Bike logistics needs real estate, too

Bike logistics, or bicycle logistics, is increasingly presented by elected officials as an ideal solution for sustainable urban logistics. “We need to reduce the presence of heavy-duty vehicles in Paris by promoting bike logistics,” said Dan Lert, Deputy Mayor of Paris with responsibility, among other things, for urban logistics, during a roundtable discussion at the MobCo trade show last June. On April 16, senators adopted Amendment No. 183, which mentions bike logistics in Article 18 of the framework bill on transport development. Championed by several senators, the text now states that “professional bicycle mobility and bike logistics are practical solutions for achieving national targets for transport decarbonization and air-pollution reduction.” La Poste, which has used 1,000 cargo bikes since 2025—making it the largest fleet in Europe composed of this type of vehicle—as well as more than 15,000 electrically assisted bicycles, shares this commitment to decarbonization through the use of bike logistics. “However, care must be taken not to confuse supply with distribution! Jean-Louis Boudol, Urban Logistics Project Director at La Poste Immobilier, points out. Bike logistics is essential for last-mile delivery and must be used whenever conditions allow. But before deliveries can be made, supply by larger vehicles is unavoidable.”

The environmental benefits of bicycles for logistics must not overshadow their needs, particularly in terms of real estate. For several years, industry players have been joining forces and organizing to speak with one voice to public authorities and local governments. In 2012, the Les Boîtes à Vélo collective was founded in Nantes, at the initiative of several people using bicycles as their main means of transportation in their professional activity, who wanted to share their practices, needs and constraints... In 2019, the association went national. In 2022, the Fédération Professionnelle de Cyclologistique was officially established in turn, in the presence of the then Minister Delegate for Transport, Clément Beaune. By definition, it encompasses various goods or freight transport services, provided they are carried out by bicycle for third parties : pallets and small parcels, courier and express services, waste collection, prepared-meal delivery, point-of-sale delivery, concierge services and on-site logistics, moving services, transport of medical products, etc.

The Federation therefore aims to represent the voice of bike logistics operators, whether pure players or hybrid operators, to public authorities, local governments and other organizations in the transport and logistics sector. “France has a genuine lead in this field and an ecosystem capable of becoming a European benchmark,” said Gaetan Piegeay, General Coordinator of the Fédération Professionnelle de Cyclologistique, at the latest SITL trade show. “But to realize this potential, the industry must now take the next step: structuring its professions, professionalizing its practices and giving companies the visibility they need to invest over the long term.” To become more professional, the industry particularly needs suitable real estate. “Suitable does not mean dedicated. This is not a specific real estate asset, and bike logistics can only develop through opportunities arising from the constraints of the city, Jean-Louis Boudol cautions. A systemic approach is essential, taking all aspects into account: infrastructure, mobility, real estate, and also the business model of companies adopting bike logistics.”

Launched in 2025, a study conducted by Les Boîtes à Vélo and funded by Ademe and the DGITM (Direction Générale des Infrastructures, des Transports et des Mobilités), has the “main objective of producing a guide for local governments, giving them tools to identify premises compatible with bike logistics activities and make them available to companies. The methodology developed was tested in two pilot areas, the Rouen and La Rochelle metropolitan areas,” explains Laetitia Pfeffer, a research officer at Les Boîtes à Vélo. “The study is divided into three parts: identifying available premises suited to the needs of bike logistics companies, estimating local bike logistics potential, and identifying the tools available to support the development of real estate for bike logistics.” Suitable premises are those that meet a number of criteria for compatibility with bike logistics applications, in terms of location, accessibility and internal features.

“These criteria can be incorporated into local governments’ planning documents, especially local urban plans, or PLU(i), so that the needs of bike logistics companies are included in relevant local development projects,” says Laetitia Pfeffer. “For premises to be compatible with bike logistics applications, the space must in particular be accessible to motorized vehicles and its height and width must allow heavy-duty vehicles to maneuver safely when bringing goods into the hub.”

Before being delivered to end recipients, goods must in fact be placed in micro-hubs, of at least 80 m² and potentially extending to several hundred square meters, to be sorted before being loaded onto bicycles, which can deliver within a radius of around 5 kilometers. “This space must also have loading docks, since transshipment will necessarily take place, access to the bicycle network, and a ramp with a maximum 5% slope, depending on the weight of the goods transported,” she adds. In addition to the space devoted to storing goods, this hub must also provide areas for parking bicycles when they are not in use, repairing and maintaining them, and recharging their batteries, as well as administrative space and rest areas for delivery workers. For Jean-Louis Boudol, spaces of more than 500 m² are the minimum required for a profitable bike logistics activity to emerge. “Revenue is based on volume, especially when the cost of rents in dense urban centers has to be offset. That volume cannot be achieved in spaces that are too small,” he notes.

The price per square meter is another sensitive issue. “Most companies in the industry are very small and small and medium-sized businesses, even though there are a few mid-sized companies,” notes Paul Roudaut, President of the Fédération Professionnelle de Cyclologistique, who also joined Les Cargonautes, cargo bike logistics specialists, 10 years ago. According to the 2023 Panorama de la cyclologistique, operators estimate that a reasonable rent would be between €50 and €80 per square meter, rising to €100 to €150 in Paris. Above those amounts, rent represents a fixed cost that is difficult to absorb if business declines from one year to the next, he adds. While public authorities are aware of our need for real estate, it is sometimes difficult for them to translate that into premises compatible with our needs and constraints.”

In its study, the Les Boîtes à Vélo collective also focused on estimating the order of magnitude of the potential for shifting existing deliveries to bike logistics. “In the theoretical area where bike logistics is relevant, we were able to simulate a situation in which 100% of light commercial vehicles were replaced by 177 cargo bikes,” details Laetitia Pfeffer. “In this theoretical model, we estimated the bike logistics hub area associated with this potential at 3,572 m², compared with the current 790 m², bearing in mind that intermediate transshipment solutions also exist in bike logistics models and require a smaller footprint (micro-hubs, mobile hubs, bicycle-river intermodality).” The association’s objective is to help local governments ask the right questions when they want to develop this mode of transport. “In addition to these infrastructure and real estate aspects, local governments can support the development of bike logistics through public procurement, as has been done in Lyon, where 100% of deliveries to nurseries are made by cargo bike.” More than an innovation, bike logistics now appears to be a strategic opportunity to rethink freight mobility, “especially as operational models are highly varied, offering considerable agility”... but, like any form of logistics, it cannot develop without real estate, or without other modes of transport.