Author: Wanja Knighton / FEED Oxford
Urban last-mile deliveries, which involve transporting goods to the end customer in cities, are undergoing a green revolution. Traditionally plagued by high traffic congestion and significant carbon emissions from diesel lorries and vans, there is now a notable shift towards more sustainable and efficient delivery methods, such as e-cargo bikes.
Cargo bikes have emerged as a popular and eco-friendly alternative for urban deliveries. These pedal-powered vehicles, often augmented with electric assistance, are designed to carry substantial loads, making them particularly effective in navigating crowded city streets where traditional delivery vans often struggle, especially in historic cities like Oxford. Their flexibility allows them to access narrow streets and pedestrian zones off-limits to motor vehicles, broadening delivery areas and enhancing service flexibility.
The efficiency of cargo bikes extends to faster service within dense urban environments, leading to higher customer satisfaction. They offer multiple benefits, including reducing the number of cars (and their emissions and noise) on the road, lowering roads wear and tear, and making cities safer and more livable. Additionally, cargo bikes can operate from smaller, less disruptive warehousing or consolidation centres.
From a cost perspective, cargo bikes eliminate fuel expenses and have lower maintenance costs than traditional vehicles, providing a more cost-effective solution for businesses. However, the primary cost driver remains the human operator, who accounts for over 60% of operational costs. This is a significant challenge across the freight supply chain, particularly for small operators.
A potential solution to this challenge lies in the current revolution of self-driving vehicles. Autonomous delivery vehicles, ranging from small robots to full-sized electric vans, are being developed and tested worldwide. These vehicles offer efficient route planning, minimising unnecessary mileage and fuel consumption.
Self-driving vehicles have the advantage of operating around the clock without the need for breaks, enabling continuous delivery services and improving logistics efficiency. Equipped with advanced sensors and AI, these vehicles promise higher safety standards by reducing human error, ensuring consistent and timely deliveries, and enhancing customer trust. The vast data these vehicles collect allows businesses to optimise delivery routes, schedules, and inventory management, further enhancing efficiency and reducing costs.
Self-driving technology is not limited to cars or sidewalk robots; there is significant potential in combining autonomous, or at least remote-controlled technology, with bikes. This could merge the benefits of both worlds: significantly reducing costs and enabling greater growth in e-cargo bike companies while reducing the number of large vehicles in city centres.
At Oxfordshire, such a solution is being developed. In partnership with local e-cargo bike manufacturer EAV and Oxford Brookes University, the Oxfordshire Living Lab GREEN-LOG partners are creating a Micro-Delivery Hub (MDH). This MDH will be operable remotely and, potentially, autonomously. The MDH will be trialled in various scenarios, from regular delivery bike use to mobile delivery lockers, allowing recipients to pick up parcels from convenient locations at their preferred times. Trials are planned for 2024 and 2025. Advanced modelling from the GREEN-LOG partners will recommend optimal MDH locations and collaboration strategies with other last-mile solutions.
By eliminating the need to cover an hourly salary, the e-cargo bike’s speed can be slower, and additional services can be integrated, such as collecting return items or carrying public defibrillators. Although significant work remains before the MDH can be commercialised, including detailed user interface exploration, this exciting new idea could make last-mile logistics greener and safer while supporting the growth of start-ups worldwide.
Photo 1: “The future of last mile logistics will be a mix of different solution”, AI-generated image by DalE
Photo 2: Oxfordshire Living Lab MicroDelivery Hub, Image copyright: FEED Oxford