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08-23-09, 04:31 PM
Tomorrow, one of my co-workers and I are closing on the purchase of the artisan bakery where we work. We are very interested in changing as much of our deliveries as possible to bicycle deliveries.
Our business is about 50/50 between bread and pastry. Our wholesale customers consistent of about 15 coffee shops that buy mostly pastry, about 20 restaurants that buy mostly fresh baguettes and frozen, sliced pan bread, plus 7 grocery stores that buy our artisan loaves of bread, plus a little pastry. Most days our deliveries currently take about 6 hours by van.
The baguettes we deliver in empty flour sacks. We deliver loaves of bread to grocery stores on skids about 60 cm (24") per side, with 10 loaves per skid (need to measure skids to be sure of dimensions). We send out about 12 skids most days. Our pastry is delivered in parchment lined cardboard boxes roughly 10 cm high X 60 cm long X 30 cm wide.
We're probably going to move our bakery next year to a central location that will be much better for retail than what we have now, but one of the benefits of the space we are looking at is that it will be very close to most of our wholesale customers.
In terms of bike deliveries, I think pastry would be hard to do because a lot of pastries are too fragile and if they are jostled, items such as scones and cookies could crumble, and delicate items such as croissants could get smashed by heavier items. So if we delivered pastry by bike we'd have to find a way to really be super gentle with it.
However, all of our bread could be delivered by bike, weather permitting. I think the wide version of a bikes at work trailer would be wide enough to fit our skids, either two or three stacks front to back. And I think our restaurant bread would probably work in the back of a big dummy or Kona ute.
Questions:
What would be the best equipment to deliver bread by bike? Our vans take a lot of abuse going out on city streets for 5-6 hours a day so it would make economic sense for us to get a nice setup. If we did just pastries by van, we'd be pulling them off the streets for about 3 hours a day.
How many months of the year could we conceivably deliver by bike? What would we need to do to extend deliveries as much as possible into the cold months of the year?
How hard would it be to keep bread dry in a bikes at work trailer? Could we get some type of waterproof cover to fit over the skids?
Is there any way we could deliver pastry by bike without getting damage to items? For example, would a Bob Ibex with Schwalbe Big Apple tire minimize cargo from bouncing around?
How waterproof are the panniers on a big dummy or kona ute? And how many baguettes could they hold?
Would there be insurance issues if we had drivers going out on bikes, esp. since our deliveries start well before daylight. Obviously we could rig a delivery bike/trailer with a ton of lights and reflective material.
Any other issues regarding bike deliveries that we should be thinking about?
Our business is about 50/50 between bread and pastry. Our wholesale customers consistent of about 15 coffee shops that buy mostly pastry, about 20 restaurants that buy mostly fresh baguettes and frozen, sliced pan bread, plus 7 grocery stores that buy our artisan loaves of bread, plus a little pastry. Most days our deliveries currently take about 6 hours by van.
The baguettes we deliver in empty flour sacks. We deliver loaves of bread to grocery stores on skids about 60 cm (24") per side, with 10 loaves per skid (need to measure skids to be sure of dimensions). We send out about 12 skids most days. Our pastry is delivered in parchment lined cardboard boxes roughly 10 cm high X 60 cm long X 30 cm wide.
We're probably going to move our bakery next year to a central location that will be much better for retail than what we have now, but one of the benefits of the space we are looking at is that it will be very close to most of our wholesale customers.
In terms of bike deliveries, I think pastry would be hard to do because a lot of pastries are too fragile and if they are jostled, items such as scones and cookies could crumble, and delicate items such as croissants could get smashed by heavier items. So if we delivered pastry by bike we'd have to find a way to really be super gentle with it.
However, all of our bread could be delivered by bike, weather permitting. I think the wide version of a bikes at work trailer would be wide enough to fit our skids, either two or three stacks front to back. And I think our restaurant bread would probably work in the back of a big dummy or Kona ute.
Questions:
What would be the best equipment to deliver bread by bike? Our vans take a lot of abuse going out on city streets for 5-6 hours a day so it would make economic sense for us to get a nice setup. If we did just pastries by van, we'd be pulling them off the streets for about 3 hours a day.
How many months of the year could we conceivably deliver by bike? What would we need to do to extend deliveries as much as possible into the cold months of the year?
How hard would it be to keep bread dry in a bikes at work trailer? Could we get some type of waterproof cover to fit over the skids?
Is there any way we could deliver pastry by bike without getting damage to items? For example, would a Bob Ibex with Schwalbe Big Apple tire minimize cargo from bouncing around?
How waterproof are the panniers on a big dummy or kona ute? And how many baguettes could they hold?
Would there be insurance issues if we had drivers going out on bikes, esp. since our deliveries start well before daylight. Obviously we could rig a delivery bike/trailer with a ton of lights and reflective material.
Any other issues regarding bike deliveries that we should be thinking about?