Sustainable Bike Deliveries: Fast and Healthy!
“You guys must be crazy—delivering fruit by bike?!” That’s the reaction we got in 2015 when we at Fruit At Work decided to start using bikes for deliveries. But nothing could be further from the truth! Today, nine years later, we’ve succeeded in making just over 20% of our transport emission-free. Delivering by bike isn’t just faster than a van in the city centre, it also significantly reduces our CO₂ emissions. Less pollution, quick and high-quality delivery? That’s a win-win-win!
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Fresh, Fast, Fantastic
Did you know… one apple a day keeps your lungs growing? But the real question is: what’s the use of bigger lungs if you’re filling them with polluted air? At Fruit At Work, that is our main concern. Today, our bike couriers are active in Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Liège, Louvain, and Mechelen. We deliver fresh fruit to keep our customers healthy, so why wouldn’t we also contribute to a healthier environment? That’s why we aim to make our transport as CO₂-free as possible!
The fruit reaches us via the shortest possible supply chain, being: directly from our growers. In the heart of Belgium’s fruit region (Sint-Truiden), we inspect every piece of fruit in our cooled warehouse and hand-pack each fruit box under strict quality standards. Same-day delivery is one of our key commitments. From our distribution centre, our fruit boxes follow the most ecological route to our customers. Sustainability is also about efficiency.
“We’ve been working with our trusted bike delivery partners for years because sustainability is also about long-term partnerships. For us, that means working with CargoVelo and Rayon9. As we grow, we make sure our bike couriers grow with us. The same goes for electric transport. Since 2021, we’ve partnered with Green Delivery. They started with one electric van and now run five delivery routes! We always prioritise the most sustainable solution, together with our sustainable partners.” – Yannick Aerts
"Watt" a ride!
“Bike deliveries for city centres, but what about the rest?” Good question! Bike transport isn’t feasible everywhere; it wouldn’t make sense to send our riders onto the motorways. That’s why we also use electric vans. Today, Fruit At Work achieves over 20% emission-free transport. Our goal is to reach 50% CO₂-free operations by 2030. We're also actively exploring electric lorries. But it has to be realistic, of course. How many kilometres can an electric lorry travel? It wouldn’t be ideal if the driver needs to stop for two hours to recharge every so many kilometres. Of course, developments in this area are ongoing, and we’re monitoring them closely at Fruit At Work.