Tern and Dutch-X team up for New York City deliveries

Those in New York City will be seeing even more Tern cargo bikes on city streets after the urban mobility specialists announced a partnership with Dutch-X delivery service to deliver goods to retail customers. The future of clean and green delivery in urban centres will be on display in NYC for all to see and follow suit.

Dutch-X makes more than 3 million deliveries in the city and the company just acquired a fleet of Tern electric cargo bikes to add to their existing fleet of Carla Cargo trailers, which can carry up to 150 kg.

The modular solution with Tern and Carla Cargo enables the bikes to carry plenty of bulky cargo such as the extra-large grocery containers of their main client, Whole Foods—but is still easy to maneuver in inner-city traffic.

“A lot of our customers are asking for logistics solutions that are cleaner, greener, and more sustainable,” said Dutch-X co-founder Marcus Hoed. “For example, about 40% of RFP requirements were related to sustainability. We are really happy to see our customer’s priorities shifting in this direction.”

And New York City is doing its part to facilitate this solution, which gets carbon-spewing delivery vans off the road. Delivery cargo bikes and trailers have received special permission from New York City to park in commercial loading zones. This reduces the number of delivery vans double-parking and clogging the city’s narrow streets.

Like any good sustainable solution for business, the new delivery system also makes financial sense in a myriad of ways, including cargo bicycles ability to park and unload much closer to the delivery address.

There was also a safety motivation in turning to Tern cargo bikes, which utilizes Bosch motors and batteries.

“We worked with the New York City Fire Department and they advised us to choose systems that have undergone UL testing and certification,” said Hoed. UL tests to make sure a battery and system are safe from potential hazards like fire, explosion, and electric shocks.

In addition most of Tern’s GDS and HSD electric cargo bikes adjust in seconds so riders are much more comfortable and productive.

“When you’re operating a fleet, the things that matter are the total cost of ownership and uptime,” stated Hoed. “We’ve worked with lower-cost e-bikes before but after factoring in increased service costs, shorter operational lifetime, and increased downtime, a Tern bike ends up saving us money.”

Hopefully progressive cities will continue to make it easier to switch to more sustainable transportation models, especially with regard to inner-city deliveries where it is faster and easier on a bicycle or e-bike.