ANALYSIS: The case for cargo bikes get clearer

At the end of March, held in London’s iconic Guildhall, the National Cargo Bike Summit was opened by bicycle industry lifer Phillip Darnton OBE, a trade veteran that has seen trends come and go. From his position leading the Bicycle Association in one form or another over the years there are few better placed to trust when understanding whether something is niche, emerging or mainstream. Speaking to a chamber that was fuller than some events that address all bicycle types, Phillip opened by exclaiming “Welcome to taking cargo bikes mainstream.”

Around 10,000 units that can be defined as cargo bikes sold in the UK in 2022, which is admittedly a small number, but nonetheless it was one of the few segments that retained growth and at the fastest rate of all segments. That, for anyone living in cities, or observing the quiet progress big logis­tics businesses are making to greening up fleets, will be no surprise. As Britain often is on urban trends, we trail mainland Europe’s larger markets, which if you’re opportunistic, means there’s still time to get involved and ride the wave up. After all, explained Phillip, Europe expects to shunt 400,000 cargo bike units this year, something that he said would “save 300,000 tonnes of CO2 versus using vans.”

In Europe there is separate legisla­tion driving the ‘greenification’ of fleet vehicles. A European Cycling Declara­tion sits juxtaposed to a UK Govern­ment that has just slashed two thirds of the active travel budget and essentially kneecapped the newly formed Active Travel England. As we look across the water at a comprehensive plan that is detailed enough to account for cycling in new building regulations, the message from Government to the industry is clear; you’re on your own to make this cycling revolution happen.

That was rather the point of the Landor Links-organised Cargo Bike Summit – a get together of the bright­est minds in the cargo bike industry to address policy makers, planners, police, local authority leaders and anyone else with an interest in the future of logistics and transport.

Out of the summit emerged stun­ning presentations from organisations like Just Economics. Here Director Eva Neitzert was among a handful to ponder the remaining, but diminish­ing, reluctance by some businesses to acknowledge and embrace the cargo bike as a true alternative to van deliv­eries, in particular when booking a courier for deliveries.

JustEconomics’ research, she revealed, had discovered that many van delivery firm’s costs were being absorbed or externalised somewhere “usually by the driver” who may be on a flexi contract. “This explains why gig economy drivers are working long hours and driving fast to compete,” she said. Meanwhile, the same was not generally true for cargo bike logistics businesses that are generally employ­ing their staff. That means a generally high per parcel cost to deliver.

But what is the true cost? That is factoring in the hidden social costs – that’s noise, pollution, infrastructure costs and maintenance, congestion’s approximate £8 billion annual cost to the economy, plus the health and wellbeing of both drivers and the public at large.

Calculating the positive and negative externalities a true cost per mile calcula­tion and thereafter a true fair value cost per delivery was offered up. For the diesel van that figure was put at £6.42, while for the EV van that many are choosing to beat ULEZ and other charges with the cost was £5.68. The electric cargo bike trumped both, coming in at £4.98 as a fair value delivery cost.

To business, rosy and green senti­ment is one thing, bottom line is another. Now here’s the crunch, the cost per mile of a diesel van ran at 68 pence per mile, an eight-fold cost on the cargo bike’s 7.8 pence per mile.

Another to ponder, fully understand and significantly overcome the reluc­tance toward cargo bikes is Oxford’s EAV, which CyclingIndustry.News visited and profiled in 2022. This is the compa­ny now supplying everybody from West­minster Council’s waste collection teams, right through to fleets for Amazon’s decarbonisation efforts. The online retail behemoth is even showing off EAV’s vehicles in its promotional videos, taking the vehicle mainstream in the minds of a fast delivery expectant consumer; and the van just wasn’t meet­ing expectations in urban areas.

Nigel Gordon-Stewart is the Execu­tive Chairman at EAV and he told CI.N: “Traffic is vile and getting worse. The biggest obstacle is a desire in people to really change, it’s cultural, so it’s tough. The people who get it embrace it fully and go on to tout it, while like-for-like thinking – trading a petrol Mercedes for a battery Mercedes – means no change whatsoever.”

Thankfully, despite having that common grumble EAV is busy doing something to drive the change. The Oxford company has just recruited a Production Director to take the company up to 7,000 units per year, which in the context of the numbers found at the start of this article, outlines just how deeply committed this UK manufacturer is.

Nigel adds: “We have revised our production processes to achieve more volume, if needed, including setting bikes up for export. We can go larger again with an OEM partner and some are taking an interest; many companies are looking for opportunities to get involved with these vehicles. Every e-cargo we make replaces a van.”

How does a cargo bike of the size of EAV’s most popular model directly replace a van? Nigel says: “Most vans are only a third loaded, so with our vehicles we are happy with weight carriage and volume capability. This means we can easily help businesses move up to 250kg worth of goods. If you want to move more than a quarter of a tonne, that’s when you find something bigger.”

The concept has had to be proven amongst even the most sceptical and those customers have been found in the construction market. How will you move construction materials? It’s an obvious question, but perhaps often one asked without full thought and too big a dash of sarcasm.

Nigel concludes: “We have not had a customer say it’s not working yet. Whether that’s Ringway moving road­works infrastructure, or DPD’s couri­ers, not a single trial or customer settling in is saying it’s not working. By that we mean they’re saving money, not worrying about parking, or the tickets, they’re getting to loca­tions faster too. We have London Ambulance feedback from a trial that shows they have been able to get to locations quicker than normal ambu­lances. They succeeded every single time. For logistics firms that means more deliveries, but for the health service that’s lives saved, so we want to make those inroads.”