Bicycle delivery company now operating in Oxford

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Bicycle delivery startup Pedal & Post is now offering a parcel distribution service in Oxford.

Company founder Christopher Benton told Post&Parcel today that the company’s distribution hub is located on Binsey Lane off the Botley Road and the firm is typically delivering between 60 and 70 parcels a day. So, it is still early days at the moment – but Pedal & Post reports that it already has about eight main commercial clients, including Gatineau, Liscious Interiors and Boswells, and the list is growing.

The company will soon start delivering packages on a trial basis for the Oxford Union, the student debating society of the UK’s most famous university.

Furthermore, with the hub up and running, Benton anticipates that national courier companies may see partnering with Pedal & Post as an opportunity to “green and speed” the last mile of their deliveries into Oxford.

The courier vans could drop off their parcels at the Botley hub, reasoned Benton, and then Pedal & Post could bring the goods into city using pedal power. This delivery model, claimed Benton, would help cut pollution and congestion in the city centre and – as anyone who has had to contend with Oxford city centre traffic will attest – it might even be faster and cheaper too.

As previously reported by Post&Parcel, there are a number of other companies which are running bicycle delivery services in UK towns. To name just three: Velopost hosts bicycle postal delivery networks in Bristol, Bath and Edinburgh; Outspoken has hubs in Cambridge, Glasgow and Norwich; and Green-Link operates in York and Darlington.

Benton said he could see possibilities for bike couriers in different regions to work together so that that parcels could be delivered by bicycle at least over the first and last mile, with the city-to-city link perhaps achieved with electric-powered vans. (This is something that Velopost is already doing: the company uses Nissan Leaf vehicles to ferry mail between its hubs in Bristol and Bath.)

Currently, Pedal & Post offers same day deliveries and, for an additional charge, a 90-minute service. It can also arrange for multi-drops and full load (up to 180kg) deliveries.