Ocado has started using electric cargo bikes to deliver groceries as it tries to reduce emissions — and increase the profitability — of its service.
The Times can reveal that the company has signed a multi-year contract with e-cargobikes.com to run an undisclosed number of Ocado-branded bicycles across London, with a view to expanding the service to other cities.
It is the first time one of the big online grocers has adopted a permanent fleet of electric cargo bikes, which proponents believe represent the future of “last mile” urban delivery — when a parcel is moved from a transportation hub to its final destination.
James FitzGerald, the co-founder and managing director of e-cargo bikes.com, says vans delivering groceries emit 270 times more emissions than his fleet.
He said: “In order for a three-and-a-half tonne truck to deliver 1,000 kilos of groceries, it burns through about 3,400 megajoules of energy. The electric van isn’t a solution because it burns through 2,600 megajoules of energy. The electric cargo bikes we use will consume just 13 megajoules to deliver that same tonne in the same time frame. It’s ants, not elephants.” He added: “Cargo bikes don’t work in rural Lincolnshire but they certainly do in urban conurbations.”
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The Notting Hill-based company operated a trial for Ocado last year and will now provide a permanent fleet of cyclists and cargo bikes. It would not disclose how many bikes it will run but it employs 60 riders at present and expects to expand its fleet rapidly over the next couple of years.
Each bike has a capacity of about 120 kilos, meaning it can deliver about three average-sized shops in one go. The food is stored in a chilled container and over the course of an eight-hour shift one cyclist can deliver to about 20 to 25 customers.
FitzGerald said: “We collect the orders then go out on a route which might be five to six miles, making anywhere between two and six deliveries and then return to base, reload and repeat. So over an eight-hour shift we’re averaging three deliveries every 45 minutes before we return to base and reload. That’s how we manage to deliver a tonne of groceries in that eight-hour period, which is broadly in line with what a van can do, but we’re doing it using no fuel and far fewer emissions.”
Carbon emissions from transport have barely fallen over the past decade and pose a significant challenge to Britain’s climate-change commitments. Campaigners have called for VAT to be cut on cargo bike deliveries and more powerful e-bikes to be allowed to encourage their adoption.
FitzGerald believes that even if the environmental arguments do not persuade online retailers, the economics ultimately will. He said: “All of the big grocers have been losing money, hand over fist on their online sales channels. They’ve been begging for a solution and now it’s here.”
