In big cities, bicycles that use electric and pedal power to carry heavy loads are gradually replacing conventional delivery trucks. ups
Every Tuesday, a guy on the coast riding a weird tricycle stops in the yard outside the Kate ice cream shop in Portland, Oregon, to retrieve new goods.
He put 30 boxes of Kate’s merchandise-vegan ice cream with waffle cones and marionberry cobbler-in a freezer bag, and placed it with other goods in a steel box installed behind the seat. Loaded up to 600 pounds of cargo, he drove to the northeast Sandy Boulevard.
Each pedal stroke is enhanced by a silent electric motor hidden in the chassis. Despite commanding a 4-foot-wide commercial vehicle, he rode a bicycle lane.
After a mile and a half, the tricycle arrived at the B-line Urban Delivery warehouse. The company is located in the center of the city, just a few steps away from the Willamette River. He unpacks goods in smaller and more centralized warehouses than the large warehouses that usually carry packages.
Each part of this situation is different from most last mile delivery methods today. It’s easy to think of B-line’s service as another Portland freak. But similar projects are expanding in European capitals such as Paris and Berlin. It was just legal in Chicago; it has been adopted in New York City, where Amazon.com Inc. owns 200 such electric bicycles for delivery.
Katelyn Williams, the owner of ice cream, said: “It’s always helpful not to have a large diesel truck.”
This is the prerequisite for delivering the world of electric cargo bikes or electric tricycles that are still evolving. It is a subset of electric pedal-assisted bicycles that have become increasingly popular during the pandemic. Proponents say that small electric vehicles can move within short distances and deliver goods faster in densely populated areas of the city, while reducing the congestion, noise and pollution caused by forklift trucks.
However, this economics has not yet been proven on the streets of the United States that love cars. This approach requires a thorough rethinking of how goods enter the city. A new alien species is sure to cause conflict in areas that are already crowded with cars, cyclists, and pedestrians.
Electric cargo bikes are a possible solution to one of the most difficult problems in logistics. How do you get the goods through the final link from the warehouse to the door?
The headache is that although the desire to deliver seems to be unlimited, the roadside space is not.
City dwellers are already familiar with parked (and re-parked) vans and trams with flashing hazard lights. For passers-by, this means more traffic congestion and air pollution. For shippers, this means higher delivery costs and slower delivery times. In October, researchers at the University of Washington found that delivery trucks spent 28% of their delivery time looking for parking spaces.
Mary Catherine Snyder, a strategic parking consultant for the City of Seattle, pointed out: “The demand for curbs is much greater than we actually need. The city of Seattle tried out electric tricycles with UPS Inc. last year.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the chaos. During the lock-up period, service industries such as UPS and Amazon experienced peaks. The office may be empty, but the roadside in the urban area was re-blocked by deliverymen who used Grubhub Inc. and DoorDash Inc. services to transport meals from the restaurant to the home.
The experiment is in progress. Some logistics companies are testing the customer’s affordability to avoid the door, and instead put packages in lockers, or in the case of Amazon, in the trunk of the car. Drones are even possible, although they may be too expensive except for the transportation of lightweight, high-value items such as medicines.
Proponents say that small, flexible tricycles are faster than trucks and produce fewer warming emissions. It is more maneuverable in traffic, and can be parked in a smaller space or even on the sidewalk.
According to a study on electric cargo bikes deployed at the University of Toronto last year, replacing regular delivery trucks with electric cargo bikes can reduce carbon emissions by 1.9 metric tons per year-although multiple electric cargo bikes and regular delivery trucks are often required As much
B-line CEO and founder Franklin Jones (Franklin Jones) said in a recent webinar that the denser the community, the lower the cost of bicycle transportation.
For electric cargo bikes to flourish, an important change must be made: small local warehouses. Most logistics companies fix their huge warehouses on the periphery of the city. However, because the range of bicycles is too short, they need nearby facilities. They are called mini hubs.
This small outpost called a logistics hotel is already in use in Paris. On these shores, a start-up company called Reef Technology won $700 million in funding for its hub in a city parking lot last month to include last-mile deliveries.
According to Bloomberg News, Amazon has also established 1,000 small distribution centers across the United States.
Sam Starr, an independent sustainable freight consultant in Canada, said that to use freight bikes, these miniature wheels need to be scattered within a radius of 2 to 6 miles, depending on the density of the city.
