Rethinking the delivery industry: cargo bikes as an answer to the Amazon tax

Shopping on the internet has become commonplace. However, this convenience comes at a price: countless deliveries and returns have to be transported and delivered to their destination every day. Suppliers are under enormous pressure - there is no time to look for a parking space. Sometimes they have to stop in the second row or in disabled parking spaces. The consequences of the online boom have been clearly visible in city centers ever since - closed stores and congested streets. In addition, e-commerce companies do not contribute to maintaining the infrastructure of the municipalities they use. The city of Barcelona now wants to change this and is introducing an Amazon tax. Will such levies force delivery companies to increasingly use smaller vehicles, such as cargo bikes, for deliveries?

To address this problem, an e-commerce delivery tax (TREC) has been payable in Barcelona since March 2023. The tax of 1.25 percent of the gross value of goods is due on deliveries to end customers. All postal and parcel service providers as well as online retailers and marketplace operators who deliver goods worth at least one million euros in Barcelona each year must pay the tax. The aim of Mayor Ada Colau is to reduce traffic in the city and strengthen local trade. The measure is also intended to encourage consumers to rethink their purchasing behavior. In general, the aim is to make Barcelona a better place to live and improve air quality.

Retailers create local jobs and pay local taxes - unlike online retailers. This is an injustice that the delivery van tax in Barcelona is supposed to compensate for. Online companies use public space in the city and then disappear again. The city gains nothing from this - apart from additional expenses for street cleaning and infrastructure maintenance. However, public space is a scarce commodity, especially in city centers. The Amazon tax aims to minimize distortions of competition and ensure that both traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers and small local businesses have a fair chance on the market.

However, deliveries to commercial customers, warehouses or central redistribution facilities, such as packing stations, are not included. This increases the attractiveness of modern last-mile concepts, such as micro-hubs, and hopefully encourages delivery companies to rethink their approach. Micro-hubs and distribution by cargo bikes can significantly reduce traffic volumes and air pollution. This would also result in less noise pollution. Delivery by cargo bike, such as the VS3E from VSC.Bike, requires less space in public areas than conventional delivery vehicles - and is also often faster. Cargo bikes are also generally cheaper than motorized delivery vehicles. If postal and e-commerce companies are already using similar concepts today, the introduction of an Amazon tax based on Barcelona's model in other major cities may become superfluous.

In Germany, too, large online retailers use the municipal infrastructure without contributing to the financing through taxes. Whether a concept similar to that in Barcelona can also be implemented in Germany remains to be seen. So far, comparable regulations have been rejected at municipal level. The reason given: Legal certainty is not given and a parcel delivery tax does not solve the underlying problem, but only masks symptoms. Goals such as better air quality and a liveable city can also be achieved in other ways. Increasing the use of cargo bikes for deliveries brings both environmental and economic benefits for cities and their residents.

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