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Electric bicycles could deliver your Waitrose shop

By SmartPlanet on 18 July 2008, 10:45am

Green Tech

Your next online supermarket shop could arrive with a whisper rather than a roar. News reaches SmartPlanet that Waitrose shoppers in Cambridge can now get their posh organic grub delivered by electric bicycle instead of a van.

The bikes arrive powered by a "superfit" Waitrose cyclist and a small electric motor. On the back are special trailers (pictured above) designed to carry six trays of groceries that'll even keep frozen nosh cool for two hours. The service is the first I've seen from one of the big supermarkets.

To experience a carbon-free bike delivery you'll need to live within 15 miles of Trumpington in Cambridge. The trial service makes perfect sense in a nice flat bike-friendly town like Cambridge but it'd be fun to see the Waitrose cyclists puffing to and from a more hilly store, like its Buxton one. If the Cambridge trial's successful, Waitrose says it may expand to your area.

Do any of you SmartPlanet people get your weekly shop by bicycle already? I usually collect my family's shop by bike -- two panniers can take a mountain of veg -- and I know green champion Tony Juniper uses a Dutch-style Bakfiet bike.

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