Amazon turns to electric cargo bikes for city delivery
Amazon has today announced that it will increasingly turn to electric cargo bikes for inner city deliveries, in tandem announcing the launch of its first UK micromobility hub, said to be the first of many.
Built by Oxfordshire electric cargo bike specialist EAV, profiled in CyclingIndustry.News current magazine, the shift to more agile inner city vehicles comes as part of the retail giant’s ‘Shipment Zero mission’ – a bid to deliver 50% of Amazon shipments with net-zero carbon by 2030. Further to that, by 2040 there exists a goal for the world’s largest eTailer to have a ‘net-zero’ impact, suggesting that the eCargo bike fleet may only expand from here.
The first of Amazon’s micromobility stations comes in partnership with the London borough of Hackney and it is hoped over a million deliveries annually can be made using micromobility forms. Combined with the fleet of electric vans five million deliveries a year will cover 10% of London’s Ultra Low Emissions zone.
Trudy Harrison, Transport Minister, said: “Industry and Government are both working hard to achieve our net zero goals and support the growth of sustainable transport that will help create economic opportunities and support thousands of jobs across the UK. Amazon’s plans will not only boost green job opportunities, but ensure that customers will continue to receive their packages while working to protect our planet from climate change.”
Directly replacing van based trips, the electric cargo bike fleets will contribute to congestion reduction. At present the firm has 1,000 electric delivery vans on UK roads, which deliver over 45 million packages. Having become members of cycling industry trade organisations, Amazon’s logistics divisions will be well aware of studies that have proven electric cargo bikes to be more efficient, cleaner and more cost efficient for inner city logistics.
The retail giant is in good company already, with the likes of Yodel, DHL, Asda and many more already utilising the electric cargo bike for deliveries. Yodel recently admitted that bikes will become ‘core’ to its delivery services. So important to business will the cargo bike become, analysts are already forecasting the take of of supply of such bikes to be as high as 43% of all production.
“Our new e-cargo bikes, walkers and growing electric vehicle delivery fleet will help us make more zero emission customer deliveries than ever before across London and the UK,” said John Boumphrey, UK Country Manager, Amazon.
Lead pic: @Amazon
