London: Co-op is today launching a new online delivery service with e-cargobikes.com, a provider of zero-emission last-mile delivery services for retailers and grocers across the UK. The online service is initially available to shoppers within four-kilometres of the Co-op's store on the Kings Road in Chelsea, before being rolled out to further London stores.
This is the first time the Co-op has offered online delivery via a dedicated website using e-cargobikes. Shoppers will be able to order products via www.shop.coop.co.uk, which will then be delivered to their homes or offices within 2 hours – a task neither diesel or electric vans could complete cost effectively . The fast delivery time is due to the electrically assisted cargo bike's ability to utilise cycle lanes, filter safely through standing traffic, pass between the narrow bollards adorning many of our streets, and park right outside customers' homes and offices to make deliveries.
Chris Conway, Head of Food Digital at the Co-op, said: "This is an exciting time for the Co-op. As the leaders in convenience shopping, we want to look at different ways of bringing our award-winning products closer to shoppers, and this new service with e-cargobikes.com does exactly that."
e-cargobikes.com offer a disruptive, zero-emission last-mile delivery platform for grocers and retailers throughout the UK as an alternative to van-based last-mile delivery. This innovative and visionary urban delivery model has generated great interest from the retail, logistics and cycle sectors and last year they completed a pioneering trial with Sainsbury's. This interest has continued to intensify: e-cargobikes.com was featured in Business Green's Future Jobs Hub as part of Green GB Week, supported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and their ongoing work with the Department for Transport was instrumental in the 2018 call for evidence on sustainable last mile delivery solutions.
James FitzGerald, Managing Director of e-cargobikes.com, said: "We are thrilled that Co-op are demonstrating environmental leadership by launching their online delivery service using e-cargobikes.com. We are reimagining grocery deliveries and exploring a more sustainable transport system - our e-cargobikes are able to deliver the same amount as a diesel-van over a shift but require only 0.5% of the energy."
Efficiency of the bikes
ecargobikes.com have shown that just one single e-cargobike can deliver the same amount as a conventional 3.5 tonne diesel-van can over an eight-hour shift whist requiring only a fraction of the energy; using the well-to-wheel metric (a measure of the total energy required to power a vehicle, including the energy required to produce and distribute the fuels they use), one single e-cargobike requires less than 0.5% of the energy needed to power a 3.5 tonne conventional diesel-fuelled delivery van over an eight-hour delivery shift. An electric van, however, provides just a 30% improvement over the diesel van.
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