Pedal & Posts CEO chats to Ciaran from ITV on the traffic problems facing Oxford
Pedal & Post Features on ITV news
Welcome to the latest addition to the Pedal & Post fleet: The Zoe!
Pedal & Post is expanding with the addition of a Renault Zoe fully electric vehicle. What do you think?
Wait, that’s a car! I thought you only did bikes?
You’re right – we are more commonly recognized as an ultra low emission team of cargo bike riders, with our blue bikes seen all over the city centre. We have now taken action to further reduce transport emissions in Oxfordshire and do our part to reduce the environmental impact of logistics operations regionally
I thought that couriers used vans, not cars?
Well, they don’t have to! Many vans that you see on the road are only half full much of the time, so they are an inefficient and polluting way of moving goods around. We chose a Renault Zoe because on our new route, we can fit the entire delivery into the car. Exactly as we do with our bikes, we want to use the most resource-savvy and energy-efficient tool for the job. That means a small car, not a needlessly large vehicle.
So you are preventing emissions by using this car, then?
Yes! Our first delivery route is between Banbury and the Horton hospital, and up until now it was done by a diesel van. We are really pleased to be able to replace this trip with our sustainable alternative. The Renault Zoe is a far more efficient user of energy than a van is, with an impressive range of up to 150 miles/241 kms on a full battery.
It’s not only carbon emissions that we are reducing. By replacing the diesel van route with an electric car, we are also helping to reduce roadside air pollution, especially nitrogen dioxide.
Once you add in the benefits in terms of road space and road safety, choosing the Renault Zoe over a van was a no-brainer.
I’m convinced. So where next for Pedal & Post’s latest addition to the family?
The Renault Zoe is the first in a potential fleet of EVs as we test out making deliveries around Oxfordshire. We are offering regional deliveries as a new service for our regular customers, to complement our range of cargo bike services within the city of Oxford. It means we can continue to support the management of medical deliveries across Oxfordshire, a service which is vital to our NHS clients.
We are always planning ahead, and our car is compliant with Ultra Low and Zero Emission Zone requirements. This means that we are ready for the ZEZ in Oxford, as well as London and any other cities or towns in which these requirements may be introduced.
Oxford College Partners with Pedal & Post to Tackle Parcel Emissions
Fantastic article in the Oxford Mail around our Pioneering project working with Wolfson college.
Read the article by clicking here
“Wolfson College has launched a trial to switch its parcel deliveries from vans to electric bikes, partnering with local cargo bike delivery firm Pedal & Post.
Cargo bike deliveries will address the challenge posed by the estimated half a million packages a year received by just twenty Oxford Colleges alone.
In a joint effort between councilors, colleges and couriers, Wolfson College is taking a first pioneering step to address transportation-related emissions and the harmful impacts of its deliveries to students and staff.”
Goal of the project is reduce 10-15 delivery van movements into 1 ultra low emission cargo bike delivery by pallet tackling online deliveries and helping them go ultra low emission so you can feel good about ordering online
Pedal & Post is excited to monitor how this project develops and if successful seek to engage with all Oxford colleges to expand the project. The projects first stage sees student participation to change their address to use Pedal & Posts hub when ordering online however this is showing to be a really empowering step for students as they can clearly indicate they want to move to a sustainable transport future and demonstrate to large parcel carriers the need for change.
The second stage and medium to long term plan of this project once the trail and proof of concept is complete will see engagement with large parcel carriers directly so all parcels can go via the Pedal & Post hub (without a need to change the address). With our vast experience over 6 years working in the parcel delivery space gives us a unique opportunity to present ideas to parcel carriers where using our hub can be implemented easily into there existing systems, save them money per parcel and help deliver a greener more sustainable future for Oxford’s online deliveries
Christopher Benton – CEO Pedal & Post
We’re already engaging around stage two and its seeing some really positive feedback from councilors, colleges and the parcel carriers. It highlights that our experience in this sector and ability to see and innovate with a project that could be a win for all stakeholders is why where continuing to be leaders in the cycle logistics and delivery industry and paving the way for decarbonizing deliveries at scale. We’re very excited to monitor this project and see it develop and be a part of our longer term strategies with introductions of new hardware coming soon for palletized and containerized deliveries.
