Tern's Delivery Fleet Partners Surpass One Million Miles in New York City
Powering delivery fleets is the ultimate urban cargo bike road test
December 4, 2025 — Urban mobility specialist Tern today announced that its electric cargo bikes, used in New York City’s delivery fleets, have logged more than one million miles of service, a milestone that underscores how the use of safe, reliable cargo bikes can help transform urban logistics. Tern cargo bikes now complete more than 13 million deliveries per year in the city.
“New York’s delivery environment is unforgiving for cargo-bike fleets, with harsh seasonal weather, uneven roads, and riders who seem to enjoy pushing the bikes to their limits,” said Steve Boyd, General Manager of Tern Bicycles North America. “These bikes get hammered, and they have the scars to prove it. But they’re engineered to keep on grinding away, mile after mile.”
Scope of Operations
First deployed on Manhattan streets in 2021, Tern electric cargo bikes pulling Carla Cargo trailers are now a hard-to-miss part of the local delivery landscape. Used by multiple logistics partners, these rigs collectively complete more than 13 million deliveries per year. They operate in near-constant rotation, often running up to sixteen hours a day, with some reaching twenty hours during peak demand.
Rigs can haul loads of 300 pounds or more and often make up to 360 deliveries per day, an average of 22.5 deliveries per hour. That level of efficiency matches what delivery vans achieve, but at a fraction of the cost and with far greater environmental and street-level benefits.
NYC: The Ultimate Urban Testing Ground
Round-the-clock delivery fleet operations put every component of a cargo bike to the test, and New York has become a proving ground for Tern’s design approach. It shows how purposeful design, rigorous testing, and strong component partnerships translate into safety, reliability, and durability.
Some individual bikes have already logged more than 30,000 miles and are still going strong. Key chassis parts like frames and forks have been problem-free. Components are selected for both performance and long-term serviceability, allowing quick and easy upkeep with standard tools and off-the-shelf parts. This approach keeps fleets rolling with minimal downtime.
The Bosch systems that power Tern cargo bikes have also proven exceptionally dependable through years of continuous operation. Most batteries continue to deliver consistent performance well past their warranted life and even after tens of thousands of miles. Motor failures are rare, but if they do happen, Bosch’s service support is fast and efficient.
Safe Charging at Scale
Running a cargo-bike fleet means charging hundreds of batteries each day, often simultaneously and in crowded depot environments. Players across the city’s e-bike delivery ecosystem discovered that this level of energy concentration demands rigorous safety standards.
Long before New York required UL certification for all e-bikes, Tern equipped its cargo bikes with Bosch motors and batteries tested and certified to UL 2849, the industry’s most comprehensive e-bike electrical safety standard. Today, after years of fleet deployment and hundreds of thousands of charge cycles, Tern bikes have had zero thermal incidents.
Fleet Tested, Family Ready
“The great thing is that these are the same cargo bikes we offer to individual customers through our dealer network,” continued Boyd. “Running sixteen hours a day and racking up more than ten thousand miles a year is exactly the kind of performance that shows we designed, tested, and built the bike right.”
Learn More
Read the full case study here for data and insights on how cargo-bike fleets are helping transform last-mile logistics in New York.