In the United States, so far, the results of e-freight are inconclusive. Last year, UPS found in an e-cargo tricycle trial in Seattle that the bike delivered much fewer packages in an hour than ordinary trucks in the busy Seattle community.
The study believes that an experiment that lasts only one month may be too short for the delivery of bicycles. But it also pointed out that the advantage of bicycles-small size-is also a weakness.
The study said: “Cargo electric bikes may not be as efficient as trucks.” Their limited cargo capacity means they can reduce deliveries every time they tour, and they have to reload more frequently. ”
In New York City, an entrepreneur named Gregg Zuman, the founder of the Revolutionary Rickshaw, has been trying to bring electric cargo bikes to the masses for the past 15 years. He is still working hard.
Zuman’s first idea was to create a batch of electric tricycles in 2005. That doesn’t match the taxi hall of the city. In 2007, the Ministry of Motor Vehicles determined that commercial bicycles can only be driven by humans, which means they will not be driven by electric motors. The revolutionary rickshaw was put on hold for more than ten years.
Last year was an opportunity to eliminate the deadlock. New Yorkers, like urban residents around the world, are hooked on electric street scooters and electric assisted shared bicycles.
In December, New York City approved the trial of electric cargo bikes in Manhattan by large logistics companies such as UPS, Amazon and DHL. At the same time, travel service providers such as Bird, Uber and Lime stared at the country’s largest market and persuaded the state legislature to legalize electric scooters and bicycles. In January, Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) dropped his opposition and enacted the bill.
Zuman said: “This makes us succumb.” He pointed out that almost all electric cargo bikes on the market are at least 48 inches wide.
Federal law remains silent on the topic of electric cargo bikes. In cities and states, if there are rules, they are very different.
In October, Chicago became one of the first cities to codify rules. The city’s councillors approved regulations that allow electric trucks to drive on bicycle lanes. They have a maximum speed limit of 15 mph and a width of 4 feet. The driver needs a bicycle pass and the bicycle must be parked in a regular parking space.
In the past 18 months, the e-commerce and logistics giant stated that it has deployed about 200 electric cargo bikes in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and intends to develop the plan significantly. Other logistics companies such as DHL and FedEx Corp. also have e-cargo pilots, but they are not as large as Amazon.
Zuman said, “In the next few years, Amazon will develop rapidly in this market.” “They just rise quickly before everyone.”
Amazon’s business model runs counter to Portland’s B-line. It is not shuttle from supplier to store, but from store to customer. Whole Foods Market Inc., an organic supermarket owned by Amazon, delivers groceries to the Brooklyn neighborhood of Manhattan and Williamsburg.
Moreover, the design of its electric vehicles is also completely different, which indicates how well the industry is operating at this young stage.
Amazon’s vehicles are not tricycles. This is an ordinary electric bicycle. You can pull the trailer, unhook it, and walk into the lobby of the building. (Zuman calls it “the wheelbarrow of the rich”.) Almost all electric cargo bicycles are manufactured in Europe. In some countries, electric bicycles are used as strollers or grocery carriers.
The design is all over the map. Some people make the rider sit upright, while others lean. Some put the cargo box at the back, some put the box at the front. Some are in the open air, while others wrap the driver in a transparent plastic shell to prevent rain.
Jones, the founder of Portland, said that the city of Portland does not need a B-line license and does not need to pay any fees. In addition, Oregon’s law allows bicycles to have powerful power assist features-up to 1,000 watts-so that the bicycle has a speed commensurate with the traffic flow and has the charm of enabling anyone to climb a hill.
He said: “Without these, we would not be able to hire a variety of riders, and there would be no consistent delivery time that we saw.”
Line B also has customers. This is the delivery method of New Seasons Market’s local products, which is a regional chain of 18 organic grocery stores. Carlee Dempsey, Supply Chain Logistics Manager of New Seasons, said that the plan started five years ago, making B-line a logistics intermediary between 120 local grocery suppliers.
New Seasons provides suppliers with an additional benefit: it makes up for 30% of their owed line B fees. This helps them avoid regular grocery distributors with high fees.
One such supplier is Adam Berger, owner of Portland Company Rollenti Pasta. Before starting to use B-line, he needs to ship to New Seasons Markets with his compact Scion xB all day long.
He said: “It was simply cruel.” “The distribution of the last mile is what kills us all, whether it is dry goods, farmers or others.”
Now, he handed the pasta box to the B-line transporter and stepped on it to the warehouse 9 miles away. They are then transported to various stores by conventional trucks.
