Can Electric Cargo Bikes Replace Vans for Businesses in the UK?

Henry talks further about the rise of eCargo bikes in the past year, and the reasons as to why all manners of businesses should look to transport their goods via this new form of transport in our inner-cities.

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00:00 Introduction
00:58 Speed
01:40 Personalised delivery platforms
03:15 Cycling Infrastructure
04:05 Environment
06:13 Cost
06:58 Workforce
07:48 What are the cons?
08:50 Outro

#ElectricCargoBikes #GreenerTransport #Sustainability

hello everyone henry here from fully charged and today we’re going to be talking about these guys electric cargo bikes and whether or not they can be a replacement for vans for loads of different businesses to be transporting their goods in and around city centres here in the uk there are loads of different businesses now that are coming on to this newer form of transport um why it’s greener it’s cheaper but actually probably most importantly for businesses they get their jobs done quicker you know right from sort of big fmcg companies i don’t know facilities management groups logistics heads right down to sort of smaller smes sole traders um businesses within the hospitality industry as well so that is why we think that these things are going to be kicking off you’re going to be seeing a lot of them we hope in the next couple of years and actually a little stat for you in 2020 alone there were 2 000 commercial e-bikes that were sold that’s a little stat from bicycle association so we really do think that they’re going to be kicking off and we want to go over the reasons why they actually are better for businesses to be transporting their goods now the first subject is down to speed pretty obviously you want to make sure if you’re a business head that you’re getting your goods to your customers asap rocky especially when there’s the likes of amazon just bearing down your neck the whole time um now actually a recent stat showed that electric cargo bikes are actually quicker by up to 60 percent than that of a van in city centres and actually they have a far higher drop off speed uh and that’s actually enabling on average 10 parcels an hour to be getting to customers as opposed to six that you’d find on a van so if you want to be getting your goods quicker you want to be getting them faster to your customers then e-cargos in city centres seem like they’re the way now if we actually look at electric bikes as a whole before going into cargo bikes one thing that we couldn’t actually stop sort of seeing i suppose when doing our research is about the advent of all of these personalized delivery services that you just can’t help but see everywhere at the moment the likes of zap um gorillas wheezy dj i think there’s one more yeah get here um you know they’re all actually probably in a war with each other a moment to try and see which one’s going to buy out the other and actually i’m the target victim because i’ve pretty much got all of them on my phone because i love food but one thing that is obviously inherent with all of those businesses is that their business model is all about getting their products as fast as possible to you inside of ten minutes i think gorilla’s strap line is faster than you and that actually just shows what electric bikes are doing as a whole okay in order to get people their products quicker and faster so it’s really just skimming the surface now a recent study from europe estimates that up to 51 of all freighted goods could be replaced by e-cargo bikes in the future so it’s actually not that much of a uh dystopian image i suppose for the likes of the big corporations the likes of amazon the likes of dhl these huge logistics businesses that are currently using big depots outside of the outskirts of cities like london to actually start utilizing the smaller distribution centers that you’re seeing from the likes of these personalized uh delivery platforms to actually facilitate getting stuff to people quicker and doing it in a far more environmentally friendly way now on top of that cycling infrastructure here in our city centres is rapidly changing you don’t need to be a fool to realize that big sways of our roads around london are being pedestrianized okay and there’s only going to be limited buses available and obviously more space for cyclists to go in and out of them i think last time i was looking this up there was london bridge to shoreditch which started to be pedestrianized um i think it was old street to hoben and there’s also waterloo to houston now for all of us who ride bikes here in london be it a normal bike or be an electric bike we all know systematically that it is the fastest way to get from point a to point b without a shadow of a doubt and that is why it’s so great to see companies like ecofleet today who’ve let us borrow their bike that they are the types of businesses that are taking advantage of all of the stuff that i’ve just been through there to get products to their customers quicker now the second point we’d like to raise is about the environment now of course we understand that the ev space and the ev industry as a whole is not blameless and that’s mainly down to