What is the actual cost of driving into town, or making a diesel delivery within the new Clean Air Zone? And how does that compare to making the same trip, or the same delivery, by bike?
One of our cargo bike s heading to Sheffield Station
Motoring organisations often quote about 40p / mile as the actual cost of driving, when insurance, depreciation, repairs etc. are considered, whereas most drivers tend to just consider their direct costs, mainly petrol and parking, which might be 14p/ mile for petrol plus a few quid for parking. Even with electric vehicles those fixed costs don't disappear.
But nearly every driver ignores two very important costs: Time and Trouble. Navigating city centre roads, then finding somewhere to park, then thinking about how far you have to travel to your destination if you’re making a delivery are very real costs in Time (and stress). And Time for an employee costs quite a bit.
It’s tempting to park your van or car near where you’re going, and risk the Trouble of a fine, and maybe even put other people in Trouble (and danger) by parking inconsiderately. And when the CAZ arrives, navigating the fees, and routes, will probably be quite a bit of Trouble for someone in your organisation too.
It takes us about 12 minutes each way to ride (and park) our e-cargo bike from our delivery base at Neepsend to our shop at Sheffield Station, about the same time it takes to drive - if you make the journey at 4am on a Tuesday morning, say. And it’s no trouble, because we have no traffic jams to contend with, and no one way systems, on our commute route along the developing traffic free city centre active travel networks. And no parking fees, or potential fines. And no stress.
So, commuting or making a delivery by car or van to the city centre costs at least 40p / mile plus quite a bit of stress and quite a lot of time. Cycling, or e-cycling, as mentioned in an earlier blog, is a few pence a ride, or around £1 a day if you regularly make a return trip to town.
If your business needs items delivering, we can be very competitive on price. A typical single drop into the City Centre may cost £5, multiple drops could be as low as £1.50. When you compare that just to the cost in time for your driver you are saving money. Why not make better use of your vans and drivers on longer distance deliveries instead of wasting their time sat in inner city congestion?
So don’t forget, while cycling into town is a fraction of the cost of driving there, just as importantly it takes almost no time, and if you’re lucky enough to have routes like we have from Neepsend, it’s no trouble at all, thankyou.
Contact us to find out more, or visit our Neepsend shop.