Parcel service provider DPD Germany has started making deliveries to parts of Leipzig city centre with Rytle MovR cargo bikes, making fulfilment for residents of the relevant areas emissions free.
DPD has stationed three of Rytle’s e-bikes locally, in Leipzig’s Gohlis district. Additionally, the parcel provider has rented a parking area in a centrally located multi-storey car park, which serves as a parking space for the cargo bikes and at the same time acts as a micro-depot.
Parcels for the Gohlis district are delivered to the micro-depot in the morning and then distributed locally in an environmentally friendly manner, as the depot enables particularly short access routes.
Gerd Seber, Group Manager City Logistics & Sustainability at DPD Germany, elaborated on the selection of the Gohlis district for the project’s realization due to its delivery structure. He explained: “In this district we deliver mainly to private consignees. As a result there are many individual stops with small parcels.”
According to DPD, it is precisely in such areas that delivery with electrically assisted bicycles is an ideal option. On the one hand they are approved for cycle paths and can thus be manoeuvred more flexibly through daily rush hour traffic. On the other, thanks to the compact dimensions of the bike, delivery staff can easily find parking spaces in front of the homes of consignees without getting in the way of pedestrians or obstructing traffic.
Overall, DPD is using the Rytle MovR cargo bike for the first time in Leipzig. For the company, it offers decisive advantages for parcel delivery in city centers. For example, the bicycle is designed in such a way that it remains manoeuvrable even when fully loaded. The built-in electric motor assists the rider when pedalling and allows the bike to reach speeds of up to 25 km/h.
At the same time the parcels are stored in interchangeable boxes. These are loaded with parcels at the central micro-depot in the morning. The boxes are then fastened onto the bicycles. Once all the parcels have been delivered the bike can be returned to the micro-depot and the empty box can be replaced with a full one.
This saves time because in contrast to the MovR, DPD claims that many cargo bike models have a permanently installed transport box and the parcels first have to be loaded into this box before each delivery tour. In Leipzig, the deliverer will use the bicycle’s 9 interchangeable boxes available for the three MovRs in operation.
Currently, DPD has already located cargo bikes in a number of German cities. Just recently the company initiated a new project in Constance, in which a so-called swap body serves as a storage location for the cargo bikes and at the same time as a transshipment point for parcels. There are also cargo bike projects such as the micro-depot location in Berlin, which is used jointly with other parcel services, as well as parcel deliveries by e-bike in Heilbronn and Nuremberg.
DPD currently has a total of around 30 cargo bikes and TRIPL scooters located throughout Germany. As part of its group-wide sustainability programme DrivingChange, the company says it has been committed to transporting every parcel for all shippers in a carbon-neutral manner since 2012.
