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Sainsbury’s is piloting a grocery delivery service by electric cargo bikes, in what it claims is a UK first.
A fleet of five zero emission bikes are delivering up to 100 online orders a day to South London customers from the supermarket chain’s Streatham Common store. If successful, the trial could be rolled out to further areas across the UK.
The retailer is launching the test with e-cargobikes.com. Sainsbury’s said the purpose-built bikes, which have enough capacity to carry several customer orders at a time, will be able to make the most of cycle lanes in order to avoid traffic, especially during peak delivery hours such as midweek mornings – and will be able to park closer to customers’ homes than is often possible for traditional delivery vans.
Once customers have placed their online orders, Sainsbury’s will use routing technology to determine which orders are delivered by van or electric cargo bike. The order will then be delivered during the customer’s chosen time slot by Sainsbury’s branded bikes and riders.
Sainsbury’s director of online Clodagh Moriarty said: “We’re delighted to be the first supermarket to trial grocery deliveries by electric cargo bikes. We’re always looking for new ways to make sure we can best serve our customers and this trial will help us explore whether there might be a more flexible way to deliver Sainsbury’s groceries to those who live in busy cities.”
