E-Bikes for Deliveries

We have been loving using the Tern e-bike these past four months! It has run smoothly for us overall and has made delivering locally in our neighborhood fun and easy. Maybe we can deliver faster with a car going from point to point, but honey, it evens out with not having to take as much time with loading and parking the vehicle. Being able to pull right up to a home or business and engage the quick lock while we make the delivery is so smooth! We regularly deliver to St. Joseph’s and Presbyterian St. Luke’s hospitals using the e-bike, as well as the many customers that live close by, and even a few businesses.

It was a small learning curve to find the best way to package our flower arrangements with minimal disruption to them. The nature of biking compared to driving means you hit and feel every bump a bit more. Thankfully, the boxes we use normally for packing the arrangements for delivery fit perfectly in the front holder of the bike! Having the bungee straps to hold it in makes us feel they are safe and secure. Packing them in the back takes more intention as it can be bumpier back there. We take care to have the driver of the bike be as aware and cautious as possible when driving to avoid bumps and cracks as much as they are able. Wouldn’t it be nice if all our roads and bikeways were perfectly smooth? But, alas.

The bike holds its charge incredibly well, and knowing it won’t take all day to recharge it when it does need a charge means we don’t have to shift things around too much during those charge days.

With a shop as small as we have with limited space for storage, having a Tern e-bike that stores so efficiently with how it folds and stands up makes it so much nicer for us when the bike isn’t in use, knowing it won’t be in our way. The days we aren’t using the bike and it is stored in our shop, we get many comments from customers asking about it. They are curious to see such a rad-looking bike and express wanting one for themselves or are pleased to hear we use ours for our business. It is a fun conversation starter. When we are biking our deliveries around town, it is always fun to see how a bike full of flowers brings a smile to the passersby.

Having the Tern e-bike has been a great way to enjoy the beautiful warm seasons here in Denver as well. This fall as the colors have been changing and the crisp has crept into the air, what a thrill to bike through City Park with flower arrangements in tow, knowing we are bringing small joys to people in our lovely city.

Overall, having this bike as an addition to how we make deliveries with our business left us feeling more connected with our city and happier, making better, intentional choices about how we contribute to our environment.

— Tarah Anthony, owner

Over the past four months, the bike program has proven highly beneficial in reducing our car usage. The program has significantly lowered carbon emissions, aligning with environmental sustainability goals. Cost savings from reduced fuel and maintenance expenses were notable, positively impacting our business’ finances. Overall, the E-Bikes for Deliveries program has fostered a healthier, eco-friendly, and cost-effective alternative to traditional car delivery. We hope to see more of our neighboring businesses able to join on this quest.

— Jan Kratzer, owner

We are using the e-bike exclusively to deliver pizzas. It is a fantastic addition to our brand and has allowed us to reduce our vehicle emissions drastically. We are delivering consistently, plus doing any business activities/promotions only on the bike. Since starting at the beginning of December, we have had to take only one delivery with a car because it was for 110 people, exceeding the bike capacity. It took longer to get the bike in use for its designated purpose than we wanted. We are using it exclusively and it is so fun, cool, fancy, utilitarian, everything for which we could have hoped.

— Peter Crouse, owner

Until we got our cargo bike, I didn’t realize how much it would transform our business. In effect, it has replaced our second truck. While Truck #1 seems to remain an inevitability—it hauls thousands of pounds of rock and mulch and pulls a trailer with all of our tools—Truck #2, which is really a support vehicle, has essentially been on mothballs for four months. We take many short trips around the neighborhood that are “small hauls,” where we’re schlepping tools and small volumes of materials. This was never possible with a regular bike, and thus, hitherto required a truck. But the cargo bike handles those loads brilliantly. Here are some delightful examples of what we’ve used it for: hauling hundreds of pounds of large ornamental granite boulders, removal for composting of an ivy plant, transporting seedlings to planting sites, moving our drip irrigation kit, and hauling buckets and shovels for monthly maintenance at project sites around the neighborhood. It has huge potential to transform landscaping businesses across the city. Now if we could just do something about those two-stroke blowers…

— Avi Stopper, owner

Since HandleStash received our E-bikes for Deliveries bike in February, we’ve put nearly 1000 miles on it. Almost all those miles would have been trips by car had we not received the bike—the Benno Boost with dual battery was the perfect choice to allow us to carry moderate loads over long distances. We were able to pick up a six-foot long roll of foam from our supplier in Englewood—what would normally have been a long drive with a traffic jam on I-25 was instead a nice bike ride down the Bear Creek trail and up the Platte River trail. On another day, we picked up 600 pieces of cupholder sewing from our supplier in Broomfield, covering nearly 60 miles in the day. On more typical days, the bike is used to move inventory between Golden and Denver, drop orders at the post office, and visit bike shops and drop off orders.

