If you live in a densely populated city you may start receiving your UPS packages from delivery tricycles. The company is currently experimenting with the vehicles in Seattle.
The vehicle in question was designed and built by Truck Trike in Portland, Oregon. When the rider starts to pedal, human power pushes the front hub. With a thumb throttle, the rider can draw power from a pair of battery packs in the base of the trike to rear hub motors for the back two wheels, with enough juice for 12 to 18 miles of range. The extra power comes in handy because the trailer, made by Portland’s Silver Eagle, can fit as many as 40 packages, or about 350 pounds worth of stuff.
Shippers, however, still have packages to deliver on time, and at least UPS seems keen on trying a new way of doing it. In the roughly one square mile that makes up Belltown and the southern end of Pike Place market, UPS cargo bikes and modular trailers are delivering now where trucks can’t go or get bogged down hunting for parking.
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