19. Assessing Barriers to Electric Assist Cargo Trike Delivery Technology: Implications in Last Mile Logistics in the United States

The last mile is a special challenge for home deliveries in high population density areas. For individual companies it is not economically and technically viable currently to combine long-distance and last mile transport in one offering. To overcome this challenge an manufacturing company has entered a partnership with an based electric cargo trike company. Their goal of the partnership is to launch a high capacity electric-assist cargo trike (EACT) as the preferred last mile delivery solution for high population density areas. The product is an electrically assisted human-powered tricycle capable of hauling up to 400 pounds of cargo nearly 30 miles per battery charge. This is the manufacturing company’s second-generation pilot with units currently in beta testing by highly regarded logistic service providers (LSP’s), in the United States and Canada. The technology has shown to be versatile in solving last mile delivery (LMD) in controlled environments such as college campuses, large venues, as well as in less controlled and highly volatile urban environments in Europe.