CABIT – e-CArgo Bike riders Initial Training Project
ERASMUS+
KA2 – Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices
K202 – Strategic Partnerships for Vocational Education and Training
Project no 2020-1-UK01-KA202-079675
Implementation period: 31.12.2020-30.12.2022 (24 months)
Partners:
Accentuate (North East) Limited (United Kingdom)
bit Schulungscenter GmbH (Austria)
N.E.T. (NETWORKING EDUCATION AND TRAINING) ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE (Italy)
ANONIMI ETAIREIA EREUNAS KAI ANAPTIKSIS SISTIMATON KAI IPIRESION (Greece)
SDRUZHENIE BATTI (Bulgaria)
SGS TECNOS SA (Spain)
Centrul de Resurse si Consultanta in Educatie (Romania)
Project website: https://cabitproject.eu/
Facebook page: CABIT-Erasmus-Plus-KA2-project-2020-2022
The strategic vision behind the project is ultimately to contribute to the battle against climate change by helping to find more sustainable ways to move freight across short distances and reduce Co2 emissions in cities.
Most freight in cities is currently moved over short distances by trucks and vans using fossil fuels, primarily diesel. A movement is currently growing to replace these types of haulage with electrically powered cargo vehicles based on bicycles, but with a much greater capacity than a traditional bicycle courier: the ‘e-cargo bike’, with an electric motor to assist the rider, has no harmful emissions and is quieter than freight carrying vans, and if widely adopted in cities will make a significant contribution to air quality and reduce noise pollution.
The context of this project is therefore to support moves to transfer as much as possible of the freight/goods being moved within the urban environment in Europe, from diesel and petrol vehicles to electrically powered cargo bikes. To achieve this, the project aims to help support any municipality, business or social enterprise which uses or intends to use an e-cargo bike to deliver its operations or services.
In every country of the project partnership, and more widely across Europe, companies are adopting e-cargo bikes for sustainable short distance freight logistics. However, this is being done in a piecemeal manner, and there are no overall agreed standards for operators, even within individual countries. Having consulted widely within the sector, it has become apparent that one of the most important areas that needs to be addressed is the competence of e-cargo bike riders, who are required to pilot quite large and sometimes heavy loads through busy city streets. Riders are not currently required to have any kind of driving licence, whether for a motor cycle or other vehicle, in order to operate e-cargo bikes, and any basic training they receive is particular to the company or enterprise that employs them.
This project, therefore, aims to fill this gap, by first of all identifying the knowledge, skills and competences required by e-cargo bike riders and then by developing, testing and promoting a training programme to meet these needs. At all stages of the process, members of the project partnership will consult locally with relevant companies and enterprises, and more widely with relevant bodies such as the UKCLF and the ECLF. Each member of the project partnership has been required to nominate as a non-formal ‘Associated Partner’ a local company, enterprise or municipality which uses or plans to use e-cargo bikes for logistics, and these companies will form the first line of research, testing and promotion.
The project, therefore, targets in the broader sense companies and municipalities using or planning to use e-cargo bikes for short distance delivery and logistics, and the training programme to be developed is targeted specifically at e-cargo bike riders, to enable them to ride, operate their vehicles, and carry out required tasks in a safe, skilled and competent manner.
The overarching aims of the project are to:
- Help shape the future of urban freight mobility and promote the use of e-cargo bikes for delivering commercial light goods;
- Help support existing e-cargo bike logistics operations and new businesses/social enterprises in the partner countries;
- Engage with various national and local authorities and other relevant stakeholders to help to deliver our aims and objectives;
- Utilise online communications to promote and encourage our work;
- Co-operate with research and educational programmes to clarify and develop our aims and objectives;
- Explore partnerships with bodies supportive of our aims and objectives, such as the ECLF (European Cycle Logistics Federation) and the UKCLF (United Kingdom Cycle Logistics Federation).
Specific project objectives are to:
- identify the knowledge, skills and competences required by e-cargo bike riders;
- develop, test and promote a training toolkit to meet the needs of riders, and also the needs of the enterprises, companies and municipalities either currently involved in the use of e-cargo bikes for delivering commercial light goods, or planning to do so.
The project will achieve these objectives by the seven partners working collaboratively, both with each other and also with Associated Partners.
The ultimate result of the project will be to contribute to the establishment and proliferation of e-cargo bikes by ensuring that the workforce can be properly prepared and trained, and has the necessary knowledge, skills and competences.
Following testing and evaluation, the training package, or ‘Toolkit’, developed will be made freely available for organisations that wish to use it, and also to industry bodies such as ECLF for adoption and ‘badging’ as approved training. It is expected that gaining the approval of such industry bodies will greatly enhance transferability.
Project meetings:
Translated materials in Romanian language