Hero Lectro, the electric vehicles arm of Hero Motors Company, will be deploying e-cargo bikes for last-mile delivery. For this, it has tied up with logistics firms Fast Despatch Logistics and Turtle Mobility. Under an agreement between the parties, Hero Lectro’s e-cargo bikes are being procured by Turtle Mobility to be given out on lease to Fast Despatch Logistics (FDL), which also has plans to augment its fleet of e-bikes to up to 15,000 by the end of this year. While FDL is a global last-mile delivery logistics company that has recently marked its entry into India, Turtle Mobility is a start-up that offers solutions for the last-mile delivery logistics needs including vehicles on lease.
This partnership comes close on the heels of Hero Lectro launching its first e-cargo bike WINN recently. Along with this, the company also has plans to introduce another purpose-built cargo vehicle soon for India’s rapidly growing last-mile delivery space.
Partha Choudhary, who is the Hero Lectro Cargo President and CEO said – “E-cargo bikes are set to emerge as a game-changer for the last-mile delivery space, as they offer a huge potential for increasing per-day shipment capacity and achieving cost optimisation as compared to currently used internal combustion engine two-wheelers.”
He also mentioned that while a number of e-commerce providers have expressed their intent to turn to e-mobility, the industry also needs an ecosystem for implementing this change. This partnership with FDL and Turtle Mobility is a step towards creating such an ecosystem under which logistics companies will be able to procure e-cargo bikes on lease and roll them out in the last-mile delivery space.
Gurvinder Birk, who is Fast Despatch Logistics CEO said – “We are extremely excited for FDL and Hero Lectro collaboration in rolling out Hero Lectro Winn in Hyderabad and furthermore very soon.” He added that with a potential to significantly bring down cost per shipment, these bikes are currently the best bet to offer competitive advantage and cost optimisation for last-mile logistics providers.
Kapil Gupta, who is Turtle Mobility founder said – “The use of e-cargo bikes has become increasingly commonplace in western countries for their multiple benefits, including low carbon footprint, ease of access, low operational costs as well as cost optimisation for last-mile deliveries.”
