Sainsbury’s is trialling the UK’s first electric cargo bike grocery delivery service, starting this week.
The trial is designed to examine the speed and efficiency of a greener grocery delivery method and, if successful, is likely to be rolled out to other urban areas across the UK.
A fleet of five zero-emission bikes will deliver up to 100 online orders a day, setting off from Sainsbury’s Streatham Common store to homes within a three-mile radius of it. The bikes, purpose-built by e-cargobikes.com, can hold 280 litres of product in the front and 130 litres at the back, meaning they have the capacity to transport several customer orders at once. They will also be able to use cycle lanes to avoid traffic and park closer to customers’ homes than may be possible for delivery vans.
Once customers order their groceries online, Sainsbury’s will use routing technology to determine which orders are delivered by a traditional van and which by electric cargo bike.
“We’re delighted to be the first supermarket to trial grocery deliveries by electric cargo bikes,” said Clodagh Moriarty, director of online at Sainsbury’s. “We’re always looking for new ways to make sure we can best serve our customers and this trial will help us explore whether there might be a more flexible way to deliver Sainsbury’s groceries to those who live in busy cities.”
James FitzGerald, MD of e-cargobikes.com, added: “We’re thrilled to be working with Sainsbury’s on this trial. By taking existing e-cargobike technology and putting it to the test in a new market, we’re reimagining grocery deliveries and exploring a more sustainable transport system.”
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