Bookshop uses Pedal & Post’s Ship from Store Service
Bookshop Blackwell’s have been using Pedal & Post’s Ship from Store delivery service. They have been a long term client of ours and we deliver same day book orders across Oxford, we collect from the Broad street store and deliver across the same day. You can book by phone and we deliver Monday to Friday
Blackwell’s and their books by bike service as its been coined has been going since 2018 and will see its 5th anniversary with Pedal & Post in August of this year (2023)
We are honored to be working with Blackwells for such a long time now and successfully delivering to residents across Oxford. It really shows how bookstores have adapted to eCommerce and customer convenience with rapid deliveries and Blackwell’s lead the field with innovating and working with local partners. P&P is enthused to bring our local eco-courier expertise to more local businesses and we hope to continue to expand our ship from store services
Resident of Oxford and want to receive books by bike? Give Blackwell’s a call on 01865 792792 and we’ll see you soon!
Cafe Uses Pedal & Posts Same Day Service
Benugo Cafe provide great coffee & food in some of the most beautiful places. They chose Pedal & Post’s Same day delivery services to move wholesale goods between sites in Oxford 6 days a week Monday to Saturday. A few days after getting in touch we’d begun delivering straight away
Key Takeaways
- Delivering wholesale food items is quick, cost effective and ultra low emission
- Provided regular daily service at a set time convenient to the cafe
- Processed around 40 deliveries to date with our large eTrike fleet and 8F push bikes
CEO Pedal & Post, Christopher Benton:
What sets our services apart is showing what’s possible with cargo bikes and getting to ultra low emission deliveries is doable now. We love being involved with business’s in the city like this and being flexible and finding distribution solutions around Oxford
The biggest challenges to come are expanding this to be regional and intercity to further support clients in the coming years
Are you interested in our Same day delivery services? get in touch and see how we can help
Info@pedalandpost.co.uk
01865 791866
Conservation Trust Uses Pedal & Posts Next Day Service
Freshwater Habitats Trust’s aim is to protect freshwater life for everyone to enjoy. A new project, GroWet, Aimed to help save some of Oxfordshire’s endangered wetland plants and they chose Pedal & Post’s Next day delivery services to get the rare plants to Oxford residents. A few days later and the plants where in our depot and getting to residents, fast and in an ultra low emission way!
Can read more here: Growet Project
Key Takeaways
- Delivering rare delicate plants by cargo bike is certainly possible and achieved first time delivery on 99% of deliveries
- Provided multiple further delivery routes over a number of weeks, inputing into Pedal & Posts logistics if and when needed
- Processed around 100 orders with our large eTrike fleet all over the city
CEO Pedal & Post, Christopher Benton:
What sets our services apart is showing what’s possible with cargo bikes and getting to ultra low emission deliveries is doable now. We love being involved and supporting projects like this and being flexible and finding distribution solutions around Oxford
The biggest challenges to come are expanding this to be regional and intercity to further support clients in the coming years
Are you interested in our Next day delivery services? get in touch and see how we can help
Info@pedalandpost.co.uk
01865 791866
Pedal & Post – Extreme Heat Precautions
The UK has issued a red warning for extreme heat through Monday / Tuesday of this week which is unprecedented and as such they call for us as a business to safeguard and protect our staff, especially as we do a manual / physically demanding job cycling in the city
We’re treating it just like we would any yellow / red storm warning and taking precautions
For clients we have only a slightly reduced service, this will mean any none essential same day deliveries called in this week we will ask to roll to Wednesday and later in the week however for essential deliveries we have overstaffed for priority 1 clients such as medical routes to make sure we have a low work load on our riders, slower speeds and more relaxed days
We have also increased breaks to 1-2 hours and they’ll be paid so couriers are encouraged to avoid the hottest parts of the day and stop off in air conditioned and shaded areas on their routes or return to the depot and head down to Port Meadow to cool off in the river Thames
Further we’ve relaxed all dress codes so couriers can opt for white t shirts and thin shorts / what they are comfortable in
We have also provided soft drinks like lucazade, 1.5L water bottles, hats, sun cream and aftersun for any couriers incase they need it and plan to do regular check ins
We’ll always do everything possible to keep our workplace cool and safe but more importantly listen to riders themselves, who are encouraged to voice any concerns and have given great feedback on further measures, an example is easy access water bottle holders on all our cargo bikes, special measures for time off for heat stroke and more
As always we thank you for your patience and we hope everyone gets to enjoy the sunshine however its worth remembering “Climate change is making all heat events hotter,” “The wind patterns would have happened anyway, but it is happening against the background of hotter conditions because of climate change.”
