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E-cargo bikes for courier biz in some big Canadian cities


shootingstar

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Downtown Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.  I didn't know this. I guess I'll look out for this in Vancouver.  Parcel delivery companies are trading trucks for bikes in some Canadian cities. Here's why | CBC News

No, they haven't hit our prairie city...we get enough snow and very cold winter days. But our snow is drier and melts off faster because of our drier air.  Downtown is alot better in terms of regular snowclearing...so with e-cargo and studded tires, one would plough through ..with now streets not as busy.  

Any at your end?

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5 minutes ago, Zephyr said:

I have never lived anywhere big enough to warrant bike couriers.  I will look for them on my next trip to the LMD

What I notice every time I am on a back roads ride is that I am GUARANTEED to see multiple UPS, FedEx, USPS, and now Amazon delivery trucks.  Usually multiples of each.  Ebikes will never replace them out in BFE where I am riding, but I could see drones making an impact (decades from now?) or autonomous vehicles of some sort.

In the city - which is very flat for the most part - delivery by bike courier has slowly dwindled as electronic docs and improved FedEx capability has taken over in the past 10+ years.  However, seems scooter and bike delivery of subs, pizzas, or other food has remained steady or even increased.  Ebikes make perfect sense for them.

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5 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

What I notice every time I am on a back roads ride is that I am GUARANTEED to see multiple UPS, FedEx, USPS, and now Amazon delivery trucks.  Usually multiples of each.  Ebikes will never replace them out in BFE where I am riding, but I could see drones making an impact (decades from now?) or autonomous vehicles of some sort.

In the city - which is very flat for the most part - delivery by bike courier has slowly dwindled as electronic docs and improved FedEx capability has taken over in the past 10+ years.  However, seems scooter and bike delivery of subs, pizzas, or other food has remained steady or even increased.  Ebikes make perfect sense for them.

I don't do much road riding out in the suburban main drags....that's the point of being on an extensive park pathway system running north-south-east-west for me.  So I wasn't aware of this phenomena of so many courier delivery trucks (but I do see CAnada Post little trucks/vans often enough still) on city back roads.  I agree -- suburban big city edges are too sprawly for higher volumes of e-bike courier delivery. 

Ebikes to me with 3 wheel balance, seem safer for the cyclist delivering food and smaller pkgs. ie. from clothing stores and accessory shops in the big city downtown areas. Besides, I never thought having all that weight on your back as part of your multi-hr. job while on bike, was ever a good thing.

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17 hours ago, shootingstar said:

I don't do much road riding out in the suburban main drags

I was writing more about the rural areas near me, not the suburbs.  My point being, even in the land of 100s of acres farms, I STILL see multitudes of delivery vehicles regularly.  It may not be the same as what someone like @sheep_herder sees (is it busy way way out?), but I'm guessing making that portion of the business - remote home & businesses on dirt & gravel roads - is likely a place where delivery trucks can greatly benefit from improvements.

From a business standpoint, urban delivery, with the massive density of a city, is probably a huge profit center, so the ebikes would be gravy while allowing some offset of emissions as one of the biggest gains.  Figuring out rural deliveries is where I think they likely need the biggest logistical changes to reap big cost saving efficiencies.

In suburbia, ebikes are a non-starter.

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14 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

I was writing more about the rural areas near me, not the suburbs.  My point being, even in the land of 100s of acres farms, I STILL see multitudes of delivery vehicles regularly.  It may not be the same as what someone like @sheep_herder sees (is it busy way way out?), but I'm guessing making that portion of the business - remote home & businesses on dirt & gravel roads - is likely a place where delivery trucks can greatly benefit from improvements.

From a business standpoint, urban delivery, with the massive density of a city, is probably a huge profit center, so the ebikes would be gravy while allowing some offset of emissions as one of the biggest gains.  Figuring out rural deliveries is where I think they likely need the biggest logistical changes to reap big cost saving efficiencies.

In suburbia, ebikes are a non-starter.

I guess I don't cycle in true country areas on my own yet. I would have to plot carefully and not end up on a forbidden expressway.  I've lived in cities big enough, that I can /have stitched together bike routes for a 100 km. ride in 1 day.  It's all done in Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto.

Cargo e-bikes might be the last good resort for a parent who needs an extra lift with 2 very young children as weight, in the suburbs. In fact, it would be perfect.

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