the mining of the batteries used to actually end up making the electric bikes but this completely pales in comparison to the effects that fossil fuels have on the planet now the factors are pretty clear and a recent study made by our friends at pedal me which you can see in the comments below stated that an electric cargo bike can save up to four tons of co2 over 100 day period on top of that cargo bikes cut carbon emissions by up to 90 percent compared to diesel vans and actually up to a third compared to electric vans and actually significantly reduced the amount of air pollution that we see is ridiculously high at the moment loads of urbanized areas in london as well so all together an incredibly positive thing for our planet and for our cities now let’s say that as little as 10 of all kilometers driven in london were made by electric cargo bikes each year then that could save up to 130 000 tons of carbon dioxide that is being emitted each year in this city alone now all of those numbers might be quite hard to wrap your head around which is completely fair enough but if we put it into perspective then actually the introduction of a hundred thousand cargo bikes in europe from 2018 to 2020 has saved the exact amount of co2 then actually getting 24 000 people from london to new york and back so it just shows just how much you can do environmentally by hopping onto an electric cargo bike now a load of different businesses use carbon offsetting as a solution to help dramatically reduce their effect on the environment but as we all know carbon offsetting is not the long-term solution it’s a short-term solution but it isn’t actually a permanent fix so actually if you can change your logistics to help dramatically reduce the amount of co2 you are emitting as per the stats that i’ve just said then you’re actually going to end up finally sorting out the problem cost now the costs are pretty self-explanatory the congestion charge is rising the eu less that’s the ultra low emission zone is expanding now going to the north circular and to the south circular and all the little bits and bobs that make white van man or men with venn hold tight super hands from peep show um makes their lives just a lot more of a pain parking costs fines because of parking costs because you went on a double yellow um insurance petrol on a weekly basis all of that stuff is removed with a cargo bike on top of that there’s loads of different either local or government-backed grants and schemes that you can get out there to make sure that your purchase of an electric bike can be as accessible as possible for your business now lastly and actually most importantly is to have a healthier and happier workforce now you hear all kinds of horror stories that are out there at the moment uh in the press about uh drivers that are part of zero hours contracts that have to be in the van for 12 hours they can’t go outside to take a pee or to have something to eat for fear of them not being able to drop off uh their parcels in time for the day to make their money and actually with a cargo bike that isn’t needed okay in the city centers you will be doing your deliveries a lot quicker and actually it’s a far less anxiety induced procedure than actually being in a van okay you’ve sort of got white cabin fever okay all locked up in a van where it’s actually on a cargo bike you’re taking in the city sites and you get into places a to b a lot quicker okay so that is something that you need to bear in mind when looking after your workforce now before you think i’m actually brainwashing you here in the electric cargo boats by the way why aren’t certain people hopping on board it and there’s probably a few things um number one uh road conditions uh they are obviously always improving and there’s more infrastructure going in there to make them better but potholes and stuff like that are a bit of an issue the weather okay now obviously we’re in great britain as we all know the country that we love pisses it down a lot okay but there is no such thing as uh bad weather there’s just bad preparation that’s what we like to say at fully charged and uh i suppose the other thing as well is some businesses just can’t facilitate cargo bikes you know if you’re a cement mixer i don’t think you’re gonna be getting cement into a cargo bike that’s fair enough uh and lastly just the cost okay um now if you want to get a proper cargo bike they are considered investments okay and you do need to look into that but there are loads of different initiatives out there be them grants on a more localized level from local authorities and councils right up to big government-backed schemes namely from the energy-saving trust that can actually help facilitate you and your workforce to get a cargo bike more accessibly now that is about it from us here today but the big question as we had at the start can electric cargo bikes replace vans in the city centres and obviously they can but it does ultimately depend on what type of business you have now we’d love to hear your thoughts and comments about this please do put it in the comments please do like subscribe do all of that jazz it really does help us out here and we hope to see you guys very soon bye