Delivery: Use the Bike

From ordering-in pizza, to the daily newspaper, to the milkman, home delivery systems are an historic part of commerce. While dare-devil bike couriers are common in many metropolitan cities, could the courier service be transferred to other sectors and environments?
Like mailing a letter?
The average postal mail carrier in Germany delivers 7000 letters a week. On a bike.
Despite an average rainfall of 80 inches per year, cold temperatures, and a winter with diminished daylight (Berlin lies at 52º N), there are 26,000 bikes in the Deutsche Post mail delivery fleet. It is not uncommon for the bike’s saddle bags, full of mail, to weigh 132 pounds. Since 1896, Germans have used bikes for standard mail delivery; it is also common in Austria and Switzerland.
For delivery routes in hilly areas, the Deutsche Post fleet now includes electric bikes that travel about 14 mph.
Die Deutsche Post, the German mail authority, has established the goal of a 30% reduction in delivery-related emissions by 2020. Reducing fuel consumption is king. So, of the 54,000 mail delivery employees, about 50% use bikes to bring the 71 million letters per week to their recipients. Customers may also mail individual letters with a carbon offset.
The bikes, equipped with transport bags, extra stabilizers, and a lock, cost about 500€.They are expected to last between 4 and 8 years. The average delivery route spans between 6- 18 miles (10 to 30 kilometers). The bikes are maintained by a mobile technician, who operates within a broad region. One of the manufacturing companies Deutsche Post patronizes is called Sachsen Zweirad.

German pharmacies and pizza joints employ bike deliverers too. According to the Hamburg-based national franchise, Joey’s Pizza, bike delivery is a question of efficiency: for a short distance, bikes can deliver a hot pizza faster.

Back to the milkman. A friend who earned his childhood pocket money helping the milkman, discovered a secret about community fabric. It was the milkman who recognized that an accumulation of still full milk bottles on Old Mrs. Smith’s front porch signaled something amiss. Personal, daily delivery services are a small and essential part of the relationships that give us community. Moving past one another at a slower pace and a quieter level could reveal a clue into the sort of interactions which keep us whole.

For Deutsche Post's Sustainability Report:
http://www.dp-dhl.com/en/responsibility.html

For images of historic bike delivery, German text
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postfahrrad

Bike delivery by the USPS
http://www.usps.com/green/report/2008/Our_Environment3.html