What if using a fleet of BIKES was more profitable than a fleet of TRUCKS
Micromobility for last-mile delivery could help accelerate bike infrastructure for all of us.
Hugging trees and saving planets is not typically associated with financial sustainability.
A business that needs to get its products to a customer isn’t worried about climate change. A logistics company paid to deliver products isn’t preoccupied with pollution. These commercial enterprises are focused on maximizing their profitability. One of the biggest fails in “sustainable transportation” marketing is the misguided belief that CEOs and boards of directors are driven by environmental stewardship.
Many U.S. coastal cities have their own climate action plan that includes strategies to increase transportation alternatives to single-occupant driving. Public and private sector transportation professionals will attend conferences and read slide decks to each other about why sea level rise, unpredictable storms, dirty air, and obnoxious noise are reasons to get people out of personal automobiles. Similar presentations are given about limiting the volume of commercial trips, whether it’s to drop off people or packages.
It all sounds nice. But I promise you FedEx, UPS, Amazon, Uber, and Lyft are not making business decisions about the logistics of getting stuff to your door based on carbon footprints or their fleet’s fuel source. They’re trying to maximize revenue and minimize expenses. If the ROI for a fleet of gas guzzling trucks is significantly better than electric vans, the choice of delivery vehicles is easy. Despite the feel good marketing campaigns, logistics companies make decisions based on profitability. When corporate leaders have to report to shareholders, they’re focused on profit and loss over the upcoming weeks and months, not the temperature of the earth 50 years from now.
And yet, history is full of examples of advancements in technology that help private interests (individuals and corporations) increase profits while taking better care of the planet we call home. Commercial last-mile delivery—getting stuff from a distribution hub or a retail store to your door—is going to be one of the latest in the long list of pro-business/pro-environment examples.
Bikes are good for business…even the delivery business.
I’ve been involved in dozens of bicycle infrastructure projects where the design team shares options with the public. In small towns, college campuses, and medium-sized cities, there are always economic fears expressed like this:
“Bike lanes are fine, as long as they don’t slow down delivery trucks.”
“Bike lanes are fine, as long as delivery trucks can park in them.”
“Bike lanes are fine, just not in busy commercial districts.”
Skeptics would have a valid concern if it was true that deliveries couldn’t be made in an area with a robust network of bike-friendly streets. But we know that’s not true. In urban environments, we’ve already watched UPS and Amazon deploy skinny vans instead of oversized trucks. We’ve seen restaurant staff using e-bikes to deliver food. There’s a next step that’s being explored in several European cities and a few American cities.
As little as transportation planners and engineers know about emerging technology like autonomous vehicles or digital curb management, they seem to know even less about emerging first/last-mile delivery technology. I don’t blame them—it’s not like any of us have time to track the evolution of every industry that might impact how people get around.
But if you happen to read any freight, logistics, or transportation technology blogs, you’ll have seen some exciting developments in recent years.
Americans seem to think Europeans are a super virtuous species investing in bike infrastructure because it’s “green.” They’re humans like us. Their “green” is money, just like ours. The difference is they’ve been more aggressive about using pilot projects as an excuse to experiment with micromobility for last-mile delivery.
Companies making deliveries in cities and college campuses of all sizes and on most continents wrestle with similar last-mile challenges:
Traffic sucks and packages are late.
There’s nowhere to park, so trucks block traffic or worse, pull up on bike lanes and sidewalks.
Traditional truck fleets have high operational costs.
Customers expect their deliveries right frickin now. (Not you and me, we wait patiently. But everyone else.)
When delivery companies can reduce some of those problems, they’re more profitable. They have a strong incentive to innovate if it means strengthening and/or growing the business.
Try it, you’ll like it.
Milan is the second most populous city in Italy after Rome. They hosted a pilot project using e-cargo bikes instead of vans, and found the companies reduced delivery times 23% and reduced operating costs 40%. Not bad, huh.
Seattle, Washington ran a similar pilot project, with more attention on operational details. They found delivery vans spent 80% of their time parked at a curb, compared to 60% for bikes. The median time spent parked was 17.6 minutes for vans and 4.3 minutes for bikes.
Do a quick internet search for e-cargo bike delivery pilot projects, and you’ll find all sorts of eye-opening case studies.
Chambers of commerce, downtown associations, business improvement districts—the people involved in these groups don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to urban freight and delivery logistics.
Bikes are good for business. That’s the persuasion angle for businesses.
Sure, a bunch of eco-friendly vehicles will help local governments meet their sustainability goals, but that’s just a marketing benefit for corporations. They need to see the economics case for adding micromobility vehicles to their fleets. Once businesses understand how they benefit financially from various types of e-bikes making deliveries, they’ll probably become your strongest advocates for expanding local bicycle infrastructure.
Infrastructure isn’t cheap. Public agencies are planning, building, and maintaining streets with tight budgets and competing interests. Imagine how local agencies could accelerate their bike-friendly infrastructure if they weren’t the only ones paying for it. Commercial interests, often the enemies of bike projects, would welcome changes if there was a measurable benefit to commercial interests.
The press release below could be us. (For me, Richmond. For you, wherever.)
Let’s call it the Dutch Approach