The cargobiking, drain unblocking plumber from London
Hello everyone and welcome to Issue #28 of Cargobike Culture!
Ten points to Matt from Keert for spotting the error in last week’s issue. He correctly pointed out that Bergamont isn’t a Belgian company, but is in fact based in Hamburg, Germany. Rest assured I have had strong words with the fact checking team at CBC HQ.
Drain Geeks
One of my guilty pleasures is ‘drain cleaning Youtube’. Did you know that there are Youtube channels, some with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, where drain cleaners stick a GoPro on their head, and show you their job?
I love it. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it’s gross. But theres something very satisfying about watching professionals identify the problem and watching them fix it (especially when you can't smell anything).
So imagine my excitement when this story popped up. A drain cleaning plumber, ON A CARGOBIKE!
Drain Geeks is the brand of London based plumber Rob. After a career change in 2017, Rob retrained as a plumber and from day one he was riding a cargobike.
When he completed his training, he was only working as a plumber part-time and understandably didn’t want to invest money into a van. The cargobike let him get around to jobs, whilst still carrying the tools he needed, with a much smaller capital investment
He first bike was a black 2017 Urban Arrow (pictured below) and quickly learned how to make this unconventional setup work for him.
Firstly, he can’t carry as much as a typical plumber in a van, so he needs to plan a lot more. Rob does has a workshop for storing most of his gear, and plans out his days for what he’s going to need to take with him.
This approach helps, but theres still only limited space in the bike itself. So to tackle this, Rob spends a lot of time looking for smaller versions of equipment which are more compact and easier to transport.
This was good for a few years, but Rob eventually upgraded the bike to a larger version. The Urban Arrow XL Rob took delivery of this year has a much larger container.
But even this new bike isn’t big enough because this year Rob niched down his business to focus on drain care and unblocking, and the equipment you need for that can be even heavier and bulkier.
So ever the innovator, he’s trialed four-wheeled cargobikes and found they were excellent for his work. Rob recently took delivery of a Mubea U-Mobility and is putting it through it’s paces. 'It is a real pleasure to cycle. The 4 wheel bikes basically feel like you have a cheat code for life.’ says Rob.
But making this work isn’t just about what you can carry, it’s about how far you have to travel to the job. The key for Rob, is staying local. 'I quickly learned that covering long distances is not practical on a cargobike' he says.
So instead he began to say no to jobs which were further than a few miles radius of his home. This was hard early on, as a lot of his work was coming from recommendations, but eventually he built up enough referrals locally to compensate.
Staying local has brought Rob more benefits too. He can nip home for lunch if he likes, and if a job needs a repeat visit, its a lot easier to do that if it's in the neighbourhood. It’s also more profitable as tradespeople don't get paid for travel time. So less time on the road means more billable hours.
It's also saved him a lot of time, and money, travelling around London. Rob works a lot in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea where parking can be a real problem. Being able to operate from a cargobike, where you can just pull up outside the customers house, has taken away a huge amount of stress from his workday.
And that lack of stress over parking can also be a USP for Rob too. Driving and parking in Chelsea can sometimes be so difficult that some tradespeople won’t even take the work. That’s not a problem for Rob.
But whilst it can be a selling point, Rob’s not really sure if cargobikes as a marketing tool makes much difference for him. ‘People want something fixed, and that’s what’s important. [the cargobike] is a side benefit’. He also thinks that in some cases, it could be a turn off for some customers as using the cargobike does in some ways, make Drain Geeks less efficient and that could damage perception.
I think Rob’s a great example of a cargobike just being the smartest tool for the job.
I’ve spoken to a lot of people for this newsletter who are doing their work via a cargobike. Something they all have in common is a ability to look at things differently and try new solutions. Rob’s a great example of that mindset. He has the idea that a cargobike could do the job, and over the years learnt what worked, what didn’t and the benefits are now paying off.
You can follow Drain Geeks on Twitter, Instagram and on Rob’s website.
Anna’s locked bike
If you follow BBC News correspondent Anna Holligan on Twitter, you might have seen that this week she found herself in a bit of a pickle. The key had broken in her cargobike’s frame lock and she was stuck.
Luckily, a Twitter follower suggested she call the ANWB (the dutch version of the AA, or AAA) who Anna was also insured with.
A few seconds with an angle grinder and Anna and daugher Zena were back on the road again.
That’s it for this week! Thanks for reading.