Practical info

Get started

I’m an individual

Want to test a cargo bike and receive coaching to get started with no hassle ?

From the spring of 2021 onwards, residents of the Brussels Region can rent an electric cargo bike or longtail bike free of charge for two weeks from Pro Velo.

Good to know: you can measure your exposure to air pollution during these two weeks. That’s really useful information for yourself and Brussels Environment.

Register at : cairgobike@provelo.org

Please include your place of residence. The 19 municipalities will each be participating in Cairgo Bike in turn, between now and 2023.

Test a cargo bike

A bike trailer sharing scheme

Are you looking for alternatives to your car to move heavy and/or bulky objects? Would you like to be more independent and help improve air quality in the city? Remorquable might be the solution you need!

Brussels’ first trailer rental service has been developing a unique service for almost three years now: a bike trailer sharing scheme to suit all budgets, with a range of pricing options. With the intention of increasing autonomy, making repairs easier and creating local jobs, the trailers are designed and assembled in workshops run by the association Tournevie. This partnership has nothing to do with chance. Tournevie is a pioneer of sharing and the service economy. They opened the first tool library in Brussels in 2016.

These trailers make it possible to move bulky items, heavy shopping, crates of fruit or vegetables and musical instruments. You can even use them for smaller home removals. Very often, the contents of a car boot will fit into one or two trailers. That puts an end to traffic jams and parking nightmares. Ecological, social alternatives do exist!

There are currently about ten trailer rental points in the Brussels region.
Want to find the rental location closest to your home?

Find out more on our website


In parallel to the bike trailer rental service, the association also offers free trial sessions, individually or in groups, where you can learn to ride a bike with a trailer in traffic. These are custom training sessions to help cyclists get ahead and share the basics of good practice for riding a bike with a trailer in the city.

Want to find out more?

Visit our website https://www.remorquable.be to find out where your nearest rental location is. It’s so easy to access our service: register online and meet us to finalise your membership.
Other branches will be opening in the course of 2022. Keep up with our adventures by subscribing to our newsletter.

 

I’m a professional

As a professional, you know it isn’t easy to ditch your utility vehicle in favour for a cargo bike. After all, you need to identify and test the equipment that is best suited to your activity among the range of cargo bikes and trailers on the market, fit it with any custom modules you need, adapt your way of working and even convince your colleagues to accept this conversion process.

Urbike, the Brussels-based cycling logistics expert, offers different modules that enable you to build up your new professional life with a cargo bike:

  • Test ride session: come and test different models of cargo bike and trailer. Ask for practical advice from Urbike’s experts to speed up your decision-making process.
  • Cairgo mise en selle: is the Cairgo bike training for professionals, teaching you to ride a cargo bike when it is empty, loaded and in traffic. You will receive advice on itineraries and working methods from people who cycle every day!
  • Cairgo call: Do you have any questions about how to use a cargo bike? Do you have technical queries, or are you curious to find out what Cairgo Bike and Urbike can do for you? Get in touch with us!

See and book modules

After taking one of these modules, you will have the opportunity to reserve a cargo bike for two weeks to test it in the field!

Please mail us

Purchase

I’m a professional

Around 50% of journeys for business purposes can be made on a cargo bike. Why not yours?

As part of the Cairgo Bike project, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises located in the Brussels Capital Region that want to buy a cargo bike or a bike trailer can benefit from the Cairgo Bike purchasing grant. 

Unfortunately, the Cairgo Bike grant is temporarily no longer available.

If your application was submitted before the deadline of 31/01/2023: please send your supporting documents via primecairgobike@sprb.brussels by 1 May 2023 at the latest.

See the eligibility conditions at www.primecairgobike.brussels

I’m an individual

Municipal grants

Several Brussels municipalities offer grants for the purchase of a cargo bike or electric cargo bike. These municipalities include Jette, Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Ganshoren and Uccle. For more information, see your municipal website.

Bruxell’air grant

If you get your number plate cancelled, you will be offered a MIVB/STIB pass or a bicycle grant and a Cambio Start subscription.

Find out more

Share

Cambio

The company is expanding its fleet of shared vehicles to include 15 electric cargo bikes. In October 2021, Cambio Brussels will be installing 5 charging stations with 3 electric cargo bikes each.

