DHL wants to make city distribution cleaner with a new transport combination. Yesterday in Utrecht, the carrier launched the Cybicycle, a combination of a smart trailer and a container bike. The bicycle enables DHL to transport larger parcels to inner cities in an environmentally friendly way.
The Cubicycle is a four-wheeled bicycle with a detachable one-cubic-metre container. This fits about 125 kilos of shipments. The containers are pre-loaded at an operational branch of DHL and transported in a trailer to the city centre. From this 'City Hub', they are then placed on the bicycle.
The City Hub was inaugurated yesterday at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht. This will be the trailer's permanent stand, close to the city centre and at the same time easily accessible for the DHL delivery truck. The Jaarbeurs is making the spot available free of charge as part of the company's sustainability ambition.
The trailer and containers have GPS technology that registers movements and sends a signal when they are moved illegally. The same GPS technology provides real-time status information of the parcels and lets the bicycle courier drive via the most efficient route. For the City Hub, DHL uses KPN's LoRa (Long Range Low Power) network. The technology can exchange small amounts of information between objects and systems at ultra-low power consumption. This data is displayed graphically on a map via an online dashboard. Solar panels power the containers.
DHL previously used bicycles to deliver in inner cities. The difference with the Cubicyle is in the size of the parcels. "Compared to the Parcycle (parcel box bike) and certainly compared to the backpack with the regular bike, the Cubicycle's container offers much more space," DHL said in a press release. DHL will use the Cubicycles in several Dutch cities, including Alkmaar, Breda, Houten, Nijmegen, Rotterdam and Utrecht. DHL Cubicycles are also running in Frankfurt and Antwerp.
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