating motorised vehicles. This improves social inclusion, regarding employment in the logistical services industry
Lower costs: cycle logistics services can reduce costs from vehicle operation delivery coordination. Cycle logistics can reduce parking or loading space requirement and avoid inefficiencies such as time spent in congestion and sending several under-loaded vehicles to the same destination.
New economic activities: cycle logistics services create new business cases with direct demand from the delivery industry, especially in the case of access restrictions.

Complementary measures

The benefits of cycle logistics can be complemented by other cycling measures. Good provision of infrastructure in a city and the development of a well-established cycling network (see Developing a cycle network for your city ) will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of cycle logistics services. Other bicycle services such as 2.1 Cycle parking, 3.5 Signage and wayfinding, 2.3 Bicycle maintenance and repair facilities, and 6.1 Bicycle sharing schemes, including rental can also increase the appeal of cycle logistics by improving the cycling experience. 4.2 Traffic restrictions and charges , such as parking charges and access restrictions can make cycle logistics more attractive. Finally, bicycle development strategies and 5.1 Bicycle steering group s can ensure that effective design, planning and implementation takes place, resulting in good conditions for cycle logistics. For examples, the location of micro-depots is important for optimising trip lengths and trip volume, as shown in the Cambridge test for a micro-depot.

Performance

Accessibility

Bicycles can provide the ability for complete door-to-door deliveries such as in the case of home delivery services in Donostia - San Sebastian. Another benefit of using cargo bikes and similar solutions is the convenience of making deliveries even when there are high traffic volumes, such as on Hamburg's shopping street area "Neuer Wall".

Congestion

Cycle logistics can contribute to reduced congestion when the use of cargo bikes, trikes, or bicycles with trailers replaces the use of a motorised vehicle. Cycle logistics vehicles need less space on the road, to park and in loading zones. Additionally, they can make use of cycling networks. Experiences in Berlin showed that the BentoBox pilot significantly reduced traffic volumes since 85% of the trips done in connection to the BentoBox were done by cargo bike instead of conventional delivery vehicles. The same effect is visible from the Hamburg micro depot model and Vicenza's Eco-Logistic Centre.

Road Safety

One of the advantages of cycle logistics is that the vehicles used are smaller and have slower speeds than conventional delivery vehicles such as vans and lorries. These two characteristics directly impact road safety, especially of vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and other cyclists. The reaction times of cyclists to avoid collisions is higher due to the lower speed, and the severity of a crash is less. Experiences from Vicenza shows an increase of pedestrian safety in the centre due to allowing access to light vehicles and cargo bikes only.

Environment

Cycle logistics vehicles are zero emission and quieter compared to vans and lorries. Their role in the supply chain allows the optimisation of trips and reduces the incidence of parking space search traffic, further reducing pollution levels and noise emissions. The case study examples in Vicenza, Hamburg and Berlin all saw the reduction of greenhouse gas, nitrogen and noise emissions. As a result of less pollution, Vicenza could report the positive impact of low emission vehicles and cargo bikes for protecting its historic buildings in the city centre.

Community

Cycle logistics services increase the visibility of cargo bikes and e-bikes in a city and can motivate more citizens to consider their modal choices and test the benefits of using cycling transportation options. The home delivery service of "Michl's bringt's and SPAR" reports the main user groups being elderly people and people on their trip home. Interest in cargo bike solutions are visible from Vienna's subsidy system for purchasing cargo bikes and Malmö's offer for testing cargo bikes: The Viennese budget for subsidising cargo bike purchase is already used up with 85% of applications being private users. Malmö's test offer "Cykelbiblioteket" has a waiting list and is stopping any further reservations before the end of the trial period.

Economy

Economic advantages range from flexibility in delivery solutions, cost savings, and increasing a company's or business area's image to new employment options and economic activities. Logistic services offered by consolidation centres, such as the test case of the BentoBox in Berlin or Vicenza's logistic centre, offers more flexibility to suppliers and customers around the delivery of goods. Vicenza's VELOCE system is running without any subsidies in balance. The case of the Cambridge Council reorganisation internal deliveries from its own vans to externally owned cargo bikes was also successful. The motivation for testing cargo bike services instead of delivery by vans came mostly from the need to cut costs. The largest benefit of Hamburg's micro depot model was the increase in the attractiveness of the shopping street due to less traffic and congestion. Cycle logistics solutions also make use of employment programmes, as demonstrated by the Viennese example of "Michl's bringt's" that gives work to unemployed persons aged 50 years and older. The creation of alternative delivery concepts sees the creation of new economic activities such as last mile deliveries along with the subsequent employment options.