Visit the site
Remorquable

The first ‘bike trailer library’ in Brussels! Remorquable is creating a fleet of shared trailers. From June 2021 onwards, there will be 20 new trailers available from about ten lending centres; you can rent them for 24 hours (or longer) for an affordable price. The trailers are made at the Tournevie workshops (the tool library). Members can choose the subscription formula that best suits their financial situation. 50 trailers will be available from about fifteen lending centres by June 2023.

Visit the site
Pro Velo

Pro Velo hire out cargo bikes for families and goods transport.

Visit the site
Cyclo

Cyclo hire out cargo bikes for families and goods transport.

Visit the site
Cozywheels

Cozywheels offers a way to share a cargo bike with your neighbours.

Visit the site
Monkey Donkey

Cargo bikes for hire near you.

Visit the site

Parking

A cargo bike is more cumbersome than a traditional bike – and more expensive as well. Many people have not yet bought or used a cargo bike because they are experiencing certain barriers, such as not enough space indoors (at home, at work), fear of theft and damage, obstacles on public roads...

The Cairgo Bike programme is intended to make the lives of users and future users easier. One of the solutions is to build secure bicycle stands for cargo bikes. 

 

Parking.brussels

parking.brussels currently offers hundreds of secure bicycle stands. parking.brussels is extending its range and building 15 cargo bikes parks (150 spaces) that you can find on the cycloparking.brussels platform. 

parking.brussels also works in partnership with Cambio and integrates the shared cargo bikes available into its specific bike stands. What is more, there is a partnership with BePark, which also offers parking spaces for cargo bikes on private land.

Any more questions?
cycloparking@parking.brussels

Visit the site
BePark

The private car park operator is building 20 bicycle parks (150 spaces) designed to park cargo bikes safely. 
These cargo bike pars are not on public roads but in private car parks. The user has a separate entrance that can be accessed digitally with a smartphone.

BePark’s goals :

  • To ensure that public space is burdened no more heavily than it already is.
  • Not to build new constructions but to optimise existing ones, which involves reflection and ultimately conversion of the existing space.
  • To offer extra security to cargo bike owners.
Visit the site

Measuring

Cairgo Bike includes a large-scale campaign to measure exposure to air pollution, an evaluation of the positive impact of using cargo bikes on the city and an evaluation of acceptance by users. These measurements and evaluations will be conducted by Brussels Environment and the VUB Mobilise research group.

Brussels Environment

The role of Brussels Environment

  • Distribute air quality meters.
  • Gather information about the trips that participants (citizens and companies) make and their exposure to air pollution.
  • Draw up individual reports for the citizens and conduct a general, statistical study based on all the results.
  • Cooperate with citizens’ associations to make them more aware of air quality and the link with road transport, based on the study conducted.

Scientific approach: a comparison of the extent of exposure to black carbon by users of various modes of transport, specifically motor vehicles and cargo bikes. The comparative study will also be conducted in different neighbourhoods and at different times of the day (evaluation of the impact of traffic density). 

Visit the site
VUB Mobilise

An analysis of the external costs will evaluate the impact on the city of using cargo bikes, specifically the negative consequences that road traffic causes in this case that is borne by society, not by the user personally. To what extent does the use of a cargo bike instead of a car or van contribute to a reduction of these costs paid by society? 

Mobilise will use its external cost calculator to evaluate the impact of cargo bikes on air quality, climate change, noise pollution, life expectancy, traffic jams and accidents. Mobilise will compare trips when the participants are testing a cargo bike from urbike or Pro Velo to their normal trips without a cargo bike. The results should then show the extent to which the cargo bike influences the different external effects of travel.

The research group will set up a support base measurement for cargo bikes, with the aim of understanding and analysing the motivations for and barriers to using one. The recommendations for government policy will then be formulated according to the UTAUT model (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology).

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Cargo bike: 20 good reasons  

Safer streets, healthier air and quieter traffic thanks to a mode of transport that is practical, affordable and saves time... If enough people start using cargo bikes, they have the potential to transform public space and have a positive influence on our quality of life. That vision is within reach if we consider that 75% of private trips in Brussels are perfectly suitable for a cargo bike. Not convinced yet ?

See the 20 good reasons to use a cargo bike