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A greener alternative to deliveries

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In any busy city the world over there are daily frequent deliveries of often small items or goods to shops, offices and work premises, but is this a efficient use of resources by a business. It is also a problem for living breathing cities with traffic congestion and pollution caused by heavy goods vehicles coming in and out of busy area.

But there is an alternative, greener approach to business deliveries – Bicycle Cargo Delivery - and it may yet take hold in some of Europe’s biggest cities if given the chance.

Already popular in Paris, where the system is called La Petite Reine, Bordeaux, Rouen and Geneva, businesses in a local area would contract their deliveries out to a central firm that operates the bikes instead of using their own carriers. A cargo bike used in Paris can carry loads of up to 180kg.

Though it make take some time for local authorities and right thinking businesses in the UK to get their act together, there are moves over the water in Ireland to do something about delivery truck congestion in their capital city of Dublin.

Dublin City Council and Dublin City Centre Business Association have begun efforts to bring bicycle cargo delivery service there with the council now inviting expressions of interest for the bike cargo system from companies willing to run the scheme.

Under council plans, a central depot would be made available for the delivery bikes in Smithfield or the markets area of Dublin city centre with lorries bringing cargo to the depot, instead of entering the central business district. The bicycle cargo delivery company would then be used to distribute the goods to businesses.

Brendan O’Brien, head of technical services at the council’s traffic department, told The Irish Times, that bicycle cargo deliveries provided a long-term solution to reducing congestion in Dublin city centre as well annual costs of tending to street surfaces damaged by heavy goods vehicles.

Dublin City Centre Business Association, which proposed the scheme to Dublin City Council, said it could also help reduce delivery costs for businesses by 15%.

If given the go ahead, the bicycle cargo delivery service could be up and running in 18 months.

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