Boston Delivers
A neighborhood-friendly delivery service powered by electric cargo bikes
Boston Delivers was a neighborhood delivery service for local businesses in Allston and the surrounding area. Instead of motor vehicles, packages were delivered by electric cargo bikes. The Boston Transportation Department partnered with Net Zero Logistics to carry out this delivery service. Net Zero Logistics provided the electric cargo bikes, made deliveries, and coordinated delivery logistics. This pilot program tested and promoted a more environment and traffic friendly way of delivering goods.
Boston Delivers launched in September of 2023 and ran through January of 2025. During this time the program completed 18,375 deliveries (~20,000 items) and facilitated 6,000 miles traveled via e cargo-bike. You can view our participating businesses and program evaluation below.
Boston Delivers is an 18-month Pilot program funded by The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
-
Interested in exploring e-cargo bike delivery in Boston? Please email our program manager.
Boston Delivers Program Evaluation
Our pilot program explored environmental, financial, and logistical impacts of using electric cargo bikes for delivery. You can read our full program evaluation below.
Boston Delivers Goals
Our GoalsThe Boston Transportation Department is subsidizing delivery costs to ensure the delivery service is affordable for local businesses and non-profits. We aim to help businesses provide a delivery service where they may not already offer one, and decrease costs for businesses that currently offer delivery. This pilot program will also promote its participating local businesses encourage consumers to buy goods locally.
The City aims to right-size delivery vehicles to better fit Boston’s streets. Many of Boston’s streets were not originally designed to accommodate large vehicles. Often, delivery vehicles stop in bus, bike, and vehicle travel lanes. This results in congestion that affects the whole transportation network.
The City aims to improve safety by reducing the:
- size
- speed, and
- environmental impacts of commercial delivery vehicles.
The number of delivery vehicles has grown significantly. This has led to more conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles, which has increased the potential for serious injury and death.
This pilot program will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by replacing motor vehicle trips with e-cargo bike trips. The rise in the use of on-demand delivery services has led to more vehicles delivering fewer goods per trip. These vehicles are increasing pollution, noise, and congestion. Using e-cargo bikes for last-mile delivery may be a solution.
See our participating businesses
About Fresh
September '23 - December '24
About Fresh, via the Fresh Truck ECommerce program, is partnering with Boston Delivers to take an innovative, environmentally friendly approach to door-to-door delivery. Allston/Brighton residents can pre-order delivery online.
Allston-Brighton CSA
September '23 - December '23
Allston Brighton Health Collaborative (ABHC) partnered up with Boston Delivers to help our most homebound and vulnerable residents with free delivery of our farm share, expanding food access in the community.
OliToki
September '23 - December '23
Boston Delivers powered deliveries of yummy Korean fusion meals for OlitToki in Fall of 2023.
City Fresh Foods
April '24-January '25
City Fresh, together with Boston Delivers, is delivering 100 home meals per day to seniors in Allston/Brighton.
Our Community Partners
Project PartnersUpdates and Announcements
Updates
The City of Boston and Urban Freight Labs are hosting a webinar to share outcomes from Boston's e-cargo bike delivery pilot...
Attend an Open House for Boston Delivers on April 18th, 6-8pm. Click this link to view event details and RSVP!
Today Mayor Michelle Wu and the Boston Transportation Department (BTD) announced the launch of Boston Delivers, an e-cargo...
A consolidated RFP question-and-answer document for interested vendors is available online and on the supplier portal.
Potential vendors will be able to access the RFP on the supplier portal and searching EventID EV00010559.
The $492,286 in funding will support the Boston Transportation Department to pilot a e-cargo bike delivery program.
Who's Involved:
-
Interested in exploring e-cargo bike delivery in Boston? Please email our program manager.
