We have come full circle -an Armadillo is now in operation in Nijmegen
Three years ago, I attended my first international cargo bike festival. It was absolutely great, I got to see and also try so many new cargobikes and trailers, even prototypes were there for testing! For example, I rode this prototype ship of a cargo bike:
I wrote a report, with lots of photos from that trip.
In spring 2014, work was in progress to build our third prototype, this time in co-operation with Flevobike. It was not ready to show, and the first two prototypes was not really worth bringing, knowing we had a much better prototype in the making.
There was also a quite big conference program in 2014, arranged by Gary and Richard from the European Cycle Logistics Federation. Among many presentations, DHL Express presented some impressive figures on how large portion of their vehicle fleet that was now bikes or electric cargo bikes.
Finding an opportunity
When it was time for the group photo, I took my chance and approached the DHL representative, asking if he would be interested in test riding our new prototype when it was ready. He said they were looking for a bigger cargo bike to complement their Bullitts, but so far their tests had been disappointing. The bigger cargo bikes were all to slow and bulky, they needed something more agile. In August the third prototype was ready, and the decision came immediately: DHL wants to do a pilot with the Armadillo. Today we have Armadillos (called Cubicycles by DHL) running with DHL in Utrecht, Frankfurt, Antwerpen, Houten, Alkmaar, Breda and from Monday also Nijmegen.
This Armadillo stays in Nijmegen!
At this years festival, we were very happy to be able to announce that the Armadillo that we brought was not only for show, it was staying in Nijmegen. Harriet Tiemens, Vice-mayor of Nijmegen, came for this announcement and thanked us for making her city a little better.
Thank you Jos, Richard and Gary for arranging the ICBF in 2014, it really made a big difference for us!
Sources:
https://www.dhlexpress.nl/nl/nieuws/dhl-nijmegen-van-start-met-cubicycle