Covering distances like this on a bike takes more time than driving, but as a bicycle-focused business, the extra time on a bike is just an added benefit. I’ve been able to do more—and better— product testing by riding the bike and have been biking much more than I could previously. We are incredibly grateful to be included in this program and are excited to put many more 1000’s of miles on the bike and be a part of getting out of cars and making the city a better place.

— Adam Saplin, owner

Big Raven Bread hit the streets with an e-cargo bike provided through the Denver Streets Partnership and Bicycle Colorado in September of 2023. I have now delivered hundreds of loaves and other goods on the bike, as well as run other business errands. I rode it so much that Terry even had to check that I wasn’t recording my miles cumulatively! The bike had an immediate impact on my business. I was able to expand my delivery range, and speed up delivery times, which allowed me time to focus on growing other parts of my business. Additionally, anytime I am out riding, the bike grabs people’s attention, which has helped me find new customers and expand my market. The large carrying capacity has also helped me to carry more at once, being able to do deliveries and run errands simultaneously without my product being squished.

I did add a very loud horn to be able to alert cars that aren’t paying attention to bike lanes, running stop signs, etc. While Denver’s bike infrastructure continues to improve, it still feels like drivers might need some education on sharing the road with cyclists. I did talk to other businesses about the program, and I think many people would ride more, but often people are intimidated by the size of the bike or just navigating cars. Perhaps some lessons, ride sessions, etc. could help make people more comfortable cycling in Denver. I really appreciate this program and what it has done to help my business! I would love to help advocate more for the program and just cycling in general. Many thanks to Terry, Mackenzie at Hardt Family Cyclery, the Denver Streets Partnership, Bicycle Colorado, and CASR. Yay, bikes!

— Abby Peterson, owner

The addition of the Tern NBD e-cargo bike has been incredibly beneficial to the growth and sustainability of Howl House. When I created Howl House, my intention was to provide lifetimelasting quality gear for pets and their humans, rather than cheap products that must be constantly repurchased. As an avid cyclist, I also decided to offer free bicycle delivery within the Denver region to further reduce our environmental impact. Very quickly though, I was outpacing the capacity of my simple milk-crate system.

After receiving our e-cargo bike, it was immediately put to use. Primarily, the bike has been used for home deliveries and USPS drop-offs. Most of our packages are bubble mailers, which fit easily within the included panniers. We also put the rack to use several times to carry larger packages for wholesale drop-offs and to pick up materials from our local vendors. The electric motor was especially beneficial for putting together long rides to visit current and prospective wholesalers around the Denver area. Without the e-cargo bike, I may have done some of these trips with a bicycle, but the majority of the miles would have been completed with my very fuel-inefficient truck.

Finally, I would like to call out my appreciation for this program and the quality of the support provided. The Tern NBD is a very high quality bicycle and requires very little maintenance (I love the belt drive). Not having to visit a shop for repairs or clean a chain regularly saves me a lot of valuable time. I did experience two flat tires, which I repaired myself. The inclusion of a lock, shop service, and rack accessories covered all of my business’ needs and made the inclusion of this bicycle a staple of our business.

— Jake Schillings, owner

Several participants expressed trepidation about the need for insurance, which may have been triggered by participating in this program. The concerns were twofold, including (1) property replacement coverage for an expensive asset, in the case of theft or damage, and (2) liability protection for employees making deliveries via the e-cargo bike. As DSP is not in the position to offer any kind of legal or insurance-specific recommendations, we suggested they simply check with a broker. 

One tentative participant withdrew enrollment prior to starting the program, due largely to their limited capacity to store the large e-cargo bike onsite. While several Tern models feature the unique space-saving ability to store “upright” in a vertical position, all cargo bikes are still larger and heavier than a regular bicycle. In this case, the business owner didn’t have the space to spare inside their small coffee shop and felt nervous about keeping the bike locked up outside. 

While the City and County of Denver has come a long way—thanks in part to the work of both the Denver Streets Partnership and Bicycle Colorado—this program has highlighted the ongoing issue of Denver’s lack of connected and safe bike infrastructure on our streets. With safety being a priority concern, route-finding for business deliveries often involves detours to side streets with fewer automobiles in order to offer the working bicyclist some peace-of-mind.

As more bicycles take to the streets, and certainly in the case of business travel by e-cargo bike, we as a community need to educate automobile drivers on not only rules of sharing the road, but also best practices, common courtesies, and a safety mindset. Notably, Abby Peterson of Big Raven Bread has reported multiple occasions in which drivers would make right-hand turns directly in front of her while she was legally riding in the bike lane. She has, in fact, taken it upon herself to attach a high-decibel air horn to her bike, in order to effectively alert distracted drivers.