First UPS U.S. Delivery eBike Debuts In Portland, Oregon

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UPS today announced its first eBike in the U.S. This new electrically-assisted tricycle began delivering packages in Portland, Ore., on November 21. UPS anticipates this eBike prototype could become a component of its delivery capabilities in some other cities across the country. The deployment of the eBike is part of UPS’s ongoing commitment to reduce carbon emissions as city populations and e-commerce grow, and traffic, noise and air quality challenges continue to rise.

The success of this pilot program was first demonstrated in 2012 in collaboration with the city of Hamburg, Germany. It focused on developing a new and sustainable method of delivering goods to urban areas. UPS placed four containers at central locations in the city for interim storage of packages for UPS service providers. From these points, deliveries were made on foot or with specialized bicycles called “Cargo Cruisers,” UPS’s electronically-assisted tricycles. These alternate delivery solutions helped ease traffic congestion and reduce emissions each working day. Due to the success of the pilot, the Hamburg program was extended in February 2015 for another two years. That model serves as a guidepost for the company’s new program in Portland, Ore.
 
Saw one of these the other day. Felt bummed for the 'driver' until I realized it was electric-assist. Parking is a total bitch downtown, I can see this being useful.
 
How is it going to ease traffic congestion? It's wide as shit and goes slower and you'll need more of them to cover the same area. This seems more like a move to avoid something...
 
First thing that came to my head when I read the title:

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How is it going to ease traffic congestion? It's wide as shit and goes slower and you'll need more of them to cover the same area. This seems more like a move to avoid something...

They can park it on the sidewalk, like all the other vendors and cargo bike delivery guys.
 
People act like it's a fucking hate crime if some motorist gets slightly inconvenienced, sometimes. It's hilarious watching people who just move here lose their minds when they realize they can't do 15 miles over the speed limit whenever they want to anymore.
 
I like how it offers zero protection from the largest hazards a delivery person has to deal with: weather, animals, and terrible drivers. Its all well and dandy when your sample size is a couple bikes in a small portion of a city, put 1000 of these on the streets and the issues with them will become glaringly obvious. Nobody will want to deliver the bike routes after the first couple carriers get squashed.

I also don't understand why they used a single front wheel tricycle, they are notoriously unstable when making turns at speed.

 
I think the people who drive these are more thankful to have a job than worried about what strangers think they look like.
 
ROFL , is this for real?

That thing looks so lame. I was expecting at least a scooter.
 
The deployment of the eBike is part of UPS’s ongoing commitment to reduce carbon emissions as.....

......the driver was forced to breathe the emissions from the traffic daily.

Way to go, UPS. Back to the drawing board.
 
" 911 what's your emergency?"
Um.. we need an ambulance out here. A UPS biker just got his ass kicked and his bike stolen.
 
People act like it's a fucking hate crime if some motorist gets slightly inconvenienced, sometimes. It's hilarious watching people who just move here lose their minds when they realize they can't do 15 miles over the speed limit whenever they want to anymore.

I hate bikes most of the time. Why? Cause none of them follow the rules. I'm in Germany. Bike riders have to be on the road. That's fine. So why the hell am I avoiding them on the road and avoiding them while walking on the sidewalk? They aren't allowed on the sidewalk. That or there is a bike lane, but they feel they should be in the normal car lane taking up the space and slowing traffic down. If they followed the rules, I'd be perfectly fine with bikes.

Portland is different of course. They're allowed to ride on the sidewalk. I bet you, majority of bike riders don't follow the rules there either. Pretty much the same anywhere you go that has a decent bike riding community. I wish the police would start ticketing bike riders when they break the rules/regs. Maybe they'd all start following the rules.
 
I hate bikes most of the time. Why? Cause none of them follow the rules. I'm in Germany. Bike riders have to be on the road. That's fine. So why the hell am I avoiding them on the road and avoiding them while walking on the sidewalk? They aren't allowed on the sidewalk. That or there is a bike lane, but they feel they should be in the normal car lane taking up the space and slowing traffic down. If they followed the rules, I'd be perfectly fine with bikes.

Portland is different of course. They're allowed to ride on the sidewalk. I bet you, majority of bike riders don't follow the rules there either. Pretty much the same anywhere you go that has a decent bike riding community. I wish the police would start ticketing bike riders when they break the rules/regs. Maybe they'd all start following the rules.
People just want to rebel against the system. One of my biggest pevees around here are people that bluntly walk in the middle of a street when there is a perfectly good side walk for them. We also have bike lanes that no one uses and ride in the middle of road also.
 
