CARGO bikes could be a familiar sight on Reading’s streets from next year, as a company aims to reduce pollution and cut costs.
Pedal and Post currently operates in Oxford, and is eyeing its Thames Valley neighbour for its expansion plans.
It says that if delivery companies switched to using cargo bikes instead of diesel vans for the first and last mile of deliveries, it would save the NHS and other government services more than £4bn by reducing the costs of congestion and air pollution.
And it also says Reading businesses could benefit from quicker deliveries at a lower cost to their profits and the environment.
It has launched a £500,000 crowdfunding campaign on the ethical investment platform Ethex to support its expansion plan.
It comes as research from the Department for Transport has found that a third of all urban deliveries could be done by cargo bikes or ecargo bikes, while a report looking at the impact of van pollution by researchers at Just Economics found that the hidden social and environmental costs associated with diesel vans total £2.46 billion in London alone.
If a third of those costs were saved from switching to zero emissions cargo bikes, the savings in health and environmental would be £4.25 billion across England.
And in Oxford, the equivalent saving for taxpayers would be £14 million.
The costs are derived from savings from reduced congestion, less air pollution, better health outcomes for riders, and fewer accidents and greenhouse gas emissions from switching from diesel vans to cargo bikes.
Chris Benton, the CEO of Pedal and Post, said: “We want to support Reading to join the Cargo bike revolution. The potential to clean up our air and grow the UK economy is huge. Pollution from diesel van deliveries costs the NHS nearly £25,000 across the lifetime of the van, compared to around £150 for an electric cargo bike.
“We also know that cargo bikes can deliver more parcels per hour than the average van, and produce 92% less greenhouse gas emissions per delivery, so it really is a no-brainer to make the switch.”
The company was launched 10 years ago by Christopher Benton and delivers 1,000 parcels a day across the city, employing 23 people. It works with established delivery companies such as DPD, Yodel and Riverford to handle their smaller packages, as well as more traditional Oxford partners such as Blackwell’s bookshops and Wolfson College, part of the University.
It says this saves 100,000 van miles every year as their cargo bike couriers navigate Oxford’s medieval streets.
In the coming five years, the company plans to increase its revenues to £5.5m, create 140 jobs, increase the number of parcels delivered to 8,000 a day and save 400 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Jamie Hartzell, chair of Pedal and Post, said: “The potential market here is huge. We know that internet retail sales grew by 47% in 2020. But while getting goods delivered to your home at a click of a button is easy and time saving at a time when we are all under pressure, it comes at a significant cost to our health and the environment.
“Electric cargo bikes are a crucial part of the solution to speed up deliveries and make our air safer to breathe.”
