Bikes at Work: Portland Pedal Power keeps businesses stocked and satiated

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

8 years ago

Portland Pedal Power worker with full load-3.jpg

Sky Miles, a rider with Portland Pedal Power, loads up his rig after a delivery in downtown Portland this morning.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Welcome to “Bikes at Work,” our ocassional series that looks into the people and companies that use bicycles to get work done.

When it comes to delivering food to downtown businesses, bicycles are perhaps the perfect vehicle for the job. Major national chains like Domino’s Pizza and Jimmy John’s have figured this out, as have local ones like Old Town Pizza.

And then there’s Portland Pedal Power, a business that have carved out a nice niche for itself by keeping office workers satiated. We first wrote about this company back in 2007 when they started home delivery of groceries for People’s Food Co-op customers. Today Portland Pedal Power has a fleet of cargo bikes with custom-made enclosures and they’re a full-fledged food delivery, catering, and marketing business. They have partnerships in place with dozens of restaurants and they also offer advertising on the side of their eye-catching bikes.

On my way into work today I met one of Portland Pedal Power’s riders, Sky Miles. I often see the PPP bikes downtown, but what caught my eyes this morning was the loaded trailer attached to Sky’s bike. It was well before lunch-hour so I was curious what Sky was delivering. He told me he was stocking the office kitchen for Elemental Technologies, a software firm with its headquarters on Southwest Broadway.

As Sky packed up his rig I checked out the set-up: It was a stout Surly cargo trailer attached to an even stouter Yuba Mundo cargo bike equipped with a Stokemonkey electric-assist motor. Between the enclosure and the four large thermal bags on the trailer, Sky can carry a serious amount of provisions…