When the Somerville business Taza Chocolate used United Parcel Service (UPS) to ship its products to local establishments as close as two miles from its chocolate factory, UPS first sent the products 120 miles away to a sorting center in Rhode Island before transporting them back to the Boston area.
The owners of Taza, a business that prides itself on its sustainability and forward-thinking business practices, knew there had to be another way to transport their merchandise.
"It was becoming a bit onerous for me or my partner ... to continue making these deliveries ourselves, which we would often do on our own bicycles," Larry Slotnick, co-founder of Taza Chocolate, told the Daily. "We didn't want to use UPS for local deliveries like this, although we did a very small amount when we didn't have other choices. But the fact is when UPS comes to our factory and picks up boxes that are shipped anywhere in the country -- whether it's local or to some other state -- they get taken to a UPS distribution center which can often be as far away as Rhode Island, and then they'll come right back up here into Boston to be delivered the next day to a customer. It's very wasteful and not very respectful of the environment and a sustainable business mission."
While searching for an alternative, Taza Chocolate was approached by the group Metro Pedal Power (Metro Ped), which was then called New Amsterdam Project. The company, a local bicycle delivery service, was looking for clients and, before long, a partnership ensued.
Metro Ped has now been doing local deliveries on bike for Taza Chocolate for over a year and has been making a push to switch all of Taza's local deliveries to be done by bike. In addition to working with Taza Chocolate, Metro Ped has been building a substantial client base in the Boston area. Wenzday Jane, president and CEO of Metro Ped, explained that the company's goal is to provide local businesses with an alternative to traditional shipping methods.
"We were founded back in 2007, and it came about in response to growing global concern about America's dependence on fossil fuels and the realization that ... by changing a few simple habits, we can reverse some of the negative effects that our dependence on oil has caused," Jane told the Daily. "Aside from just also being really into bikes and understanding that a bicycle is a much smarter and more efficient way to get around in a congested city ... it was sort of a combination of sentiments that was the spark that started the company."
In addition to working with Taza, Metro Ped has also developed partnerships with other local businesses, such as Harvard Book Store in Harvard Square. Jane hopes that the delivery service will encourage customers to spend their money locally.
"We're really offering customers an alternative to some of the larger online book ordering establishments so that people can still support the local business and enjoy the convenience of online ordering and home delivery," Jane said.
Slotnick expressed similar views, saying that many other businesses could benefit from a company like Metro Ped.
"I think there are any number of local businesses that could take advantage of it," Slotnick said. "I think the kind that would be more amenable to their business model, which is really daytime service and not nighttime service, would be [establishments] that don't already offer home delivery but could, and I'm talking about grocery stores or ... think about a store like Dave's Fresh Pasta ... they could launch a delivery service really easily using an entity like Metro Ped."
Joe Grafton, executive director of Somerville Local First who helped launch an initiative to get more businesses involved with Metro Ped, explained the importance of the project.
"This is a great example of local businesses really circulating money inside of the community ... we've got a number of different businesses, and they're taking pounds and pounds and pounds of carbon out of the atmosphere and keeping dollars in the local economy by doing business with each other," Grafton told the Daily.
While the program has many benefits, such as reducing carbon emissions by 380 pounds per year, according to a Somerville Local First press release, the organization is still working out kinks.
"Metro Ped is still building their business; they're not a mature business yet where their delivery routes are really busy, where they have a lot of products every day of every week going to all locations," Slotnick said. "I might get an order from a store that's down in Jamaica Plain ... and it's part of their service area, but if they don't have other deliveries going to Jamaica Plain that day, then they're not really going to want to go down to Jamaica Plain just to drop off one carton ... they just can't justify it from a financial standpoint -- which is okay for us because we don't guarantee our customers next-day delivery or anything like that ... but this will only improve as they get more clients and really build out their system."
Jane is confident that the company is a model for success.
"We're really out there showing that this can work and that a bicycle is a legitimate form of transportation that really can do serious work," Jane said. "You can do a lot with a bike, and it can have positive effects in a number of ways -- not the least of which is making our streets more livable, more pedestrian friendly and also creating a ... healthy vibrant job rather than a sedentary, boring, mundane job like sitting in a truck."
Grafton agreed, saying that the eco-friendly business model is beneficial in every aspect.
"If you buy Taza chocolate ... you know that it's sustainably produced with fair trade chocolate and that it's sustainably delivered by bike and that its all local and fair," Grafton said. "That's what we should be striving for with everything that we do ... up and down the chain that's just such a great example of what we should be doing in the new economy."