Modal Share

Cycle logistics services directly promote a modal shift in favour of cycling, as demonstrated by all of the case studies described below.

Parameters of success or failure

Cycle logistics with its wide range of options, including consolidation centres, courier services, home delivery services, rental and test schemes of cargo bikes, is applicable to many cities.

For many of the case studies presented, up- and down-scaling is possible allowing various application models. The scale of subsidy programmes for the purchase of cargo bikes, as seen in Vienna, largely depends on the available budget and can, therefore, be implemented on various scales. Rental systems or trial services, as described for the Viennese "Grätzelrad" and the Malmö case, follow the same logic.

Cities do not need to create their own services but can make use of existing private cycle logistics operators and bicycle courier services, or they can support the creation of such business offers. This is demonstrated in the example of Cambridge City Council outsourcing its internal mailing and shipment services. Donostia - San Sebastian also uses a private bicycle courier service for the home delivery services. The cargo bike rental service in Vienna "Grätzelrad" highlights the role private actors can take. Here, the City of Vienna needed an initial investment and is now running the online platform for rentals and information only.

The actual rental service is undertaken by different private actors. An important feature for the engagement of private actors was to hand over ownership of the bikes after purchase by the City of Vienna.

Other private and public actors providing support should also be recognised. Vienna's home delivery service by "Michl's bringt's" in cooperation with the supermarket chain, SPAR, is largely independent of the city itself and cooperates with the Austrian employment agency to perform the actual deliveries. Vicenza's consolidation centre is run by a company owned by the municipality and private actors. The economic balance of the company shows that constant subsidies are not needed for establishing and running a consolidation centre.

In the case of Berlin, establishing and running consolidation centres involving different Courier, Express and Parcel (CEP) service providers was successful due to a common framework and that the organisation of their business was left to them. It is important to ensure that all CEP service providers have enough flexibility to cope with their internal business settings. The organisation of the deliveries is left to them and is not actually part of the challenge. Running a consolidation centre through the use of a "neutral" service provider and ensuring the same conditions are applied to all logistics actors using the centre is crucial. The preparation and planning of consolidation centres which act as a base for different logistics actors requires a long-term horizon to accommodate their needs, find a suitable location and arrange for the actual use of the location.

Cities can offer cycle logistics providers a range of business solutions. The case of Cambridge demonstrates that the use of cargo bikes for last mile delivery to the city centre is popular due to their exclusive access to the otherwise restricted area for motorised traffic.

Key lessons for transferability

Any cycle logistic service has to accommodate its users' needs. This refers to the design and use conditions of consolidation centres or the rules for a home delivery service just as the financial incentive for cargo bike purchase subsidies or the conditions to rent or test a cargo bike.

Case Studies

The BentoBox pilot (Berlin, DE)

Location: Central
Population: Metropole (3.5 Million)
Cycling Modal Share: Climber (13%)

The BentoBox was designed and tested as a possible crucial element of new inner-city logistics processes in the frame of the CityLog project. The name refers to the Japanese "Bento", a widespread concept of serving different kinds of food separated from each other in a special box (source: https://www.bentobox-berlin.de/).

Key objectives

The objectives of the BentoBox approach in inner-city logistics included limiting the number of trucks in downtown areas, particularly during peak hours; providing flexibility for recipients in the collection of their packages; and improving logistics organisation of shopping centres – reducing congestion in their delivery areas. The pilot was aimed at typical courier-express-parcel (CEP) service providers.

Design and implementation

The BentoBox pilot project tested business to business (B2B) solutions in last mile delivery. Deliveries were brought to a drop-off-point where they are either directly picked-up by customers or further transported by cleaner vehicles such as cargo bikes. The BentoBox is a container with two elements, a fixed docking station with a touchscreen user interface and a control unit as well as a chassis divided into six modules. Each module is a removable trolley for different sized compartments. The box enables deliveries outside of opening hours. Once a trolley is placed in the Box, a message is sent to the customer on arrival. The trolleys are packed directly in depots and offer also options for only partial packaging of many different deliveries in one trolley - or the use of the trolley for one larger delivery.

