Using bicycles for deliveries in downtown

It would wonderfully ironic if delivery companies stopped using bike facilities to park trucks in and started using them to bike in. And that may be the wave of the future. 

[DDOT's Jim Sebastian] said one of the “next steps” being contemplated by the Capital Bikeshare program is to offer cargo-carrying capable bikes within its network. Thus a local business could conceivably shift short-distance small parcel shipments over to bicycles.

After conducting several pilot projects in various European countries, DHL began testing in Germany last year the use of bicycles for the express delivery of documents and smaller parcel items. In Berlin and Frankfurt, the company deployed two different bicycle models.

The first is dubbed the "DHL Parcycle," which has a sealable transport box with a holding capacity of 140 liters (what’s that in pounds? I just don’t know).

The second model is what’s described as a “more maneuverable” DHL Touring Bike, primarily suited for use with a courier backpack. DHL added that its “bike delivery” tests will soon be expanded to two other major cities in northern and southern Germany.

"Using bicycles to make deliveries has made us significantly more flexible and faster in downtown areas and conurbations," noted Tobias Wider, member of the DHL Express Germany’s divisional board, in a statement. "Unlike delivery vehicle drivers, bicycle couriers can always drive right up to the recipient's door, are not affected by downtown traffic volumes or access restrictions and at times can even use shorter routes."

To date, DHL Express is using bicycle couriers in nine European countries so far – including the Netherlands, France, Great Britain and Italy – in about 40 cities total. 

What would be great is if we could take some of the bike lane parking ticket money and use it to encourage DHL to make DC the first North American city with DHL bicycle couriers. 

Comments

[Kolo Jezdec]

FYI - Liters are a unit of volume. 140 Liters is around 5 cubic feet. That is about 1/3 the trunk space of a Toyota Corolla. Fill that thing with gravel and it would hold perhaps 525 pounds

I guess the weight limit would vary depending on the human providing the power?

[Jack]

Why do I feel like people would park these in the bike lanes too?

[Smedley Burkhart]

For you youngsters, the classic messenger bag, beloved of hipsters, was designed to schlep multiple 1000' reels of 35 mm film. I know this from one miserable and continuously intoxicated winter between schools. That DHL thing could transport a fashion model.

[washcycle]

I know what liters are. That was quoted from the linked article in which I think the author was trying to be funny.

[washcycle]

Thinking about this more, FedEx is actually well position to use bikes. They have a facility that backs up to the Met Branch Trail, right at the nexus where the NY Ave Trail is going to connect to it. The R/Q Street bike lanes connect right to it for and east-west connection and being so close to downtown, even if they limited themselves to places within 1-2 miles, that still a lot of space.

[DaveS]

Reducing or eliminating trucks from last-mile deliveries in the core city is one of the recommendations in the WeMoveDC long range plan.

Increasing the viability of commercial bicycle traffic is one of the driving factors behind the lane-mile number in that plan.

I'm increasingly skeptical that DC needs a DOT director who feels that lane-mile goals are "naive".

[Kolo Jezdec]

I was not intimating that people did not know what liters are.

[Crickey7]

I wonder why electric assist bike and trikes haven't caught on in the delivery business.

[Smedley Burkhart]

C7,

Electric assist bikes are all but universal in the food delivery business in NYC, but maybe that's not what you meant.

[Crickey7]

It is, but I was more talking about document delivery. I hadn't seen them so much here. It seems to me that it makes a lot of sense once you start hitting the 40-50 pound mark for vehicle and cargo.