Reject or embrace? Messengers and electric cargo bikes

Abstract

One of many approaches to react to the challenges faced by urban freight can be the introduction of electric cargo bikes as an environmentally friendly mode of transport for courier deliveries. Since this market consists of highly decentralized decision-making structures, it is important to characterize the individuals involved and their perceptions in order to estimate market potentials and identify barriers to market uptake. To achieve this goal, we use information from a nationwide survey to draw a picture of the messengers involved as well as to model a binary decision of innovation rejection. The results indicate a group of people close to the general population but with certain particularities regarding gender, education and work style. Their attitudes towards technology are rather positive but their actual adoption of electric cargo bikes shows a much more heterogeneous pattern based on socio-demographics, job circumstances and personal characteristics.