GLS Italy, an Italian courier service has started using three electric scooters in the historic centre of Milan. Electric pedal bicycles express carried an average of 60 to 70 shipments for each delivery round.
Delivery in this historic city are often limited to a only few miles at a time and recipients receive a small number of parcels for delivery – for this reason the bikes proved to be a better solution than to vans. They have lower CO2 emissions, are more agile and easier to park in the narrow old city centre, and the delivery drivers proceed more quickly in the event of congestion. In Vicenza and Bergamo cargo bikes are already permanently in use by GLS. “Even for other venues we are thinking of alternatives,” says Klaus Schädle.
With the increased implementation of “limited traffic zone” (often called ZTL in Italy) to reduce carbon emissions and high traffic density, the use of bicycles as shown increasing importance in historical centres. “In view of all this, even delivery of shipments with bicycles is becoming an alternative to be taken seriously for historic centres”, says Klaus Schädle of GLS. In addition, as part of our ecological initiative ThinkGreen, we promote constantly driving techniques alternatives for reducing environmental pollution and emissions. GLS has already converted a part of its fleet of natural gas vehicles and electric traction ones.
See the GLS web site for more info: www.gls-italy.com/en