He said: “I am from Portland, so this is all part of the story. I am a local, I am a craftsman. I produce small batches. I want to make bicycle delivery to work suitable for my job.” “it’s great.”
Delivery robots and electric utility vehicles. Image source: Starship Technologies (delivery robot) / Ayro (multipurpose vehicle)
The picture is next to the personal delivery equipment of Starship Technologies and the Ayro Club Car 411 electric utility vehicle. Starship Technologies (delivery robot) / Ayro (multi-function vehicle)
Several entrepreneurs are pointing the micro-ray to standard delivery tools. Arcimoto Inc., a three-wheel electric vehicle manufacturer in Oregon, is accepting orders for the last mile version of the Deliverator. Another entrant is Ayro Inc., a manufacturer of electric mini-truck in Texas with a maximum speed of 25 mph. Approximately the size of a golf cart, its vehicles mainly shuttle linen and food in calm traffic environments such as resorts and university campuses.
But CEO Rod Keller said that the company is now developing a version that can be driven on the road, with a compartment for storing individual meals. The customer is a restaurant chain such as Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. or Panera Bread Co., and they try to deliver the goods to the customer’s door without having to pay the fees that the food delivery company now charges.
On the other hand are micro robots. San Francisco-based Starship Technologies is rapidly developing its six-wheeled off-road vehicle market, which does not exceed beer coolers. They can travel a 4 mile radius and are suitable for sidewalk travel.
Like Ayro, it started on campus but is expanding. The company said on its website: “Working with stores and restaurants, we make local deliveries faster, smarter and more cost-effective.”
All these vehicles have electric motors, which have the following advantages: clean, quiet and easy to charge. But in the eyes of city planners, the “car” part has begun to blur the boundaries that have long separated cars from bicycles.
“When did you change from a bicycle to a motor vehicle?” asked New York entrepreneur Zuman. “This is one of the blurred boundaries we have to deal with.”
One of the places where American cities might start thinking about how to regulate e-freight is a square mile in Santa Monica, California.
The occasion is the upcoming 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. A regional alliance hopes to reduce exhaust pipe emissions in metropolitan areas by a quarter by then, including a bold goal of converting 60% of medium-sized delivery trucks to electric trucks. In June of this year, Santa Monica won a $350,000 grant to create the country’s first zero-emission delivery zone.
Santa Monica can not only release them, but also keep 10 to 20 curbs, and only they (and other electric vehicles) can park these curbs. They are the first dedicated e-cargo parking spaces in the country. The camera will track how the space is used.
“This is a real exploration. This is a real pilot.” said Francis Stefan, who is in charge of the project as Santa Monica’s chief mobility officer.
The city’s zero-emission zone north of Los Angeles includes the downtown area and the Third Street Promenade, one of the busiest shopping areas in Southern California.
“Choosing the roadside is everything,” said Matt Peterson, chairman of the Transportation Electrification Cooperation Organization that chose Santa Monica. “You have multiple participants in the food space, delivery space, [business-to-business] space.”
The project will not start for another six months, but experts say that conflicts between electric cargo bicycles and other bicycle lanes are inevitable.
Lisa Nisenson, a mobility expert at WGI, a public infrastructure design company, said: “Suddenly, there was a group of people going for a ride, commuters and business people.” “It started to get crowded.”
Freight consultant Starr said that because of its small footprint, electronic cargo ships can be parked on the sidewalk, especially in the “furniture area”, which is occupied by mailboxes, newsstands, lamp posts and trees.
But in that narrow area, electric cargo bikes are driving along the tire tracks of vehicles that abuse privileges: electric scooters are notorious for obstructing the flow of people in many cities.
Ethan Bergson, a spokesperson for the Seattle Department of Transportation, said: “It is a challenge to ensure that people park correctly so as not to create obstacles for people with disabilities on the sidewalk.”
Nissensen said that if small, agile delivery vehicles can catch up with the trend, then cities may need to create one set instead of what she calls “mobile corridors”, that is, two sets for ordinary people and the other for light businesses.
There is also an opportunity in another part of the asphalt landscape that has been abandoned in recent decades: the alleys.
“Starting to think about going back to the future, taking some more commercial activities off the main street and into the interior, where there may be no one other than garbage movers that makes sense?” Nisensen asked.
In fact, the future of micro power delivery may go back to the past. Many of the clumsy, breathing diesel trucks that electric cargo bikes want to replace are owned and operated by UPS, a company founded in 1907.