A new vehicle for urban freight? An ex-ante evaluation of electric cargo bikes in courier services

One possible strategy to tackle the negative effects of urban freight is the substitution of cars by electric cargo bikes for inner-city courier shipments. This paper determines whether there is a potential market for electric cargo bikes, how the current market is organized, how electric cargo bikes are perceived by bike and car messengers, and what factors drive their willingness to use them. The authors find that in terms of cost, payload and range, electric cargo bikes lie in between two existing modes (bikes and cars) that have a largely overlapping market. Vehicle choice is commonly made by freelance messengers, as many courier companies don't operate their own fleets. Therefore they can contribute only indirectly to the dissemination of electric cargo bikes by considering them in their operational management. Despite the fact that most messengers have not used an electric cargo bike before, it was generally regarded to be suitable for courier shipments. Using a binary logit model, the authors find that messengers' demographics, their professional practice as well as their attitudes and values have significant impacts on their willingness to use electric cargo bikes. Critical factors for actual implementation appear to be electric range, purchase price and publicly available information.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2014.03.004
• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210539514000091
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/22105395
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Gruber, Johannes
  • Kihm, Alexander
  • Lenz, Barbara
• Publication Date: 2014-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 53-62
• Serial:
  • Research in Transportation Business & Management
  • Volume: 11
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 2210-5395
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22105395

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycles; Courier service; Electric vehicles; Freight transportation; Logits; Urban transportation
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Vehicles and Equipment; I90: Vehicles;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01538400
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 25 2014 9:01AM