The pilot area was in Berlin-Friedenau, providing a well-defined area with clear limits, high density and diversity of traffic resulting in a need to reduce road space use. The set-up of the test was based on a survey amongst retail and catering businesses which resulted in 65 completed responses. The survey focused on time and duration of deliveries, connected suppliers, type of delivery and type of delivery vehicle. The pilot took place over a three-month period, from November 2011 to January 2012 and had three features:

Serving as a collection and distribution point with two cargo bikes and two light commercial vehicles (LCVs) performing further deliveries in bundled shipments in the test area.
Bundling shipments in the BentoBox and consecutively transporting them to one point without cars entering the inner-city of Berlin (including overnight service).
Placing parcels in the BentoBox from the test area to be collected by messenger services at 16.00 in the afternoon for further shipments.

Performance

During the short test period, 657 shipments were stored in the BentoBox. About 85% of trips connected to the stored shipments were transported by cargo bicycles instead of conventional vehicles. Thus, less road space was occupied by deliveries and emissions reduced, too.

The BentoBox service worked without any problems or delays even during the busy Christmas period or in the case of urgent courier orders. It proved successful for more efficient use of existing infrastructure, a reduction of noise as well as of GHG and particle emissions. Perception and feedback of involved businesses were very positive.

Success factors

The BentoBox works as a solution for all possible CEP service providers. It simply provides the framework of service conditions leaving users to design their use cases according to their needs. This factor was stressed as crucial since CEP service providers are not often interested in collaboration. This is due to the difficulty of aligning a range of different company rules and procedures, data use sets, infrastructure conditions, labour agreements and work processes. Barriers for cooperation do not originate from concerns relating to competition or from actual transport solutions. With the BentoBox (as well as KoMoDo, see below), Berlin took the approach to be a neutral service provider of a framework for use by CEP services, ensuring that it did not conflict with their delivery solutions. The delivery organisation, use of given space and actual transport performance is left to the CEP.

Transferability

A service like the BentoBox works best in areas with a high demand for shipments. Easy access for deliveries to the Box and space for unloading deliveries is also important.

Excursion: KoMoDo pilot of Berlin

KoMoDo provides a consolidation centre that is used by five large CEP providers with a container solution for each of them. The project took three and a half years to plan and initiate, of which one and a half years were needed to get the project operational. The manpower invested by the Senate of Berlin was approximately one year of human resources. The core elements were to:

Provide adequate space - Space needs to be provided by the respective city district and needs a special permit for private actors to use of public space. Space to be used needs to generate low use conflicts in terms of other possible use forms. The pilot made use of a tram terminal loop and is located at the car park (which is still partially operational, although the space used for the pilot was previously unusable due to construction work).
Use a city-owned logistics service provider safeguards the involvement of CEP service providers. CEP service providers rent their space and they are then able to use it according to their needs, which is highly important. CEP providers are likely to have very different needs, including differences in the area/distance covered. City-owned logistics service providers, therefore, act as a neutral provider without any preferences. The only condition for use is an agreement to use zero- or low-emission vehicles for delivery from the centre to the final recipient.
Pilot the new solution with the service providers, and then evaluate if the solution is working (including choice of location, effects are as intended and what changes are needed respectively from these aspects).

There is currently no plans for an extension to the scheme. However, experience shows that with a well working solution, interest is created that then leads to the challenge of finding suitable new locations for similar services to be implemented.

The main success of KoMoDo has been the involvement of five different large CEP providers in a joint consolidation centre safeguarded by the provision of a framework offered by an own entity independent from any of them. From a city’s perspective, further developments to optimise city logistics need to work with the condition that the CEP service providers must abide by their own set of rules. Therefore, any new service provision must be flexible enough to accommodate these.

Hamburg’s micro-depot model (Hamburg, DE)

Location: North-West
Population: Metropole (1.8 Million)
Cycling Modal Share: Climber (15%)

From the commercial perspective, the inner city of Hamburg is organised into "Business Improvement Districts". These are clearly defined retail areas initiated and organised by businesses of the area to plan and implement promotion and upgrading of the commercial area. They are financed by a communal fee gained from the real estate owners of the area. More illustratively, the idea of a Business Improvement Area (BID) can be compared to transferring the concept of a shopping centre to inner city locations. Taking the case of Hamburg's BID "Neuer Wall", a luxury shopping strip, resulted in an increase in goods delivery traffic due to a number of developments. This included an increase in:

The number of deliveries due to a reduction in available storage
The number of express deliveries and small shipments
multiple vehicles from the same company being present in the area at the same time
E-commerce.

