RIPPL #52: Dropper – Dropping it like it’s hot

This is the third in a series of RIPPL articles supported by Gemeente Groningen. To celebrate the International Cargo Bike Festival, which took place in the city this June, we’re taking a deep-dive and focussing on how cycle-logistics works in this city of bikes.

Groningen-based startup Dropper recently announced a partnership with PostNL (the Dutch post office) to deliver postal packages by bike in Groningen. This development is just the latest chapter in Dropper’s remarkable rise from dynamic startup to fully-fledged, multi-disciplinary cycle logistics business. The move also goes hand in hand with the city of Groningen’s push to achieve emission-free city logistics by 2025, and PostNL’s own goal to deliver emission-free in 25 Dutch cities – also by 2025. Continue reading “RIPPL #52: Dropper – Dropping it like it’s hot”

RIPPL #51: Stadswerkplaats – Groningen’s brilliantly unassuming cargo-trike hire service

This is the second in a series of RIPPL articles supported by Gemeente Groningen. In the run up to the International Cargo Bike Festival, which takes place in the city this coming June, we’re taking a deep-dive and focussing on how cycle-logistics works in this city of bikes.

In Groningen there has been an unfussy, straightforward way to get hold of a cargo trike for the day for over 30 years; long before the buzz phrases ‘mobility-as-a-service’ or ‘sharing economy’ were coined. The trikes, instantly recognisable to any Groninger, are available to hire from volunteer-run Stadswerkplaats which, although it is an unassuming organisation, is something of an institution in this city.

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RIPPL #050: Trouble in paradise: the cargo bike comes to the rescue in Groningen, “The World’s Cycling City”

This is the first in a series of RIPPL articles supported by Gemeente Groningen. In the run up to the International Cargo Bike Festival, which takes place in the city this coming June, we’re taking a deep-dive and focussing on how cycle-logistics works in this city of bikes.

Towards the end of 2018, the Municipality (or Gemeente in Dutch) of Groningen, along with a group of local stakeholders, made an ambitious pledge. They committed to making logistics in the city centre as emission-free as possible by 2025.

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RIPPL #49 Zedify – delivery with a smaller footprint

Zedify is a new, mostly pedal-powered courier company with bases across the UK. Launched on 18th June (a.k.a. Clean Air Day), the organisation has bases in Central London, East London, Brighton, Cambridge, Glasgow and Norwich, with the Cambridge base also acting as HQ. The launch of Zedify as an organisation represents a coming together of pedal-powered couriers already in operation; namely Outspoken Delivery and Recharge Cargo. Each of these have rebranded as franchisees under the Zedify umbrella. Continue reading “RIPPL #49 Zedify – delivery with a smaller footprint”

RIPPL #48: KoMoDo cooperative micro depot opens in Berlin

A new depot for last-mile deliveries has begun operating in central Berlin, where around 800,000 people live within a 5km radius. The pilot project, dubbed ‘KoMoDo’, involves several different logistics operators working under one roof. Each logistics operator has access to a 14m² transshipment container within the facility and overall management is by BEHALA – a neutral provider. Packages are delivered to the hub by conventional trucks, then distributed by bike in busy city centre streets.

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RIPPL #47: The (heavy-duty) Elefant in the room

At the International Cargo Bike Festival in Berlin last month, it was impossible to ignore the Elephant in the room… sorry, aircraft hangar.

German cargo bike manufacturer Radkutsche brought with them a huge, eye-catching pedal-powered trailer they’re calling the Elefant. The trailer has a capacity of up to 500kg and building it has been Radkutsche’s way of exploring the trend towards larger, more heavy-duty designs in cycle logistics.

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RIPPL #46: Bogbi – handmade cargo bikes for peace in Colombia

“To make high quality cool products AND to contribute to a Colombia in peace.”

That’s the vision of Bogbi, a new Bogotá-based Colombian-Norwegian cargo bike manufacturer with a social vision. The initiative is the brainchild of Colombian Eduardo Moreno and Sigurd Kihl, who met in 2016 through their wives. Both are industrial designers and the pair quickly bonded over Bogotá’s terrible traffic; both expressed a desire to transport their children and goods around without cars. Problems for which, it seemed to them, a cargo bike would be the perfect solution.

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RIPPL #45: Sainsbury’s – back in the saddle after 60 years

Sainsbury’s, one of the UK’s largest supermarket chains, has begun a cargo bike pilot scheme. A fleet of five Sainsbury’s-branded e-cargo bikes based at a store in Streatham, South London, will deliver online orders of groceries to customers within a three mile (5km) radius. Continue reading “RIPPL #45: Sainsbury’s – back in the saddle after 60 years”

RIPPL #44: Construction materials, delivered by e-trike

Utrecht-based housing maintenance company Wits, along with several partners, is experimenting with using cargo bikes to deliver consolidated consignments of building materials to sites across the city. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of the ‘Slim Transport de Stad in’ project (Smart Transport in the City) is the unusually high capacity of the e-trike involved. It can carry up to 300kg, making it a viable method of carrying building materials. Continue reading “RIPPL #44: Construction materials, delivered by e-trike”

RIPPL #43: The joke is… there is no joke

Coolblue is a consumer electronics store based in The Netherlands and Belgium, mostly online-based, there are also 9 physical locations. Founded in 1999, the business had a turnover of €1.2 billion in 2017.

Coolblue announced last week that they were going to begin delivering packages by bike. The service, dubbed “CoolblueFietst” (Coolblue Cycles/Bikes) will begin running in Eindhoven and Den Haag (The Hague) before rolling out to all major Dutch and Belgian cities. Continue reading “RIPPL #43: The joke is… there is no joke”