Features

Longer reads and deep dives into the world of cargo bikes and pedal powered logistics, from the International Cargo Bike Festival.

03 AUG 2024

Enter the 3X3 NINE: Heavy Duty for Heavy Hauling

Lindsay Broadwell takes a deep-dive into 3X3’s NINE hub.

“For me, it’s one of the most exciting innovations that I’ve come across in quite a long time.”

11 APR 2024

Where do we go from here? A cargo bike research call to action

Cycling, and particularly cargo cycling, has only recently started to attract much in the way of academic attention. While cycling as a whole is pretty commonly discussed in academic circles, especially around sustainability and getting rid of the dominance of the car in our lives, our towns, and our cities (and rurally too!) – the cargo bicycle specifically is a bit neglected.

22 FEB 2024

Wheels of Resilience: CargoCult’s Unexpected Journey

Yuliya Belinskaya is one of the three founders of CargoCult in Kyiv, Ukraine. Back in 2021, amid the pandemic, she started the cargo bike delivery company alongside co-founders Karina Agakhanova and Oleksii Khvorostenko. But as Yuliya explains, although CargoCult have designed, built and used their own cargo bikes a lot since then, things didn’t quite work out exactly how they had expected.

07 FEB 2024

Cargo bikes: are our imaginations holding us back?

What is cycling? What can you do with a bicycle? Empirically, a huge amount, but depending on who you ask, it often isn’t seen that way.

03 DEC 2023

Gallery: ICBF Parade 2023

On Sunday 26th November 2023, a group of cargo bikers braved the cold, wet weather for a parade through Amsterdam, organised by Bike Sound System and Dr. Beyk. The parade stopped briefly at Dam Square and Museumplein before ending at the International Cargo Bike Festival venue RAI Amsterdam. Here are some of the highlights.

23 NOV 2023

Opinion: Jos Sluijsmans on the ICBF’s partnership with Fully Charged LIVE

“Why are you working with a car show?” It’s a loaded question – one we have been asked a lot by our friends in the cargo bike world since we announced our partnership to ‘co-locate’ the International Cargo Bike Festival alongside Fully Charged LIVE Europe. So, why?

18 MAY 2023

BYCS Perspectives: Editorial – The cargo bike is already serving as a change-maker

ICBF Co-organiser Tom Parr explores the topic of resilience and cargo bikes. The final instalment of the Perspectives: First & Last Mile series of articles – in partnership with BYCS.

20 APR 2023

BYCS Perspectives: Powering New African Mobility, with Valerie Labi

Valerie Labi, CEO of Wahu!, explains how cargo bikes can bridge Ghana’s “connectivity gap”. Part of the Perspectives: First & Last Mile series in partnership with BYCS.

31 JAN 2023

Thinking outside the box

Jurjen Vellinga, Product Development Lead at DOCKR, has seen through several high-impact design projects in his short time at the company. We sat down with him to discuss some of the innovations he’s most proud of, and find out what they mean for DOCKR’s customers and the wider cargo bike industry.

16 DEC 2022

2023 according to DOCKR

Kees Jan Blankestijn, Co-founder and Head of Product and Innovation at DOCKR on the five trends that will shape the future of mobility

22 OCT 2022

We need to talk about diversity in the cargo bike industry

The cargo bike is a machine that can act as a social leveller. But is that enough? MJ Somerville and Tom Parr reflect on diversity in the cargo bike industry and explore what needs to change.

06 OCT 2022

Five questions for… Yuliya Belinskaya of CargoCult Kyiv

One of the co-founders of Kyiv-based CargoCult, Yuliya Belinskaya, tells us about how they launched the first cargo bike business in the Ukrainian capital, the effects of the Russian invasion and their hopes for the future.

01 OCT 2022

Dodging the issue:
the cargo bike’s real impacts

Natalia Barbour reflects on the social and environmental impacts of the cargo bike.

23 JUL 2022

The CooP-Bike: a cargo bike for Africa

CooP-Africa builds and modifies various types of bicycles, serving rural and peri-urban communities in Kenya and Uganda. CooP-Africa’s Luuk Eickmans introduces us to a variety of these life-changing bikes and cargo bikes, and how they are used.

31 MAY 2022

Driving Change

Scale-up New Motion Labs is preparing for the future by making changes at the top. We sat down with Marcel Fowler and Steven Senior to find out more about these changes, what drives them and what this means for the company, their customers, and the wider industry.

29 APR 2022

We need to talk about TCO

As the cargo bike is adopted by more and more organisations across commercial, governmental and voluntary sectors, the demand for a coherent story and vision about the Total Cost of Ownership is becoming increasingly necessary.

24 MAR 2022

Behind the scenes: DOCKR’s expansion into Germany and Belgium

We take a look behind the scenes at DOCKR, focusing on their move into Belgium and Germany through the eyes of Expansion Managers Nina van Spengen and Shahram Razasade.

18 MAR 2022

Anatomy of a cargo bike breakdown

Tom de Wilton of Oxwash on the impact a cargo bike breakdown can have on an organisation, and Marcel Fowler and Lucas Lobmeyer of New Motion Labs on how breakdowns can be prevented.

09 OCT 2021

Cargo bike by subscription – the story of Oslo startup Whee!

Kari Anne Solfjeld Eid is a Norwegian cargo bike lover, bike activist and entrepreneur based in Oslo. She runs design agency Hoi! Oslo and last year launched Whee!, an e-cargo bike subscription service. This year they’ve extended their offerings with a maintenance subscription service and opened Kiosk, a community-owned coffee shop. This – in her own words – is the story of how they did it.

07 FEB 2021

The connected cargo bike

Cycle logistics is a complex business. But as the number of cargo bikes in commercial fleets explodes, how can organisations keep up?

Two companies have decided that close cooperation between them is the key. We sat down with Luuk Nijland of Cargo Cycling and Andrej Sobotkiewicz of Paztir to find out how data can streamline cycle logistics for the benefit of riders, fleet managers and clients alike.

 

12 JAN 2021

Interview with Paztir CEO Andrej Sobotkiewicz

As Andrej Sobotkiewicz, Founder and CEO of Paztir, prepares to steer the business into 2021, he talks about the scale-up’s origin story, the challenges of 2020 and how he sees the future of last-mile logistics.

2020

03 DEC 2020

Cargo Cycling and Swobbee: collaborate to innovate

When two of the most innovative businesses in cycle logistics join forces to collaborate, it draws attention from across the industry. Although Cargo Cycling only launched in April 2020, the brand boasts a fully-formed range of cargo bikes, including models for seemingly every possible use case. Meanwhile, Berlin-based Swobbee are blazing an innovation trail with their smart batteries and charging infrastructure.

Could this be a marriage made in heaven for Fleet Managers?

07 OCT 2020

The Business Case for Cargo Bikes

As traffic volumes increase in our city centres, partly fuelled by deliveries from a COVID boosted e-commerce sector, organisations are looking for a silver bullet for urban logistics. But has it been sitting right here under our noses all this time?