Sainsbury’s tests delivery by electric bike

U.K. retailer Sainsbury’s has rolled out an innovative new trial program: the U.K.’s first electric cargo bike grocery delivery service.

The trial began in mid-April, with a fleet of five zero-emission bikes delivering up to 100 orders a day from the chain’s Streatham Common store (in South London) to local customers who shop through the retailer’s website. Sainsbury’s launched the trial in conjunction with e-cargobikes.com, whose bikes have large enough capacity to carry several customer orders at once.

The trial aims to figure out whether delivering groceries by electric cargo bike could be a more efficient way of getting groceries to customers in busy cities. Expected environmental benefits include zero emissions and no noise pollutions, while other potential benefits include the ability of the bikes to avoid heavy traffic by using the cycle lanes, and to park closer to urban customers’ homes than a traditional delivery van could.

If it's successful, the trial could be rolled out to other areas in the U.K.

“We’re delighted to be the first supermarket to trial grocery deliveries by electric cargo bikes,” says Clodagh Moriarty, director of online at Sainsbury’s. “We’re always looking for new ways to make sure we can best serve our customers and this trial will help us explore whether there might be a more flexible way to deliver Sainsbury’s groceries to those who live in busy cities.”