Our Friends Electric go under
Hastings Cargo Company, which has provided a delivery service across the town for the past three years by electric bike, announced this week that its batteries will be charged up no more. It is going out of business.
The news is particularly sad for HIP. Cargo has been our local distributor since the paper emerged from the second lockdown in April last year, its riders appearing reliably on time and in all weathers each fortnight to supply over 70 outlets in Hastings and St Leonards with our product. We don’t know how we will do without them. But it appears
that unfortunately the company has not been able to attract or retain enough other commercial customers to make the business viable.
Director Stuart Balkham said: “The experiment that was Hastings Cargo Company is over. We have enjoyed the ride, the support of a number of local businesses, figuring out the intricacies of delivery logistics (how long does a french fry stay acceptably warm for?) and especially all the smiles we received from people in the streets, just happy to see the Cargo bikes around our town.
“Counting our wins, we have ridden electric cargo bikes designed and built in Hastings – who said manufacturing and innovation were dead in the UK? We provided above-average-wage work for six riders when it was most needed during lockdowns. We gave a much-needed connection for businesses to their customers who were suddenly cut off by Covid. At our busiest we were running three bikes clocking up over 3,000 miles in a few months that would have been driven in cars or vans otherwise.
“Sadly the economics aren’t working out for us in the long term. DPD are not quaking in their boots as we roll around the corner, and unless you have hundreds of thousands of pounds backing your software, are willing to squeeze the wage of the riders and don’t provide insurance cover, it’s impossible to compete with the likes of Uber Eats and Deliveroo.”
Balkham said that he and others at Hastings Cargo repeatedly reached out to local councils at both borough and county level, and to other third sector organisations, during the company’s three-year existence, pointing out the benefits of its service in terms of employment, emissions reductions and safer streets. They received absolutely no help, financial or otherwise.
“Towns like Hebden Bridge, Halifax, Colchester, Lancaster, Inverness, Bury St Edmunds, Ludlow, Hereford, Stroud, and many more have cargo bike delivery businesses serving their citizens”, Balkham concluded. “Another way is possible… just not in Hastings… not just yet.”
• HIP offers thanks to current and past Cargo riders, Mat, Rosie, Rob and Stuart. They will ensure delivery of this issue and our next, due out on 15 July, before quitting.
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