E-cargo bike goes into action with Mail Service
The University Mail Service team are now using an electric cargo bike for many of their deliveries around Oxford.
This reduces their environmental impact and lets them work more efficiently to provide customers with a better service.
The team, part of Facilities Management within Estates Services, acquired the bike earlier this year after a successful trial in late 2023. This has now allowed them to retire one of their electric vans, significantly reducing carbon emissions.
The bike makes getting up hills easier and enables speedier progress even while heavily laden, carrying up to 150kg at a time. This increased capacity gives the team more flexibility, as it means the day’s deliveries often take fewer trips to complete, and it enables those with no driving licence to carry heavier items that would previously have meant using the van. It is covered, providing staff with far more protection from the elements than traditional delivery bikes while also giving them a healthier and more pleasant way to move around town versus sitting at the wheel of a van, particularly in summer.
The reduction in the team’s carbon emissions will support delivery of the University’s environmental sustainability strategy, which targets net zero carbon and a positive impact on biodiversity by 2035.
The cargo bike is smaller, more agile and easier to park than a van, so it can take different routes around Oxford, passing through gaps too narrow for a motor vehicle and helping the team get deliveries where they are needed on time, in spite of bad traffic or new restrictions on driving in the city centre. It will help them keep working effectively no matter how traffic management in Oxford changes over the coming years.
There are also financial benefits, since the e-bike is expected to be much cheaper to maintain and run than a van. It is a slightly improved version compared to the one trialled last year, with several issues and suggestions raised by the team now incorporated into the design.
The Mail Service team provide a one-stop shop for all the University’s postal needs. This includes daily collection and deliveries across University-wide buildings, departments, and colleges – including hospitals. They can typically offer significant savings to parts of the University that still operate their own franking machines. The team also offer a flexible on-demand internal courier service as well distributing external post and arranging courier shipments using companies such as DHL and Royal Mail at discounted business rates.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of the service, please contact mail.services@admin.ox.ac.uk.
