Blog/ Edinburgh gets £30k boost for sustainable logistics

The zero-emissions delivery company, Zedify[1], have received £50,000 funding to boost e-cargo bike deliveries within Edinburgh. Launching with a new delivery hub in Spring 2021, Zedify’s service will contribute to cleaner air for Edinburgh, which has recently been shown to have the worst air pollution of any Scottish city.

Zedify is a UK network of 10 urban delivery hubs which also includes Glasgow, London and Cambridge. Their ethical and responsible delivery model improves air quality and congestion within cities, making them better places to live and work.

Photo credit: Sustrans/Malcolm Cochrane Photography[2]

Zedify delivery staff are paid a real Living Wage, and deliveries are carried out using a zero emissions fleet. Packages coming into Edinburgh from national retailers or via logistics carriers, will be re-moded to e-cargo bikes and trikes and consolidated with local business deliveries going to the same areas, allowing each package to be delivered most efficiently.

Zedify Edinburgh’s Charlie Mulholland said, “We’re delighted to have received this boost to our operation in Edinburgh, which will support us to grow our green logistics service and help the city tackle congestion and air pollution.”

This project is supported by the South East of Scotland Transport Partnership[3] (SEStran), by funding from the Smarter Choices Smarter Places[4] fund and the European Union Interreg North Sea project SURFLOGH[5].

Working alongside Edinburgh Napier University & SEStran, SURFLOGH aims to research and catalogue sustainable commercial business models for urban last mile logistics, developing blueprints which can be replicated using the Zedify pilot case study from Edinburgh alongside pilots in Sweden, the Netherlands and Belgium.

SEStran Chair Councillor Gordon Edgar said, “Increasingly we see a strong appetite for moving more goods by sustainable means as well as evidence that consolidation is currently being undertaken successfully by operators like Zedify. This willingness can be exploited by exploring opportunities to enhance and introduce infrastructure that will facilitate modal shift as well as building on consolidation efforts by providing facilities that enable multiple loads to be transported on the ‘last mile’ by a single vehicle or cycle logistics. Innovative initiatives like our partnership with Zedify have the potential to not only make a significant positive contribution to the health and wellbeing of those who live in the region but also economic growth.”

For further information:

Harriet Hird | Head of Marketing | Zedify | harriet@zedify.co.uk

Keith Fisken | Programmes Manager | SEStran | keith.fisken@sestran.gov.u

Flickr account for photo used above.

[1] https://www.zedify.co.uk/

[2] Zedify Edinburgh receives support from the Sustrans Cargo Bike Library: www.sustrans.org.uk/thebikelibrary [3] www.sestran.gov.uk [4] https://www.pathsforall.org.uk/about/about-us-1 [5] https://northsearegion.eu/surflogh/