Pedal & Post exists to address the climate emergency and help cities go ultra low emission as fast possible to help mitigate the effects of climate change and we’ll continue to do as much as we can and show what bikes can do to support the transition to net zero, with a team of 22 staff and 35 cargo bikes we simply cant expand quick enough at present
Pedal & Post – Delivering Food Parcels by bike with Oxford Mutual Aid
Cargo bikes are now delivering food parcels across Oxford. This is part of a new scheme called “Bike Aid” to reduce carbon emissions and speed up deliveries.
Oxford Mutual Aid delivers nearly 500 food and other essential supplies parcels per week. Roughly 25 percent of these are emergency food parcels, requests for which have been growing steadily. Even with two electric vans, Oxford Mutual Aid were struggling to keep pace with demand.
Oxford Mutual Aid is committed to reducing carbon emissions wherever possible, alongside the 5 tonnes of would-be food waste that is saved every week from going to waste.
For 5 days per week, a dedicated Pedal and Post rider on an electric cargo bike now delivers Oxford Mutual Aid food parcels.
The new service was made possible partly by funding from Oxfordshire County Council Alliance members, using their councillor community grant fund, matched by Pedal & Post.
Using the Pedal and Post bike delivery service already saves Oxford Mutual Aid roughly 5 car journeys per day, often delivering over 15 emergency parcels as well as 2-3 food surplus collections/re-distributions. The number of saved journeys will increase as the scheme expands.
Chris Benton, founder of Pedal and Post said “We are delighted to have been able to assist Oxford Mutual Aid in collecting food surplus at various places around Oxford and then distributing parcels by bike. We look forward to expanding on this with further charities in the future as well and being able to match fund this project is a great way for us to be able to start to give back and support our community in Oxford”
As part of our partnership with Pedal and Post, Oxford Mutual Aid has also helped many other food aid organizations and also some of the community food larders in Oxford.
Oxford Mutual Aid do fantastic work to support vulnerable people, if you can, please do donate to them here either as a one off or monthly subscription to support those in need in Oxford: DONATE TODAY
Muireann Meehan Speed, Director of Oxford Mutual Aid said. “We believe sharing resources is important; collaboration is at the heart of what we do and food isn’t then wasted. This is food we have been offered in the past that we really need, but often could not respond to because of the quick turnaround required by the supplier. However with the amazing Pedal & Post team on board, we have yet to miss one surplus offer!”
Cllr Sally Povolotsky said by teaming up with Pedal and Post alongside some councillor priority funding, “ elected members are pleased to have helped fund this scheme to ensure food isn’t wasted and is delivered by bike to families that need emergency food aid”.
Cllr Dan Levy said “this is a fantastic service that I am pleased to support – and on top of that it shows how well goods can be distributed in a town or city by cargo bike rather than by motor vehicle”
Phil the dedicated rider from Pedal and Post said “I have had the privilege of working with Oxford Mutual Aid, it has been such an enriching experience helping provide this vitally important service for all in the community. Phil and the big eTrike of Pedal & Posts he rides has already delivered parcels to 402 adults (aged 13 and above) 138 children (aged between 5 and 12) and 40 babies (aged between 0 and 4) since the service started earlier in January 2022. That is essential crisis support for 211 households.
Pedal & Post – Pedal Power Drives Improved Medical Service And Greener Deliveries
We’re very excited be able to announce our partnership with Baxter Healthcare and OUH Trust and all the hard work we and the epic teams at both have been upto over the past few years from planning to implementing this new courier service in Oxford, you can read more below:
P.S The Toby “Tuck” riding position as he’s renowned for managed to get into the official press release photo and i can’t tell you how happy this made the team.
“A cycle courier service delivering medication to Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is improving patient care and delivering sustainability benefits.
The OUH Trust has teamed up with private healthcare firm Baxter Healthcare, which produces cancer treatments and parenteral nutrition from their Oxford site, to provide a more efficient way of getting key medical products to hospital sites and patients.
The scheme involves products being delivered to wards, day treatment areas, and pharmacies at the John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals in Oxford by cargo bike. Goods will be delivered to the Horton General Hospital in Banbury in the future by e-motorbike.
Patient-specific chemotherapy, antibiotics, and intravenous nutrition products are made at Baxter’s compounding facility in sterile conditions, ready to be used within a short timeframe between the product being ordered and then received by the hospital.
Local Oxford-based company Pedal and Post make the deliveries using cycle couriers to get the products to Trust sites. More than 25,000 products have been delivered since the first delivery was made at the start of August 2020.