The conditions of the BID Neuer Wall are not suitable for the increase in the number of deliveries and delivery vehicles, as deliveries can only be made using the main access road, which does not have enough loading zones. Loading zones are subject to high usage by delivery vehicles from different companies and misuse by customers' cars. The recent developments and the BID's conditions resulted in an increase of traffic (delivery vehicles and customer cars) searching for parking spaces, vehicles parking on pavements, delivery vehicles blocking shop windows and customer parking spaces being used by delivery vehicles. Altogether, these factors harm the attractiveness of the BID for customers.

The main CEP service providers, other delivery companies and the City of Hamburg decided to identify suitable solutions, which resulted in the development of Hamburg's micro depot model. UPS agreed to participate in a pilot in 2012. Instead of vehicles collecting parcels from the main depot and subsequently delivering to customers, UPS stored the deliveries in a container in their depot and then delivered the container to a dedicated location in the inner city of Hamburg. Last mile delivery was subsequently undertaken by two cargo bikes and a hand truck from this central location. The container was then shipped back to the main deport in the evening.

The model works by allocating space for the container via a special permit from the City of Hamburg (in this case 25 m x 2.5 m). Approximately 400 customers can be serviced by the container with deliveries and collection of shipments. The catchment area of this last mile solution was about 400 – 500 m and the service were in operation between 9:30 and 18:00. Costs were about € 15,000 for the BID for fees, renting the container and informational signposts as well as € 30,000 for UPS for the container itself, the cargo bikes and hand truck as well as the special permit for the location to the container.

Hamburg's micro-depot model was considered to be successful. The pilot resulted in a reduction of vehicles and traffic volume, reduction in air pollution and noise emissions, as well as improvements in the attractiveness of the BID. UPS realised a range of benefits, including the ability to reduce its fleet, reduce time spent searching for parking spaces, reduce fuel consumption and vehicle movement in the area, resulting in an increased positive image from participating in the pilot. The pilot took place between 2012 and 2015. By 2015, the City of Hamburg extended the concept to the entire inner-city area making use of 4 micro-depots in the inner city and one close to it, involving the use of 7 e-tricycles, 4 conventional tricycles, and hand trucks for the delivery and collection of shipments.

However, one lesson from the pilot of the model is that putting containers in public space of the inner city is not the best option for appearance of an inner-city. Alternatives were discussed already such as suitable ground floor levels of parking garages as locations for the containers.

Last mile delivery by VELOCE: the Vicenza Eco-LOgistic CEnter (Vicenza, Italy)

Location: Mediterranean
Population: Medium urban area (112,000)
Cycling Modal Share: Climber (13%)

Context

Vicenza is home to a UNESCO-protected city centre, located west of Venice with a population of 113,000. The city faces relatively poor air quality, primarily due to the particulate matter associated with the topography of the city, surrounded by hills and mountains. To protect the environmental and architectural aspects of its historic centre, Vicenza established a Limited Traffic Zone (LTZ) in 1996. However, despite the introduction of the LTZ, traffic congestion and associated emissions continued to be an issue of concern, as freight vehicles were still operating during the authorised time slots.

Design and implementation

In 2004, Vicenza established the Vicenza Eco-Logistic CEnter (VELOCE). The objective of the VELOCE was to tackle freight-related traffic in the city centre. This was achieved through the use of a logistics system, which utilised an urban consolidation centre to distribute goods to the historic centre. Only zero-emission vehicles, including electric vehicles and cargo bicycles, were allowed to enter the city centre, replacing traditional heavily-polluting freight vehicle movements. The company was created with initial capital of € 50.000, with ownership split between the municipality (55%) and private ownership (45%).

Establishing VELOCE and its rules resulted in a lawsuit by the Italian Association of International Delivery Couriers in 2005, leading to a long legal dispute. However, the final decision by the national administrative court that stated:

Partial limitations of free circulation of goods and economic initiatives is always justified if originating from the need to protect cultural and environmental assets of global and national relevance.
The dimension of the restrictions is justified by the primary and absolute value of the environment, landscape and public health as recognised by the Constitution.

The urban consolidation centre is located approximately 1.5 km from the city centre. It spans across 270 m², includes 5 loading ports and an additional 160 m²storage room for goods that have yet to be delivered. The variety of goods includes:

postal deliveries such as parcels, envelopes and groupage shipments
food items, such as vegetables and fruit for restaurants and shops
perishable food items, requiring constant refrigeration throughout the entire delivery chain
drinks

Dangerous goods, money/valuables, unpackaged goods, goods exceeding 1.8 m and goods requiring special vehicles or permits for delivery are not serviced. VELOCE uses an information programme which provides personal digital assistance and is compatible with all couriers, to handle all delivery steps from receiving goods, to shipment to their destination.

