University of Washington, Seattle
IN-24: Innovation A

In 2017, UW Mailing Services purchased five electric assist cargo bicycles, and now nearly all mail deliveries to 455 departments across UW are made by e-bike instead of trucks. UW is the first campus in the country to move to delivering mail via electric bikes. Mailing Services originally planned to roll out e-bike delivery slowly, but the bikes proved so successful they are being used for deliveries across the Seattle campus, as well as some off-campus locations such as Sand Point and even occasional trips to Bellevue. With so many deliveries being made by e-bike, Mailing Services has already gotten rid of two trucks, and expects to reduce its fleet further soon. On campus, not only are the bikes more environmentally-friendly, they are also easier to maneuver around campus. In addition, the bikes don’t need to use building loading docks. Since phasing out trucks, deliveries now take 10% less time and 30% fewer miles traveled. And each truck Mailing Services can remove from its fleet saves nearly $10,000 a year in fuel, lease, insurance and maintenance costs. The use of electric cargo bikes continues a long tradition of Mailing Services’ sustainability efforts. The truck fleet is made of all hybrid-electric or bio-diesel vehicles, and before switching to e-bikes, the department piloted a program with non-electric bikes.