By introducing this service, the time it takes for products to leave Baxter’s compounding facility in Cowley to arriving at the hospital site has halved from:
- 30 minutes to 15 minutes for the John Radcliffe Hospital
- 20 minutes to 10 minutes for the Churchill Hospital
Bhulesh Vadher, Chief Pharmacist at the Trust, said: “This is a fantastic example of collaboration and innovation between the Trust, Baxter, and Pedal and Post, helping to deliver a more efficient service and the best possible care for our patients.
“The transport of chemotherapy from Baxter to our hospital sites is no longer dependant on factors outside of the company’s control, such as peak hour traffic, flow of traffic onto the hospital site, and road works.
“That unpredictability was putting pressure on NHS staff to deliver chemotherapy treatments in a timely manner, and it was also impacting our patients’ experience throughout treatment.
“The new bike courier service has taken away all the unnecessary extra pressure on NHS staff and has considerably reduced the delivery time. Using bikes instead of cars or vans is also better for the environment and the Oxfordshire community.”
The eco-friendly improvements deliver an estimated saving of up to 10 tonnes of Carbon emissions (CO2 eq) per year, as well as improving air quality by eliminating the tiny particles of pollution produced from diesel engines, which benefits public health as well as the environment.
Pedal and Post use three cyclists, who have specially constructed cargo bikes and trailers to place the critical medical products in, for deliveries. All medical products are stored in temperature-controlled packaging to ensure product integrity throughout the journey.
Previously, one van carried out several runs between hospital sites. The three cyclists now make five or six runs daily, directly to the hospital.
Professor Meghana Pandit, Chief Medical Officer at the Trust, said: “Being able to halve the time it takes to get medication to the John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals is a very welcome achievement, and we are looking forward to improving delivery times to the Horton General Hospital in the future as we work towards a greener NHS.
“Having a more effective and time efficient delivery system in place helps us support our hardworking staff and deliver the best care possible to our patients.”
Rachel Trace, UK Country Lead at Baxter Healthcare Ltd, said: “We are pleased to have been able to work in partnership to help the Trust on this project, and it is great to see the additional benefits this service has provided.
“Baxter is committed to play a part in helping the NHS meet their carbon emission reduction targets. As well as this new cycle delivery service we have a number of initiatives in place to help deliver sustainable healthcare across our organisation.”
Chris Benton, Managing Director at Pedal & Post, said: “This has been an exciting opportunity to showcase what cargo bikes are capable of and I’m extremely proud of the Team at Pedal & Post with how successful the project has been.
“It demonstrates how moving to emission free courier services can actually improve patient care while also tackling the climate emergency, promoting active travel, improving local air quality, and congestion.
“The reception from patients and the wards to us in our blue cycling jerseys has been really positive, and we’re hoping to expand on this success with the NHS Trust in the future.”
Pedal & Post – Riverford Expands its cargo bike delivery trials in Oxford!
Environmentally conscious shoppers can now have their weekly veg supply delivered to their doorstep by eCargo trikes!
We’ve been partnered with Riverford organic farmers for over a year and a half now (as well as three other veg box schemes which we’ll talk about in another post) with huge props to Jake who explored this idea at the time of how to go emission free, i recall meeting him in peloton coffee shop off cowley road and chatting about possibilities and it seems so long ago after nearly 3000-5000 thousand deliveries later!
We deliver to:
– Headington on thursdays, tackling morrell avenue with a full load of 250kg of veggies is interesting
– East Oxford on fridays, delivering on lots of narrow roads and tackling the cowley and iffley road
– Riverford are now going even further with us and delivering to west Oxford on wednesdays now too! This means we’ll be delivering around 150 boxes a week
The next step we are working on is an intermodal drop off, at present a HGV drops off to a depot in oxfordshire, then a van delivers the boxes over to us at Pedal & Post in Oxford. We are keen to remove that middle van journey as it saves costs and further emissions to go direct from HGV to cargo bikes. This is tricky as our current distribution hub doesn’t have access for big 40ft lorry, so we are putting together a pilot project of remote shipping containers as drop off points and seeing about locations for these with the Oxford City Council to there feasibility. This is the kind of project we love to work on and a bit of a logistical challenge
We got to go spend the day with the Riverford team in Oxford and took the eTrike up alongside as the local paper did some photos and published this awesome article. Its this exact eTrike that makes the deliveries every week to customers
We are also working on a new prototype Trike and Trailer cargo bike to increase our capacity and expand projects like this one with Riverford. Picture a mini HGV and you’ve about got it so watch this space. We’ll be expanding even further in early 2021 which we are very excited about and the more veg boxes on cargo bikes to help move us to a sustainable future for inner city deliveries, the better.