Bicycle couriers in Arnhem: will they deliver your packages?

Are you an Arnhem entrepreneur looking to reduce the carbon footprint of your e‑commerce business? With consumers increasingly prioritising sustainability, offering greener delivery options is not only good for the planet but can also enhance your brand’s appeal. 

Exploring more sustainable transport

Let’s explore some sustainable delivery solutions that can help your business thrive while keeping the environment in mind.

• Electric vehicles (EVs) for local deliveries
  Switching to electric vehicles (EVs) is a practical and eco-friendly solution for local deliveries. EVs emit zero tailpipe emissions, helping to significantly reduce air pollution in urban areas like Arnhem. By investing in an electric van or partnering with a delivery service that uses EVs, your business can offer customers a green delivery option that aligns with your commitment to sustainability.
• Bike couriers: a zero-emission solution
  For deliveries within Arnhem’s city centre, bike couriers offer a zero-emission alternative. These eco-friendly couriers not only help reduce traffic congestion but also support local employment. With the city’s compact size and growing infrastructure for cyclists, bike couriers can deliver goods swiftly and sustainably.
  Did you know? Bike deliveries can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90% compared to small diesel vans, especially in densely populated urban areas.
• Consolidated shipping: fewer trips, less impact
  Encourage your customers to choose consolidated shipping options, where multiple items are delivered together in a single trip. This reduces the number of delivery runs needed, thereby lowering the overall carbon footprint of your operations. Offering discounts or incentives for choosing consolidated shipping can motivate more customers to opt for this greener choice.
• Local pick-up points: reducing last-mile emissions. 
  By setting up local pick-up points or using existing networks, customers can pick up their orders at a convenient location, reducing the number of individual deliveries and thus the associated emissions. This also avoids a package being unnecessarily transported to your customer if they are not home. Promoting this option can also improve the shopping experience by giving your customers more flexibility.

Empowering more sustainable transport: the story of Groene Rijders

A really good example is the logistic service provider Groene Rijders who has been established since 2018 in Arnhem. Groene Rijders offer a promising, but also necessary, form of sustainable and bundled city logistics for the city centre. We´ve interviewed Steven Koster, the founder of Groene Rijders, about their service and how the future can look like for more sustainable delivery systems:

How did Groene Rijders get started, and what inspired its focus on sustainable urban logistics?

Groene Rijders started in 2018 as a spin-off of my other company, PUURland, focussing on the short food chain and distribution of local food. I did this by delivering local groceries to the door by transport bike and got so many questions from other entrepreneurs that I decided to put the transport in its own company enabling me to transport more various products. 

How can local retailers in Arnhem collaborate with you?

We are very local oriented and drive for over 100 smaller or bigger companies in our region. But we also started cooperation with comparable companies throughout the whole of the Netherlands who work with the same planning and fulfilment tools and have comparable conditions. With this we have a country wide network with a local focus!

We offer various services, from E‑fulfilment at our hub (order picking, packing, shipping) and warehousing to receiving and delivery of goods. Being locally oriented, we can combine customers and services more efficiently.

Thanks to our wide range of vehicles, ranging from transport bikes (with trailers) to vans and small trucks. We can offer a wide range of services, from complete (E-)fulfilment to simply delivering goods to the (consumer) door. We deliver parcels, pallets as well as hanging goods.

How do you see the future of urban logistics evolving, and what role will Groene Rijders play in it?

In the end all transport should be zero-emission but also we think that the role of logistics can be different. For example; on a daily basis we deliver a lot of goods to stores of which a part we pick up at the end of the day at the same stores with a wrapping paper around it and an address sticker on it to deliver at a consumer’s house in the evening. Why not keep them at our warehouse, let us wrap it and put the sticker on it? It’s probably cheaper and saves a lot of miles in the city center.

What regulatory challenges might businesses face when transitioning to sustainable delivery, and how can they navigate these effectively?

No entrance for fossil vehicles in the city centre. 

We are more than happy to give personal advice since every case is different but in general you could say they have to ask themselves; will we invest in a new zero-emission vehicle or are we going to outsource this.

What approaches can be used to educate consumers about the benefits of sustainable delivery and gain their support?

Show them also that transport has a price. And if really all costs are counted, sustainable delivery might be cheaper in the end but will probably cost a bit more at this moment in time.

An absolute positive delivery experience for end customers is our personal delivery service.

We should all join this movement!

What opportunities exist for collaboration with other businesses to share resources or infrastructure for sustainable delivery?

We combine goods of various businesses in one delivery; sometimes at the same customer, sometimes in the same street or city. Electrifying your transport is just half a solution, combining is the other half. We know that most transport companies drive into the city centre to deliver just one of a few addresses. By combining various goods from different suppliers in our city hub we can deliver more goods at once (which is also more favourable for the store since they only receive goods once a day). 

Also we can take packaging material back to our warehouse or even unpack at our hub so the packing material does not even have to go into the city centre or store.

Conclusion

Transitioning to more sustainable delivery options is a powerful way to demonstrate your commitment to the environment while meeting the growing demand for eco-conscious shopping. As an Arnhem entrepreneur, you have the opportunity to lead by example, showing that sustainability and business success can go hand in hand.

Ready to make the switch? Start by evaluating your current delivery methods and exploring partnerships with green logistics providers. Together, let’s make Arnhem a model city for sustainable E‑commerce transport which other cities can follow!