A pilot was started in Nijmegen on Monday with a new type of electric bicycle for the emission-free delivery of parcels in the city center. The pilot, which runs until September, is intended to provide insight into the functioning of the transport bicycle specially developed for this purpose, the logistics concept of city logistics by bicycle and the supporting technical aids. The pilot is an initiative of Fulpra and PostNL and is being carried out in collaboration with the municipality of Nijmegen, which is working on an emission-free city center. The transport bicycles are supplied by the Dutch company Fulpra. The development and construction of the special transport bicycles are partly financed by the Province of Gelderland. 

After evaluation of the pilot, PostNL decides whether delivery by transport bicycle in Nijmegen will be continued and whether the new concept for urban distribution can also be applied in other inner cities. Nijmegen is one of the cities that has signed the Green Deal Zero Emission Urban Logistics. The cities involved are striving for emission-free delivery in the city centers by 2025. This means that Nijmegen is anticipating European legislation that assumes that only emission-free vehicles can enter the city in 2050. The aim is to reduce the emissions of CO2, NOx and particulate matter as a result of urban logistics to zero and to minimize the number of traffic congestion.

"A closed box with a total loading space of 2,6 cubic meters is mounted at the back of the bicycle," explains Niels Markvoort, director of Fulpra. 'It fits exactly two standard PostNL roll containers, which can be easily loaded and unloaded using ramps. The bicycles have an electric power of about 1.000 W, which is approximately four times the power of a normal electric bicycle. Thanks to their great power and robustness, they are suitable for intensive business use. The bicycles are 1 meter wide, have a maximum speed of 25 kilometers per hour and a range of approximately 70 kilometers. The bicycles are equipped with various sensors and a communication system. In this way, the technical condition and security of the bicycle can be monitored remotely and we can optimize the routes. '

Fulpra transport bike

The three-wheeled electric bicycles used by the company are being used for the pilot in Nijmegen Fulpra specially developed for logistics applications in the urban environment. The development and construction of the transport bicycles was partly financed by the Province of Gelderland from the Gelderse Corridor program, which focuses on the greening of freight transport. Intelligent vehicle driving technology was funded from the Interreg project I-AT. This European project focuses on research and stimulation of innovative modes of transport and transport.

Special hub

Parcel delivery by bicycle takes place from a special hub on the edge of the city center of Nijmegen. There the transport bicycles are stored and charged. The roll containers with parcels are transported by truck from the parcel sorting center of PostNL in Elst and transferred to the transport bicycles in the hub. Each bike is expected to make three rounds a day and deliver six roll containers with packages daily.