The International Cargo Bike Festival (ICBF) will take place in Amsterdam, 27-29 October 2022.
Attendees of ICBF 2022 will find the festival in a special cargo bike-focused area of the wider World of eMobility 2022 event – a hybrid B2B / B2C trade show that saw its debut in 2021. The cargo bike festival will be a unique and innovation-focused affair, including exhibition space, indoor test track, and cargo bike conference.
Discover more via the official ICBF website, here.
The event will take place at Expo Haarlemmermeer, a multifunctional venue surrounded by nature, in the heart of Randstad. The exclusive location has an industrial look and feel and is just a stone’s throw from Schiphol Airport and Amsterdam. The unexpected peace and tranquillity amidst the hustle and bustle of the Randstad, and the striking architecture of the building, blend in perfectly well with the lush nature surrounding it.
A ‘pandemic bike boom’ has catapulted the German and wider European cargo-bike market towards an estimated growth of 40-50% in 2021
As European cities continue to grow in size and density, road space has become increasingly scarce. In tandem, online shopping has become the new norm, so it is unsurprising that in locations such as the UK, van traffic has seen a 71% increase over the last 20 years; for comparison, car traffic saw a 13% growth in the same period. More vans equate to more congestion, more pollution, and slower delivery times. In Germany, the cargo-bike is powering onto the scene with such ferocity that leading magazine Bike Europe stated that the bikes have quickly “[changed] the look of streets” in many cities.
Six years ago, in 2016, annual German cargo-bike sales stood at 15,000, in 2020 sales reached 100,000; today, the pandemic induced ‘bike boom’ has led to manufacturers estimating they experienced growth of 40-50% in 2021. When discussing modern city planning Walther Ploos van Amstel, a professor of city logistics at Amsterdam University, argues that “trucks… need to become smarter, cleaner, quieter, smaller and safer.” to remain viable – electric cargo-bikes already fulfill all of these criteria.
This spike in interest correlates to businesses begining to identify the range of benefits that electric cargo-bikes may bring to their operations in urban areas. In many cities, trips made by cargo-bikes are often more efficient during both travel and delivery procedure (parking, unloading, etc.). Consequently, policymakers are further accelerating the electric cargo-bike trend on a local and national scale, offering subsidies, trial schemes, and rebates. Cargo-bikes make up a crucial step in the marathon that is transforming European cities into climate-neutral locations.
In order for carrier cycle containers to be integrated into standard logistics processes in a similar way to swap trucks for bodies, the topic of containerization is becoming increasingly important. In the course of the current standardization process of carrier cycle containers, the working group Technology & Standardization of the German Cycle Logistics Association (RLVD) e.V. has drafted a questionnaire for the standardization of a carrier cycle container for multi-track, commercially used carrier cycles.
LEVA-EU supports this initiative because the information is also highly relevant for the ongoing European standardization process. Last year, CEN TC 333 – Cycles has launched the new working group 9 on (e)carrier cycles. LEVA-EU has three experts who are actively contributing to this work. The replies to the questionnaire will be a welcome contribution to the work of WG9 as well.
The result of the survey is intended to clarify whether different people from the carrier cycle sector are rather in favour of or against standardization of carrier cycle containers. If there is a tendency to favour standardization, we would also like to uncover the most accurate requirements for such standardization of carrier cycle containers. The survey will be analyzed within the RLVD as well as in a master’s thesis on the topic “Standardization and regulation needs for the commercial use of multi-track carrier cycle sectors for sustainable urban logistics”.
The questionnaire includes 19 questions to be answered either as multiple-choice questions (with one or more choices), a short text, or using a scale from 0 to 9. The completion time of this survey is approximately 10 to 15 minutes. For the success of the survey, it is helpful if you fill out the questionnaire completely and answer all questions.
Participation in the survey is possible until October 24, 2021. After evaluating the results, we will send them to interested parties who provide their e-mail address at the end of the survey.
Sebastian Bächer & Magdalena Zech on behalf of RLVD
Across Europe’s cities, the demand for delivery services is increasing. But these deliveries affect urban life as they add to traffic congestion, noise and pollution and many cities are now trying out alternative modes of transport that could help. One of these alternatives is the electric cargo bike, as demonstrated in Barcelona through the GrowSmarter project.
In Barcelona, Spain, a project called GrowSmarter was aimed at addressing the spike in small parcel deliveries resulting from an increase in online shopping. The project included a 2 year pilot for the development of a delivery service using electric bikes to businesses and consumers in the old town.
The old town is a densely-populated area with narrow streets, making it hard for delivery vans to access. Due to traffic regulations, it is only allowed to deliver by standard vehicles in the morning and at night. Bikes however aren’t subject to delivery windows. “This combination makes it ideal to do these deliveries with electric bikes,” said Gonzalo Cabezas, project manager at Barcelona City Council.
Delivery
The team worked with a small e-bike delivery company called Vanapedal which provided the service. The city council set up a distribution centre at the edge of the old town which Vanapedal could use free of charge. Vans from different shipping services would deposit packages for last-mile delivery by electric bike or tricycle. In return, Vanapedal had to provide business data to help gauge the project’s success.
Three tricycles out of the initial nine bikes used were equipped with sensors to take measurements too. “We installed some equipment that included environmental sensors and there was a geolocation sensor to know exactly where the tricycles were,” said Cabezas.
The trial was completed last December and was deemed a success. During the two years, 200,000 packages were delivered, and the rate of successful deliveries was 92.7%. Since the service was provided to a pre-defined area, it allowed the delivery people to get to know their main clients and reschedule deliveries at a convenient time.
“The success rate of deliveries by cargobike was higher than the success rate of standard providers. We are quite happy with this solutions and it works financially from a business perspective,” said Cabezas.
