Cargodale

Taking on COVID19 with a bike

The Covid19 pandemic has meant that many people have to isolate themselves for shorter or longer periods, either because they were exhibiting symptoms or very vulnerable. As ‘stay at home’ instructions were issued it became clear very quickly that a large number of people would become dependent on delivery services – pretty much overnight. One of them was me – a cough early in March and I and my entire household became part of this group for two weeks.

With supermarket deliveries maxed out, I wondered how could I support our local shops and suppliers to meet the needs of people who had to stay at home?

As a transport consultant, I wondered:

‘What if we could help meet those needs with electric cargo bikes rather than relying on petrol and diesel cars and vans?’

Todmorden is a semi rural area in the Calder Valley. Its population is concentrated on the hillsides around the main roads, but there are also hamlets and farmsteads on the surrounding Pennine moorland. 

Would a cargo bike delivery service work in this hilly terrain?

I hired a single Riese and Muller Packster 80 from Manchester Bike Hire to find out – and engaged a pool of cyclist friends to make deliveries.

Our main suppliers are the Todmorden Indoor Market – which has hurriedly gone online so that people can order and pay for vegetables, meat and cheese online – and the Tod Almighty wholefood shop which takes phone orders. On market days we get a list of addresses for deliveries around 12.30. The wholefood shop texts a list around 4pm. We’ve had help with creating optimal routes from Q Routes, and with managing the round from Drivernet. Our rider sets out about 1.30, and on busy days completes about 15 orders for the market and a 3 or 4 for the wholefood shop over the next 3-4 hours.

In our first 10 days, we completed 87 deliveries in 135 miles. Some days were many drops within a small area – one Friday we made 19 deliveries in 17 miles. Another day there were more ‘drops on the tops’ and it took 25 miles to complete 10 drops.

As the service progresses we’re keeping tabs on the data, so eventually we’ll be able to compare it with more urban services – and evaluate the carbon and air quality savings for our valley.

This is conceived as a trial – but with an uncertain future for everyone, I’m looking at ways it could become a permanent part of the transport landscape in Calderdale.