After graduation, Ashwell, along with fellow co-founders, set out to find vehicles they would need to take their idea from paper to reality. Locally, they found three second-hand generic models from China and with that, Shift Delivery, Vancouver’s first pedal-powered urban delivery company, was launched in the summer of 2011. Next step – start cold calling local businesses and see if they could convince someone to take a risk on them.

“Efficiency was part of what we were selling, so companies we worked with didn’t have to fit into the whole sustainability thing,” Ashwell admits. In those early days, Mills Basics, the local office supply company, saw the potential for the fledgling business, becoming Shift’s first official client. Ashwell and the team took over one of Mills’ downtown routes, making fifty deliveries a day, eight hours a day, five days a week. They continue to run that same route to this day, often taking on extra routes during busier seasons.

Shortly after they launched, SPUD also signed up with Shift, joining Mills as two of their largest and longest standing clients. With good reason. As Ashwell reveals, “The idea all along has been that it actually makes more sense to use trikes than trucks in downtown.” She muses about times she has pulled up behind a delivery truck, the driver flustered after having to circle the block for parking, just to deliver a few small boxes, and understands the good her company is doing not just for their clients, but also their employees.

"It Puts People in Charge of Their Work"