DHL trialling urban cargo delivery concept

DHL Express is currently trialling delivery by ‘cargo bicycle’ in the German city of Frankfurt and in Utrecht in the Netherlands, as reported by German newspaper The Local.
The cargo trailer–pulling bicycles which were first unveiled by the delivery company in April 2015 finally made it to active service this week.
The so-called ‘City Hub’ trailer carries up to four containers – up to 90 packages and 125kg, DHL said at the time, and replaces up to two delivery vans – saving more than 16 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
The city hub is a customised trailer that carries up to four containers for the logistics company’s ‘Cubicycle’ cargo bicycle.
The pilot scheme will see DHL vans transporting the trailers into the city centres where they will be loaded into bicycles for last-mile delivery. After delivery, the trailers can be filled for outbound delivery – with drivers expected to cycle up to 50km per day.
“DHL Express has already replaced up to 60% of inner-city vehicle routes in some European countries with cargo bicycles, and we expect that the City Hub and Cubicycle will both help us to accelerate this approach in other markets over the next three to five years,” said John Pearson, CEO, DHL Express Europe. “Bicycles offer a number of advantages in express delivery operations: they can bypass traffic congestion and make up to two times as many stops per hour than a delivery vehicle.
“The total cost of ownership over their lifetime is less than half of a van. And crucially, they generate zero emissions, which reinforces our own ongoing program to minimize our environmental footprint and supports city governments’ efforts to promote sustainable city living.”