Oxford’s Pedal and Post launches crowdfunding campaign

Pedal and Post, an Oxford-based low emissions courier company, is launching a share offer on crowdfunding platform Ethex.

The campaign hopes to raise £500,000, which would be used to expand the cargo bike delivery service in Oxford and launch in Reading next year.

According to analysis from Just Economics, switching from diesel vans to cargo bikes for the first and last mile of deliveries would save the NHS and other government services more than £4 billion by reducing the costs of congestion and air pollution. In Oxford alone, this would work out at a saving of £14 million.

It comes as research from the Department for Transport has found that 33 per cent of all urban deliveries could be done by cargo bikes or ecargo bikes.

Chris Benton, the CEO of Pedal and Post, said: “The potential to clean up our air and grow the UK economy is huge. Pollution from diesel van deliveries costs the NHS nearly £25,000 across the lifetime of the van, compared to around £150 for an electric cargo bike.

“We also know that cargo bikes can deliver more parcels per hour than the average van, and produce 92 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions per delivery, so it really is a no brainer to make the switch.”

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Founded in 2013 by Christopher Benton, Pedal and Post has almost 10 years of operating experience in the eco-courier market. Increasingly, delivery companies are considering how to ensure the ‘last mile’ of delivery is made via zero emissions vehicles such as electric vans and cargo bikes.

The company currently delivers 1,000 parcels a day across the city, employing 23 people. 100,000 van miles are saved every year by Pedal and Post as their cargo bike couriers navigate Oxford’s tricky medieval streets.

In the coming five years, it is aiming to increase its revenues to £5.5 million, create 140 jobs, increase the number of parcels delivered to 8,000 a day and save 400 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Pedal and Post is already working with established delivery companies such as DPD, Yodel and Riverford to handle their smaller packages, as well as more traditional Oxford partners such as Blackwell’s bookshops and Wolfson College, part of the University.

Jamie Hartzell, chair of Pedal and Post, said: “The potential market here is huge. We know that internet retail sales grew by 47% in 2020. But while getting goods delivered to your home at a click of a button is easy and time saving at a time when we are all under pressure, it comes at a significant cost to our health and the environment.

“Electric cargo bikes are a crucial part of the solution to speed up deliveries and make our air safer to breathe.”

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