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Delivery giant UPS is to hold trials of radical new delivery tricycles which aim to help tackle congestion and clean up London’s air.

The electrically-assisted machines will be used for “last-mile” deliveries, taking packages to customers’ doors from central storage facilities that have been stocked by vans.

UPS will launch trials in the capital in September. It is finalising designs of the lightweight pods that will carry the goods.

The pods can be pulled along on foot or propelled by the “e-trikes”.

The firm revealed a version of the delivery trike at Michelin’s Movin’On global sustainable mobility summit in Montreal.

The vehicle on show had a windscreen with wiper, indicators, disc brakes, wing mirrors, light, electrical assistance — and a comfy saddle.

Vehicles have been trialled in Hamburg, Dublin and Portland in Oregon, and the firm is now looking at London where it makes thousands of deliveries a day.

A Movin’On spokesman said: “It is part of our efforts to think about last-mile delivery. Cities are trying more and more to work out how to deal with congestion, parking rules and so on.”

A UPS spokesman said: “It’s an urban delivery system that uses devices which can be pulled or cycled. It will have technology so whoever operates it, on foot or cycling, can’t feel the weight.”

In Hamburg, UPS reported the trikes, dubbed Cargo Cruisers, helped ease congestion and cut emissions. UPS already uses electric and hybrid vans.