One that enjoys getting a paycheck.

And a nice one from what I've heard of UPS (they have a union and everything). But with unemployment under 5% let's not go acting like they have to do this or they starve. If they didn't like this they could easily find something else to do. Especially in a place like Portland.
 
With over 1/3 of the work force NOT in the work force, I think we can all agree that under 5% thing is pure bull shit. over 95 million of the working age adults not in prison or the military in America not working and we think that unemployment is actually under 5%?

Anyways, I just can't see a situation in which this dumb looking thing is the better choice. Capacity? no. Able to use the sidewalks? Not with a box that size. Safer? Hah! Faster? How? Less congestion down town? You're gonna need a few of these just to equal 1 truck. Maybe it's some tax write off they can claim, who knows.
 
With over 1/3 of the work force NOT in the work force, I think we can all agree that under 5% thing is pure bull shit. over 95 million of the working age adults not in prison or the military in America not working and we think that unemployment is actually under 5%?

Anyways, I just can't see a situation in which this dumb looking thing is the better choice. Capacity? no. Able to use the sidewalks? Not with a box that size. Safer? Hah! Faster? How? Less congestion down town? You're gonna need a few of these just to equal 1 truck. Maybe it's some tax write off they can claim, who knows.
On an equal note, your 95 Million figure is complete bullshit. It includes teenagers that don't have a job, a large portion of college students, stay at home parents (like my wife), and most importantly....retired folks (which makes up well over half of this figure). So while I do agree under 5% is probably an underestimation, it's NOWHERE near as bad as you (and our incoming POTUS) make it out to be. Taking everything into consideration, and even considering underemployed folks...our rate is closer to 10%
 
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And a nice one from what I've heard of UPS (they have a union and everything). But with unemployment under 5% let's not go acting like they have to do this or they starve. If they didn't like this they could easily find something else to do. Especially in a place like Portland.
If you are a UPS driver/biker and you get paid well (which they do)..why leave? It's not like you are accruing very many other professional skills while being a driver. In most UPS driver's cases, most of their mobility is to go down in pay. So, again...who cares if it's a bike. A paycheck is a paycheck, even better if it's a damn good paycheck for a fairly unskilled job with damn good benefits.
 
People act like it's a fucking hate crime if some motorist gets slightly inconvenienced, sometimes. It's hilarious watching people who just move here lose their minds when they realize they can't do 15 miles over the speed limit whenever they want to anymore.

City folk act like its a fucking hate crime if some hippie gets the slightest whiff of exhaust, sometimes. It's hilarious watching these cities full of "progressives" lose their minds when they realize that industry can't function without all the "evils" of carbon consumption. God damn hypocrites are using a macbook with a 592kg CO2e footprint!
 
On an equal note, your 95 Million figure is complete bullshit. It includes teenagers that don't have a job, a large portion of college students, stay at home parents (like my wife), and most importantly....retired folks (which makes up well over half of this figure). So while I do agree under 5% is probably an underestimation, it's NOWHERE near as bad as you (and our incoming POTUS) make it out to be. Taking everything into consideration, and even considering underemployed folks...our rate is closer to 10%

Try 9.3-9.8% (which is almost double that of the oft-quoted 5%). In a nation of around 324 million, that's a pretty large number of individuals, actually (larger than a number of well-known countries):

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-real-unemployment-rate-is-still-close-to-10-2016-07-08

https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-real-unemployment-rate-3306198

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/03/charts-whats-the-real-unemployment-rate.html

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/sorry-but-the-real-unemployment-rate-is-9-8-not-5/

What is of concern is that "actual unemployment rate" has been virtually static over the last 7+ years, and the actual purchasing power of the average American has barely budged from the 1950s:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...rs-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/
 
On an equal note, your 95 Million figure is complete bullshit. It includes teenagers that don't have a job, a large portion of college students, stay at home parents (like my wife), and most importantly....retired folks (which makes up well over half of this figure). So while I do agree under 5% is probably an underestimation, it's NOWHERE near as bad as you (and our incoming POTUS) make it out to be. Taking everything into consideration, and even considering underemployed folks...our rate is closer to 10%


This is a fun table to look at www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea01.htm You can see where our employment situation is about as bad as its been since the early 80's. Yet somehow back then they called it between 7 and 9% unemployment and now they're calling it around 4.5% unemployment. It's a sign that people have just given up looking for work. Considering that a lot of women have joined the workforce since the mid 80's, a lot of those that have stopped looking for work are men.

