by Laura McCamy
East Bay writer, artist and EBBC member. When she’s not writing about bicycles, she’s riding them.
As East Bay streets grow even more bicycle-friendly, a growing group of East Bay entrepreneurs is proving that it is possible and even profitable to run a business by bicycle.
One of the first bicycle-powered businesses in the East Bay was bicycle delivery business Pedal Express. When it was founded in 1994, the idea that bicycles could replace cars was a radical one. Foresta Sieck-Hill, one of the current member-owners, describes the three founding members as “altruistic folks” who wanted to show that ”human-power could do what people did in cars and trucks.”
In there early days, making a point was more important than making a profit.
“It’s slowly become a business where people are sustaining themselves,” says Sieck-Hill. “It’s a really, really great job. I’ve been here for five years and I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
Unlike San Francisco’s bicycle messenger companies, Pedal Express delivers mostly scheduled deliveries. Messengers take Bread Workshop bread to two grocery stores every morning, pick up and deliver interoffice mail for the city of Berkeley and do delivery runs for local printers – anything from a box of business cards to a 300 pound box of posters.
“We are cheaper than paying a car courier because we don’t have as much overhead,” Sieck-Hill says.
The company is currently working on expanding its delivery services in Oakland.