Performance

The VELOCE system was very reliable: of the 23,000 deliveries carried out in 2004 and 67,000 packages delivered in 2005, no damage or loss occurred. The economic balance of the activity is also positive and it does not receive any public. Its main customers are logistics operators, who outsource their deliveries to VELOCE.

On the environmental side, the system contributed to PM10 and noise reduction and has reduced the number of freight transport vehicles circulating in the city centre. Moreover, it contributed to increasing pedestrian safety, as well as maintaining the historical buildings of the city centre. Another impact of VELOCE is that service providers who were not willing to cooperate with VELOCE, now make use of no-emission vehicles like cargo bikes, trikes and electric vehicles. In 2011, Vicenza won the "Climate Energy Award" assigned by the Bolzano Fair thanks to VELOCE.

Cargo bike purchase subsidies, rental schemes and home delivery services (Vienna, Austria)

Location: Central
Population: Metropolis (1.8 Million)
Cycling Modal Share: Climber (7%)

The Viennese Cargo Bike Subsidy Scheme

The City of Vienna implemented a funding scheme for cargo bikes in order to increase the use of cargo bikes and advance their visibility as a mode of active travel.

Vienna dedicated € 300.000 to the funding scheme and included e-cargo bikes, as well as conventional cargo bikes. Applications for a subsidy were open to private persons, as well as to companies registered in Vienna. The funding scheme allowed a maximum of 50% of the purchase costs to be funded with a maximum limit of € 800 for conventional cargo bikes and € 1,000 for e-cargo bikes. Vienna supported 322 cargo bikes with the dedicated budget, including the purchase of cargo bikes for two city initiatives, the "Grätzelrad" and the provision of 15 bicycles for a public bike rental scheme. The main users of the funded cargo bikes were individuals using the bikes for private use (85%), with a smaller proportion using the bikes for commercial use (15%).

Vienna "Grätzelrad“ (quarter bike)

"Grätzelräd" - quarter bicycles - is a type of free community bikes. The City of Vienna purchased the cargo bikes which were then stationed with "host" organisations for actual use. The hosts include restaurants, neighbourhood organisations, bike (repair) shops, and coworking spaces. Once supplied, the cargo bikes are owned and used by the hosts who are then also responsible for maintenance of the bikes. A condition for transferring the cargo bikes to the hosts is that they must be made available to the public. Availability of the cargo bikes can be checked on a specially designed website, hosted by the City of Vienna, where bikes can be reserved and booked. The types of cargo bikes include bakefiets (2/3 wheelers), urban arrow bikes, Christiania bikes, Nihola bikes and bullet bikes. The use of bicycles is limited to 24 hours, except for weekends where they can be booked and used over Saturday and Sunday. The website highlights use examples for cargo bikes and includes a Questions & Answer section, detailing important information, such as how to park cargo bikes, what to consider when transporting children and how to safely ride cargo bikes.

“Michl's bringt’s” – home delivery supermarket chain SPAR in Vienna

The supermarket chain SPAR and the non-profit project "Michl's bringt's" provides customers of 20 SPAR stores with a home delivery service. Customers hand over their goods at the cash point and they are later delivered home for € 2. SPAR itself contributes another € 2 to each delivery. The delivery is completed by e-bikes and the maximum size of deliveries is two shopping bags or two beverage crates. The scope of deliveries embraces all Viennese districts inside the main ring road in the city, the Viennese "Gürtel". The service is used mainly by elderly people and workers, who do not want to carry their shopping home after work. Michl's bringt's is part of a socio-economic enterprise, supported by the Austrian employment agency AMS and aims to employ unemployed people, especially those over the age of 50 years old.

Public administration’ internal mail delivery; micro-consolidation centre test (Cambridge, United Kingdom)

Location: North/North West
Population: Medium urban area (124,900), high student population share
Cycling Modal Share: Champion (19,5%)

Public administration’s internal mail delivery using cargo bikes in Cambridge

Cambridge City Council holds 15 different sites, located across the city. The many locations are the reason for internal mail and material delivery trips that occur every day. The City Council operated these shipments with two of its employees, using a van. Due to a need to cut costs, Cambridge started a 3-month-test in 2012 to outsource the deliveries to an external cargo bike delivery system, Outspoken. The test was successful and the City Council subsequently tendered the service for a long-term contract. The contract applies to daily postal deliveries, document exchange and internal mail delivery services to the council by cargo bikes and cargo trikes. An additional special service is offered to the Cambridge City Councillors.

