Outspoken Delivery is presenting a workshop on Setting Up and Running a Cycle Based Delivery Business.

In November 2011, ecf.com  told the story of Outspoken Delivery, the innovative Cambridge-based cycle courier company, which uses cargo bicycles to deliver goods. Two years later, with the company healthy and active in a number of diversified pedal-powered delivering services, the guys at Outspoken have decided to share their knowledge of the market with entrepreneurs interested in setting up similar operations in their own towns and cities.

Outspoken Delivery will be present at “Ecologistiek - Platform for Sustainable Innovation in Transport and Logistics”, the Rotterdam trade show for green logistics. On Tuesday October 8^th and Gary Armstrong, Business Development Manager, will present a workshop titled “Setting Up and Running a Cycle Based Delivery Business”.

Best part of the story? The workshop is free of charge.

As cyclists, we are accustomed to people standing up for each other - from teaching how to fix a bike in those free do-it-yourself bike repair places, to offering a word of comfort in the exertion of a tremendous hill, cycling is all about sharing. Yet, this overturning of Adam Smith’s economic theories sounds almost unheard of.

 “Being a member of the EU funded CycleLogistics Project, Outspoken Delivery won’t be charging participants for the seminar” – says Armstrong. “And apart from that, our vision is to have less polluted, less congested and more liveable cities, on a global level. We share the same planet, after all – so anyone with similar views and entrepreneurial spirit is more than welcome”.

The European Cyclists’ Federation are too part of this € 1m EU-funded project.

Over the last couple of years, Armstrong has received more than fifty enquiries about how to start an analogous business – and he has never denied his help. “As a company we are very open with sharing our experiences with other similar organisations around the UK and on mainland Europe”.

According to the CycleLogistics project baseline study (available at the project site) over 50% of trips within urban areas that involve carrying goods could be transferred from motorised vehicles to bikes of all kinds including, where needed, cargo bikes (thus avoiding parking fines, congested streets and all those low-emission and restricted access areas that contribute to making delivery by lorry increasingly difficult). The European Cycle Logistics Federation brings together over 125 cycle delivery companies.

Outspoken and the ECF are convinced that the freight bicycle is a serious choice for transporting goods and services around city centres and have an ambitious plan to develop this model  – here you can learn more about it.

Learn from Outspoken’s shining example and head to Rotterdam. Find here the program of the workshop and contact details. 

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