A bike courier cooperative from Kreuzberg.
Bike Couriers & Management in One
We are an innovative, self-managed courier service in Berlin, working car-free and self-managed since 2017. We work cooperatively: directly, transparently and efficiently.
CROW stands for a new standard in courier services: car-free, run in common and independent of investors. We believe bicycles have always been the future of local delivery, and we work toward that every day.
We ride bespoke, high-quality cargo bikes, designed by people from the courier scene for the demands of daily delivery. Their high carrying capacity also handles larger shipments, with no exhaust and powered by muscle, some of them with electric pedal assist.
Where a Car Simply Can't Win
We're not here to be just another alternative to the car. We're here to win: to push cars out of the city center and take real weight off traffic. There's no better place to make that case than central Berlin, where no car can beat us, in any category.
We're the #1 choice for our customers because we do it responsibly, cooperatively, and professionally: without a car, but with a car's capacity. Even without a trailer, we carry up to 80kg; fitted with a cargo extender, our bikes reach a near-comparable loading volume. With our trailers, that goes up to 250kg and 1.5 m³. For almost anything in the inner city, short of a piano or a genuinely oversized single item, we're simply the better choice.
Speed
Studies in London and Brussels show cargo bikes complete up to 60% more stops per hour than delivery vans in city centres. In London they outpace vans by a factor of 1.6: no traffic queues, no parking hunt, no wall of sheet metal in the way.
Parking
No circling the block, no parking fees, no tickets and no blocking the bike lane. Research shows 40% of all van deliveries involve illegal or irregular parking. We stop right at the door, on any side street, any time.
Exhaust
None of our bikes produces exhaust on the road, including the ones with electric pedal assist. An electric van has no tailpipe either, but it needs far more electricity and a large battery made with lithium, cobalt and rare earths that have to be mined somewhere.
Capacity
Our bikes carry up to 80kg, and with a cargo extender, nearly the volume of a trailer. With our trailers, that's up to 250kg and 1.5 m³, enough for a full small move.
Operating costs
Studies show that operating an electric cargo bike in urban delivery costs up to ten times less than a van: less energy, no parking fees, lower maintenance. That's what makes our pricing fair and transparent.
Noise & air
No engine noise and no exhaust, whether moving, idling or parked. Every delivery we make is one less vehicle adding to the noise and air quality burden that residents, cyclists and pedestrians in the city deal with every day.
And every delivery pays off twice: at the end of the year, you get a free CO₂ savings statement: the kilometres we rode for you, set against what a diesel van would have emitted on the same route. The more shipments you trust us with, the bigger the number.
Sources: University of Westminster & ITT Hub (2022) · Université Libre de Bruxelles (2022) · Transport & Environment, LCA analysis (2023) · CleanTechnica / Lime & NHTS data (2024)
A Day on Two Wheels
