AVD - Advanced Vehicle Design and Work-Bikes

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	Townely Hall - our first Local Authority customer… When Dave Anderson, who works for Lancashire County Councils museum service, was looking for a suitable grounds maintenance vehicle he looked at all the conventional alternatives before deciding that pedal power was the way forward. The Stablemate filled all his operating criteria; quiet, easy to operate, suitable payload, economical to run. The perfect solution! The Stablemate is in daily use, in fact it is almost too popular…… there is normally a queue of maintenance staff waiting to use the Stablemate for a wide variety of tasks in and around the museums grounds. Dave is our first municipal customer, we hope to see many more local authority customers converting to pedal power for their maintenance vehicles. Michael Waugh - the gardeners tale… Two years ago Southhampton based gardener, Michael Waugh took the decision to finally call time on his ageing Ford Transit van. Whilst looking around for alternatives Michael saw a magazine feature on AVD`s workbike range and decided that he had finally found a pedal powered vehicle that could replace the old van. Michaels customers are all located within a few mile radius of each other , a perfect situation in which to operate a pedal powered service ,Michael phoned AVD, placed his order and 8 weeks later arrived to collect his new Pickup Truk [forerunner of the Stablemate 180]. Within a few weeks Michaels distinctive vehicle was attracting attention as he went about his business in and around Southampton. His new high profile conveyance was actually generating sales, people were taking a note of his phone number as he travelled from job to job, something that seldom happened in the van. When asked about the consequences of replacing his van with pedal power Michael is absolutely clear about the benefits; no fuel costs, no road fund tax or insurance, its faster through city traffic, it can be conveniently driven right up to where he needs to work, And it always starts on cold mornings! *<Go Back*
	Bug Bugs - a capital investment The BugBugs pedicab operation has been a familiar sight around the streets of Londons popular Soho district for the past two years. BugBugs founder Chris Smallwood decided to establish the capitals first pedicab service and took a 3 month sabbatical from his successful component supply company to set up the project. Drawing on his considerable management experience Chris set a new industry standard for running a successful pedicab operation; extensive driver training, stringent safety rules, rigid maintenance schedules and an ethical approach to business set BugBugs apart from other pedicab operations that we have seen over the years. Chris has contributed much of his wisdom in the section titled “starting a pedicab business”, which I strongly advise potential operators to read. Running a pedicab business can be a very rewarding business, both financially and spiritually, but there are many pitfalls. BugBugs have set the benchmark for professionalism in this industry, read and benefit fromChris`s advice, with Bugbugs as a role model you won`t go far wrong. Plymouth Pedicabs - one man tour operator Andy Roberts decided last year that he had had enough of working 9-5 and decided to something about it. Looking around his home town of Plymouth Andy felt that a pedicab service would be just the thing. After contacting the factory I suggested that Andy contact BugBugs to get a taste of what operating pedicabs was all about. Andy returned from London inspired by what he had seen and placed an order for his Taxi in December `99. We delivered in time for the Spring launch of his business and Plymouth Pedicabs has been busy ever since. A brisk trade ferrying passengers on a sightseeing tour of Plymouth Ho! has encouraged Andy to consider expanding his fleet. We wish him the best of luck with his venture and hope to be able to support Plymouth Pedicabs for many years to come. *<Go Back*
	Pupnet - a revolutionary shopping concept; When Stefan van Baelen arrived from Antwerp to discuss his new business idea I must confess that it looked extremely ambitious, and fraught with potential difficulties. Any cycle based business proposal that involved winning the support of major international retailers, an extremely complex software development project, a highly technical engineering plan, major civil engineering works and the complete co-operation of a large City Council seemed to ambitious a project to contemplate. Not to mention considerable personal investment by the designer! Fortunately I underestimated Stefan`s drive and his ability to move mountains. Four months after our initial conversations we found ourselves delivering a shiny new fleet of six vans Stefans premises in Antwerp. Let me explain the PupNet concept; Antwerp is the pilot city for a project that Stefan hopes will be adopted by many other cities throughout the world. The Pickup Point Network [Pupnet] is a hands free shopping scheme designed to relieve shoppers of the burden of carrying their days purchases around a busy city centre, freeing them to do other activities such as visiting theatres and restaurants. It is also designed to relieve city centre traffic congestion and boost retail trade. Too good to be true? Read on ... Stefan has installed a high tech outdoor locker system [see photo] in each of the three park and ride car parks situated on the outskirts of Antwerp. Shoppers park their cars and continue into the city by the trams which conveniently stop by the locker stations. Members of the Pupnet scheme are given “Smart” cards, and when they make their purchases they hand the card to the retailer who logs them onto the pupnet system and allocates a locker to them in the relevant car park that they have left their car in. The shopper leaves his/her purchases at the relevant store[s], [ the majority of shops in Antwerp centre participate in the scheme] and continues to enjoy the sights of Antwerp. At regular intervals during the day the fleet of AVD Vans collect all the purchases from the participating stores and deliver them to the relevant locker bank. At the end of the days shopping the shoppers make their way out of Antwerp on the trams back to the car parks. They go to the locker bank and insert their card into the ATM type receiver which automatically interrogates the card and opens the allocated locker. The customer collects the days purchases, loads them into the car and drives home. We are proud that our equipment was chosen to be part of such cutting edge and ambitious scheme. Stefan is tirelessly promoting the Pupnet concept to interested city fathers around the world. We wish him every success with this extraordinary project and hope to see Stefans ideas get the worldwide acceptance that they deserve. NinComSoup - London based premium food supplier When Ben Page-Phillips, founder and MD of NinComSoup was looking for a unique eye catching delivery van to launch his new premium soup delivery service, he decided that the AVD Van was the ideal solution. Their range of beautifully prepared home made soups needed a delivery vehicle that could project this image for their unique product, NinComSoup pride themselves on the quality of their fine food and service. AVD are proud to be associated with such a forward thinking, innovative company, look out for their Van with its distinctive livery on the busy streets of London. *<Go Back*
	AVD Italia - a unique job creation scheme; When Turin resident Giovanni Maurella saw the AVD website on the internet he realised that the vehicles could play an important role in reducing congestion in his home town, and could also be a valuable tool to create jobs. He approached Consorzio Nazionale di Cooperative Sociali,an organisation heavily involved in the creation of workers co-operatives. Regional director Piergiorgio Corradi agreed with Giovanni and flew to England to visit the AVD factory and test ride the full AVD range. Following this visit AVD were invited to showcase our products at a specially arranged car-free day in Turin. The vehicles were received with characteristic Italian enthusiasm by the residents of Turin, and a police motorcycle escort was laid on to accompany the AVD Taxi through the streets of Turin to present the vehicle to the Mayor and his senior staff. An agreement was made to create a new company, AVD Italia which now carries out the role of Italian distributor. Our Italian partners have been involved in the creation of over 70,000 co-ops employing more than ¼ million people in Italy. We hope its new subsidiary AVD Italia will create many more through promotion and use of its vehicles.