«Small electric delivery vehicle» pilot project with cooperation partner Kyburz

Just imagine a busy city with a historic centre and lots of narrow cobbled streets – a shopping paradise for young and old alike with everything that visitors desire: clothes shops, book stores, opticians, shoe shops, cafés, bars, small theatres, toy shops, food courts, antiques emporiums, unusual outlets and quirky boutiques. No engine noise. Just the lively chatter of happy people. And cooing pigeons, of course. You may now be thinking of Florence, Paris or Heidelberg. But we’re talking about Zurich Old Town. To preserve this relaxed, refreshing city flair for tourists and residents, we launched a four-week pilot project together with Kyburz Switzerland AG.

In August 2023, we spent a month with «Planzer Parcel» operating a Kyburz brand electric vehicle in District 1 in Zurich city centre. The family firm is considered to be the market leader for small electric vehicles. Our Kyburz pilot vehicle is equipped with an interchangeable box chassis and trailer. It allows us to deliver loads consisting of 25 small parcels weighing up to 30 kilograms to private individuals and businesses in the heart of Zurich. With fully charged batteries, the Kyburz vehicle has a range of 130 kilometres.

Our pilot project with Kyburz is a logical consequence of the City Logistics concept that we have been implementing and continually enhancing for years. This involves transporting goods by overnight train from all over Switzerland to our urban railway centres, where they are bundled for the last mile, loaded onto distribution vehicles destined for specific recipients and finally delivered. These distribution vehicles could be supplied by Kyburz in future. As a transport and warehouse logistics company, we believe it is our job to ensure that cargo and parcels are seamlessly delivered to people and companies in urban areas, emission-free wherever possible. Our City Logistics actions therefore focus on our vision of on an entirely emission-free transport chain. The Kyburz trial takes us one step closer to this goal.

We already deliver parcels to densely populated areas and inner cities. We use (electric) trucks, horses and conventional parcel vehicles for this. But as a Swiss family company, one thing applies to every area of our business: better is always possible. So we do everything we can for a sustainably healthy future and always keep our long-term targets in mind. Who knows, one day we may be using driverless delivery vehicles produced by the technology company Udelv to provide a dynamic urban micro-hub for Kyburz vehicles. These autonomous city vehicles would allow our drivers to quickly collect a fresh load of parcels in the immediate vicinity, without leaving the city centre. Read more about our plans for driverless delivery in our «Revolutionising the last mile» blog post.

As is so often the case with innovative ideas, success depends on the chosen partner. Which is why we teamed up with Kyburz Switzerland AG for this project. The Zurich family firm from Freienstein finds pleasures in development while focusing on sustainability and environmentally friendly methods, thereby building on its solid basis of craftsmanship and many years of experience. Kyburz’s approach and values are so in keeping with our own that they alone would be reason enough for cooperation and collaboration. We are all the more pleased that CEO and Owner, Martin Kyburz, had no hesitation in agreeing to launch this trial with us. ‘Each and every one of us is responsible for positively influencing world events, and that’s the only way we have a chance to make a difference,’ says Kyburz.