The test of a micro-consolidation centre Cambridge

Cambridge installed access restrictions to the city centre in the 1970s, but only put physical barriers in place in 2000. Bicycles had been included in the restriction since 1992, but this was revised in 2005. Access restriction to motorised vehicles has stayed in place between 10 AM and 4 PM. This created favourable conditions for last mile delivery by cargo bikes, with a respective service installed from 2005 which offered last mile delivery to the restricted area throughout the day.

Delivery companies use this service by dropping off their shipments to the service provider's (Outspoken) depot for delivery by cargo bike or trike. The depot saw an increase in deliveries to the science and business park in the north of the city centre, where there are more than 200 companies and 7,000 employees. The increasing number of shipments, combined with a relatively long distance to the location compared to the conventional business case area of the city centre, influenced the location of a new micro-consolidation centre to increase the efficiency of the delivery service to the park.

The micro-consolidation centre was located on a verge by the roadside in the north of the city in the form of a shipping container equipped with a cargo bike. The local highway manager gave permission for the location, which had been identified jointly by Cambridgeshire County Council and Outspoken. Shipments to the Science and Business Park are now dropped off by a major logistics company at the container at the start of the day, allowing the cycle courier to prepare the deliveries by cargo bike as early as possible. The first 3 months saw over 3,500 items delivered by 330 cargo bike trips. Delivery became more efficient by reducing the distance to cover.

Further notice on cycle logistics in Cambridge

Cambridge has two more aspects to offer: the City Council changed its internal procurement rules, offering privileges to cargo bike service providers for certain types of work up for tender; the Cambridgeshire County Council formed a Cooperation Platform of small businesses, charities, logistics operators, large employers (including hospitals and the university), transport modellers and planners, and industry representatives of city centre retailers. The platform discusses the advantages and challenges associated with using bicycles in their business environments and the necessary steps to increase the use of cargo bikes by organisations.

Home delivery service by cargo bike (Donostia – San Sebastian, Spain)

Location: Southern
Population: Medium urban area (186,000), high tourist population
Cycling Modal Share: Starter (4%) – 2011 values!

The City of Donostia, San Sebastián, and their local cycle courier, TXITA, have cooperated to deliver a home delivery service project. The project has two key aims: to benefit businesses through increased sales in local shops and to encourage the sustainable delivery of goods. In 2017, the service was operating in the most densely-populated areas of the city. Many local businesses took part in the project, including florists, pharmacists, retail stores, technology stores and bakeries. The service brings added value to these local shops since customers no longer need to carry purchased goods during their shopping trips and can continue shopping comfortably.

The home delivery service is available all week, except on Sundays. In addition to benefiting local residents, the cycle couriers also deliver to hotels, making it possible for tourists to enjoy the service as well. The service costs €7,5 per delivery, and works as follows:

Clients complete a delivery note with information that the shopkeeper provides.
Clients select a delivery time from a series of 90-minute slots (they must be at the address over this time slot).
The delivery can consist of up to 3 boxes/bags per delivery (25kg maximum weight per box/bag and 50kg maximum weight per delivery).
Clients need to request the service 30 minutes before the selected 90-minute time slot starts.

The conditions have been set up to guarantee that deliveries take place with 100% success rate.

E-bike and cargo bike test offers (Malmö, Sweden)

Location: North
Population: Medium urban area (333,633)
Cycling Modal Share: Champion (22%)

The "Cykelbiblioteket" pilot project allows individuals to test e-bikes and cargo bikes for a period of 12 days for a fee of SEK 100 (€ 9,8). The project is run by the Bicycle Kitchen, with support from Trafikverket, the Swedish Transport Administration. The project is currently in the pilot phase for a limited time period.

Key guidance, further reading and references

Cycle Logistics and Cycle Logistics Ahead Results and Guidance: www.cyclelogistics.eu

European Cycle Logistics Federation: http://eclf.bike

Cycling UK: A guide to cargobikes: https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/cycling-guide/guide-cargo-bikes

PRO-E-BIKE: A new move for businesses: Electric cycle logistics in European Cities: a_new_move_for_business_in_eu_cities