Package delivery companies sell trucks for bicycles in some Canadian cities. Here because

Purolator and two smaller couriers are part of a similar pilot project called Project Colibri which was launched in Montreal last year. Purolator has since expanded its bike fleet from one to six or seven, and Project Colibri has increased to 5,000 e-bike deliveries per week, almost as many as it made in the last four months of 2019.

They are some of the larger companies that are trying out a technology that smaller companies, like Shift Delivery in Vancouver, have already experienced in Canada. It is a trend that it is already well underway in Europe and has also started in the United States.

The problems that e-bikes solve

Why the switch to e-bike delivery? Because with the growth of online shopping, the impact of truck and van deliveries becomes a bigger problem. Shipping is already on the second source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, after oil and gas, they account for 25 percent.

And it is the largest source in Ontario, where fossil fuel production is not an important part of the economy. There, the freight sector already accounted for 10% of emissions in 2019 and was expected to surpass passenger emissions by 2030. according to the Pembina Institute, a Canadian think tank focused on clean energy.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has companies and obligated buyers online, may have accelerated the operation. Statistics Canada reported in September that e-commerce sales increased 74% over the previous year.

But online deliveries also have other negative impacts, including:

• Traffic jam.
• Air pollution.
• Parking problems.
• Threats to the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.

“We are really addressing all of these issues at once,” said Mickael Brard, project manager at Jalon Montreal, the city-funded non-profit organization behind Project Colibri.

These impacts don’t just affect people living in cities, but delivery companies themselves.

“Parking tickets are a problem for us,” said Jeff Gilbert, senior manager of downtown Toronto operations for FedEx. “And then the greenhouse gases. So we’re really looking for a new and innovative way for last mile delivery.”

More efficient than trucks

“Last mile” refers to the last leg of delivery from a sorting center to the customer’s home or office. That is a logistically demanding step can represent 30 to 60% of the delivery cost.

But electric cargo bikes can overcome some of the challenges that narrow, congested city streets and poor parking spaces pose for trucks.

“The bikes are very agile, very agile and so we can move around the city very quickly,” said Gilbert. “The bike allows us to jump and park right in front of the house.”

This leads to faster deliveries and increased productivity, he added.

Now that the Colibri project has been running for more than a full year in Montreal, Brard said an analysis shows that an e-bike is 30 to 40 percent more efficient than a truck in terms of deliveries per hour.

“It’s one of the rarest areas where we can [be] both more efficient and more sustainable, “he said.” We want to show it to other companies and we want to show it to governments too “.

The staff says it’s even more fun.

Yuri Mitroff, a FedEx courier in Toronto, recalled the first time he took one of the company’s three e-bikes. Danish-made Bullets require the rider to pedal to activate the motor, which helps carry heavy loads uphill.

“It was a really, really great experience,” Mitroff said. “It didn’t feel like a job, which was the most important thing. And I got a lot of exercise and a lot of vitamin D, a lot of sunlight.”

Big expansion plans

Their success so far has prompted FedEx and Project Colibri to plan for expansions.

FedEx has already ordered another 40 e-cargo bikes for spring and is looking to distribute them not just in Toronto but in Montreal, Vancouver and possibly Ottawa, Gilbert said.

The Colibri project, which uses an old bus depot as a loading and distribution center in Montreal, hopes to add two or three more mini-hubs and invite more companies to participate. Brard estimates that five to 10 mini-hubs could cover deliveries for the entire city.

But both projects say they face challenges. For one thing, the pandemic has caused a shortage of bicycles around the world.

“One of the problems for us was actually getting the bikes for expansion,” Gilbert said.

Sam Starr, a Vancouver-based bicycle logistics consultant, said most electric cargo bikes are made in Europe.

“They are expensive not only to import, but also to repair and maintain right now,” he said.

He suggested a number of ways governments could encourage the use of electric cargo bikes:

• Discounts to offset the costs of electric cargo bikes for businesses. (Some were recently launched in BC)
• Incentives to encourage the production of electric cargo bikes in Canada.
• Regulation to allow its use; for example, the speed and weight limits for electric cargo bikes vary by province and can be an obstacle.
• Regulations such as congestion charges and low-emission zones that prioritize transit, on foot and by bicycle, such as mobility prices proposed in Vancouver.
• Infrastructure such as cycle paths and pavement loading areas.

Hubs, such as the one used in the Colibri Project, are also “critical” infrastructure, Starr said, and require partnerships between governments and businesses.

“It can’t be done by private industry alone,” he said. “It really needs public cooperation.”