Only for freight which originates within a mile or so of its final destination. Much of the freight delivered into the centre of London originates from either the 35-40mile radius "zone of influence", or from further afield and is transshipped onto the final delivery vehicle at warehouses in Zone 2. To transfer that to pedal power would require either roadside distribution as used by the Post Office in the suburbs, which is an expensive extra handling operation not well suited to parcel freight or urgent deliveries, or the construction of sorting warehouses in the centre to accept HGV trunk freight for "last mile" delivery by human power.
I don't doubt that human powered good vehicles will take some of the goods which might otherwise have been on a van, but the vehicles have been available for decades and their market penetration has, if anything, fallen, thanks to the dominant influence of labour cost over all other costs in the logistics business. In the olden days, shops had delivery boys with freight bikes/trikes, and they have all but disappeared in favour of vans. It will take a large subsidy, in the form of fuel or road usage taxes on motor vehicles, to make human powered freight economically viable outside of specific niche applications. With the national economic model predicated on growth, I can't see any imminent appetite in government for crippling business efficiency with punitive taxes.
Only for freight which originates within a mile or so of its final destination. Much of the freight delivered into the centre of London originates from either the 35-40mile radius "zone of influence", or from further afield and is transshipped onto the final delivery vehicle at warehouses in Zone 2. To transfer that to pedal power would require either roadside distribution as used by the Post Office in the suburbs, which is an expensive extra handling operation not well suited to parcel freight or urgent deliveries, or the construction of sorting warehouses in the centre to accept HGV trunk freight for "last mile" delivery by human power.
I don't doubt that human powered good vehicles will take some of the goods which might otherwise have been on a van, but the vehicles have been available for decades and their market penetration has, if anything, fallen, thanks to the dominant influence of labour cost over all other costs in the logistics business. In the olden days, shops had delivery boys with freight bikes/trikes, and they have all but disappeared in favour of vans. It will take a large subsidy, in the form of fuel or road usage taxes on motor vehicles, to make human powered freight economically viable outside of specific niche applications. With the national economic model predicated on growth, I can't see any imminent appetite in government for crippling business efficiency with punitive taxes.