Also consider, even if the 95 million is somewhat BS for "employment rates," it still represents people that are using resources and not producing resources. That number is growing, while the total percentage of people working is going down. The only thing keeping GDP per person doing ok then, is better efficiency.

In the long run, the working will have to 'take care of' the non working more and more unless something changes and we change the number of working hours per week etc. However that's a society change, where people that could work start to value their time more than the stuff. Right now we have men with a huge amount of time, and other men with a lot of stuff.
 
This is a fun table to look at www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea01.htm You can see where our employment situation is about as bad as its been since the early 80's. Yet somehow back then they called it between 7 and 9% unemployment and now they're calling it around 4.5% unemployment. It's a sign that people have just given up looking for work. Considering that a lot of women have joined the workforce since the mid 80's, a lot of those that have stopped looking for work are men.

Also consider, even if the 95 million is somewhat BS for "employment rates," it still represents people that are using resources and not producing resources. That number is growing, while the total percentage of people working is going down. The only thing keeping GDP per person doing ok then, is better efficiency.

In the long run, the working will have to 'take care of' the non working more and more unless something changes and we change the number of working hours per week etc. However that's a society change, where people that could work start to value their time more than the stuff. Right now we have men with a huge amount of time, and other men with a lot of stuff.
The boomers made themselves the most subsidized generation in recent history, and then went ahead and placed the burden on the rest of us. Kids and grandkids be damned, as long as they get theirs.
 
Was going to post the bls Nov 2016 info but see someone already did. guess that shows it's not bull shit. And I never said it was 30-40%, I just said that over 1/3 of working age people aren't working and that there is no way sub 5 is possible.
 
This is smart, as sometimes the big 5K+ pound truck can be cumbersome in tight old style German towns, and just doesn't make sense for light packages.

Personally, I would have made it 100% electric though.
 
Was going to post the bls Nov 2016 info but see someone already did. guess that shows it's not bull shit. And I never said it was 30-40%, I just said that over 1/3 of working age people aren't working and that there is no way sub 5 is possible.
I see basic math escapes you. 1/3 = 33%
 
I see basic reading escapes you. Quote me exactly where I said unemployment is 30%

And still on the topic I can't see anywhere that this would come more in handy then as designed, or at least that better options don't already exist
 
I hate bikes most of the time. Why? Cause none of them follow the rules. I'm in Germany. Bike riders have to be on the road. That's fine. So why the hell am I avoiding them on the road and avoiding them while walking on the sidewalk? They aren't allowed on the sidewalk. That or there is a bike lane, but they feel they should be in the normal car lane taking up the space and slowing traffic down. If they followed the rules, I'd be perfectly fine with bikes.

Portland is different of course. They're allowed to ride on the sidewalk. I bet you, majority of bike riders don't follow the rules there either. Pretty much the same anywhere you go that has a decent bike riding community. I wish the police would start ticketing bike riders when they break the rules/regs. Maybe they'd all start following the rules.

Can't tell if troll, but whatever:

You hate bikes because they sometimes act like motorist do all of the time (i.e. break traffic laws). How many thousands of pedestrians have died while legally crossing the street because of some cyclist?

You clearly know nothing of Portland's traffic laws, as it's illegal to ride you bike on the sidewalk in most parts of downtown, plus it's dangerous due to pedestrian congestion. We had two pedestrians killed on SE Division Street hours apart on December 7th by drivers who didn't feel like paying attention.

Thousands of people die every year because drivers don't feel like following traffic laws. When a cyclist does something stupid they pay with their own life, when a driver does something stupid it is other people who die for their belligerence.
 
Can't tell if troll, but whatever:

You hate bikes because they sometimes act like motorist do all of the time (i.e. break traffic laws). How many thousands of pedestrians have died while legally crossing the street because of some cyclist?

You clearly know nothing of Portland's traffic laws, as it's illegal to ride you bike on the sidewalk in most parts of downtown, plus it's dangerous due to pedestrian congestion. We had two pedestrians killed on SE Division Street hours apart on December 7th by drivers who didn't feel like paying attention.

Prior to posting, I looked up the laws for bikes on the sidewalk on the Portland government site, as I didn't know what their laws were. Apparently you didn't.

Thousands of people die every year because drivers don't feel like following traffic laws. When a cyclist does something stupid they pay with their own life, when a driver does something stupid it is other people who die for their belligerence.

So your arguement is what exactly? Since motorists break the laws, cyclist should be allowed to also? Where in my post did I say either should be allowed it. I can complain about motorists breaking the laws all day long too, but this thread is about cyclists. So I was talking about cyclists.

Why don't you go troll somewhere else.
 
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