One of the new positions Portland Pedal Power created in 2017 tells a lot about the company’s evolution in the delivery-by-bike space.
It was catering manager.
“Catering because what we’re focusing on is really creating a 360-degree experience,” CEO Jenn Dederich said. “So that means menu, selection of vendors, delivery of product, set up, service, clean up and then right on to donation of the leftovers to the local food bank.”
Those are services that Pedal Power sees nobody else that delivers goods by bicycle matching — and services that the well-heeled food-delivery outfits the company is up against aren’t going to excel at, if they ever offer them at all.
“They’re the big guys — Caviar, Postmates, Amazon, Grubhub, Uber Eats, those guys,” Dederich said. “They’re huge companies, and at heart they’re software companies that just happen to be taking food from point A to point B. We’re a service company.”
Offering a deeper level of service is a key innovation for Pedal Power, but of course it’s not the only thing that helps it stand out. The company makes all of its deliveries, after all, via bicycle, with its riders towing often impressively large loads around the city in the “Pyxis” trailers — familiar to downtown denizens by now — designed by co-founder Ken Wetherell.
With their wide panels, those trailers also serve as rolling billboards, and Pedal Power riders often become marketing extensions for clients at events. It's why they wear the title “brand ambassador riders."
Doing deliveries by bike provides a foundation for a sustainability identity that Dederich is realizing has more power than she might have appreciated.
“Obviously, it’s always been a part of our identity,” Dederich said, “but the degree to which that was meaningful to our customers wasn’t something I was always that sure of. But we did a survey at the beginning of the year and the results were just awesome. It was crazy how many times people mentioned the bike.”
Founded in 2009, Pedal Power doubled in size annually to reach $1 million in sales in 2015. Working from a much larger base now has tempered the pace, but Dederich said the company has still hit its 30 percent growth targets the past couple of years. That's spurring confidence that after much contemplation, the time for expansion beyond Portland might be nigh.
“We’re scouting for another market right now,” she said, citing it as one of the tasks handed to Aaron Greene, recently added as chief operating officer. "If not by the end of the year, then soon after that."
Company: Portland Pedal Power
Location: Portland
What they do: Food delivery and catering bike
Top executive: Jenn Dederich, CEO
No. of employees: 16