London businesses turn to two wheels to beat traffic and save planet | AFP

As businesses look for ways to both beat the traffic and cut their carbon emissions, cargo bikes are an increasingly common sight on the streets of London. While the UK has lagged behind some other European nations in adopting the vehicle, sales of E-cargo bikes are going from strength to strength in the UK market. “We can get through the traffic faster, we can get across town quicker”, says Joe Sharpe, co-founder of green logistics company Zhero.

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Another day in London,  another day stuck in traffic.  The UK capital is among the  world’s most congested cities. And this frustration is encouraging a growing   number of businesses to move from vans to electric cargo bikes.  Joe Sharpe is the co-founder of one  such company, working in logistics.

We can get through the traffic faster, we  can get across town quicker. Ultimately,   it’s cheaper for the folks who pay to  use our services. We might be doing   sort of 30-40 deliveries a day  on a cargo bike. A van, 8 to 10.

Zhero’s carbon-free model has helped it carve  out a particular niche transporting artworks. There was a movement inside the fine  art world to be more transparent about   the environmental impact of making art,  showing art, exhibiting art. And we as a   company slotted quite nicely into  that fine art world at that time.

The environmental benefits are an aspect the local government wants to encourage. Transport for London estimates a move towards cargo bikes could save up to 30,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year. Individual traders are also making the change. Plumber Ben Hume-Wright switched his Ford pick-up  

Truck for an e-cargo bike in  2021, and hasn’t looked back. He still owns the old vehicle, but  it’s taken on a different function. Several times a day, I come back to  the van, which has become a glorified  

Shed, in order to load up with any other  bits I need for my six or seven jobs of   the day. I’ve just found that doing  jobs by bike has been so much faster. For bigger installations, Ben gets suppliers  to deliver bulky items directly to the client.

But most of the time, he gets by with  just the tools he can load onto his bike. And he’s found improvements  in his mental health too. I find that being stuck in traffic like this  can be, it can make me feel quite pressured.  

If I need to get into certain amount of jobs in  a day, if I’m running late for an appointment,   I know on my E-bike exactly when I’m going  to arrive to the nearest minute or two. Located in a warren of railway  arches near London Bridge station,  

Fully Charged is one of  the UK’s leading retailers.  CEO Ben Jaconelli says growth  in the UK has been astronomical. Every day in the paper, there’s another thing  you know, London’s traffic has grown to a halt,   you know, fuel prices have gone through  the roof, ULEZ, pollution, this, that,  

It’s just everything. It’s like a pyramid that  has basically built the market for E-bikes. Despite the growth, the UK still lags behind some  other European nations in cargo bike adoption.  Germany is the continent’s largest market, with  Denmark and the Netherlands not far behind.

But with a 30% increase in UK E-cargo  bike sales in the year to May 2023,   it’s clear that the market is  continuing to shift through the gears.