Cargo-Bike Depot Trial
Open call · Hosted by Kiezmobil. Riders meet vans at the kerb, which costs ten minutes a handover, blocks a lane and falls apart in rain.
About this open call
What this event is about
A courtyard the size of two parking bays has to work as a district depot: vans in, parcels staged, batteries charged, bikes back out, all day and on the power the building already has. The entries wanted are the equipment and the handover routines that make a footprint that small hold a full day of shared cargo-bike runs.
What we are looking for
Hardware and operations teams with kit already working in a real depot — racking, battery handling, load consolidation or handover software — that can be installed in a live courtyard rather than specified for one.
Problem statements
Sixty square metres
Two vans, three carriers and twenty bikes pass through the same courtyard between 06:00 and 10:00. Nothing can be left standing: what lands has to be sorted, loaded and gone before the next van backs in.
Charging on the supply already there
The bikes come back inside the same two hours, and the courtyard shares a 22 kW connection with the flats and the bakery in front of it. A new grid connection is a year of paperwork, so the batteries have to be handled inside the power that is already metered.
Shared bikes, shared blame
One bike is ridden by couriers from three different firms across a single day. Who had it, what state it came back in and which box went with it has to be recorded in the seconds a handover really takes, not in a paper log nobody fills in.
Evaluation criteria
100% weighted total
Timeline
- Jun 22, 2026
Entries opened
Open to hardware and operations teams across the ecosystem.
- Jul 20, 2026
Courtyard walkthrough
Measurements, photographs and the meter reading published to everyone who had joined.
- Aug 28, 2026
Entries close
Last day to send an entry — it is final once sent.
- Sep 18, 2026
Fit-out decision
Two entries are chosen and installed in the courtyard for the trial year.
Sponsors & partners
Kiezmobil
Host
ETH Zürich
Technical partner
FAQs
Can we see the courtyard before we enter?
The measurements, photographs and meter reading go to everyone who has joined. In-person visits run on Tuesday mornings, two teams at a time.
How much power is actually available?
22 kW shared with six flats and a bakery that draws hardest between 05:00 and 08:00. Write the entry against roughly 12 kW in the morning peak, and say what your kit does when it drops below that.
Does the kit have to be finished?
It has to be something that can stand in a working courtyard on the first day of the trial, not a drawing. A rough version already running in one depot counts for more than a polished prototype that has not left the workshop.
Take part
Submit your entry before the deadline. Every entry is scored against the criteria above.