The bike program wound up working somewhat better than I assumed it would this year. We got lucky in terms of weather, and we also had a TAW employee who was able to shuttle the pup trailers out to the bike helpers without costing us any additional time. Had a regular route driver been the one dealing with the trailer, the amount of time saved by using the helper would have been largely negated by the amount of time spent hooking and unhooking the trailer and breaking trace to drop it off and retrieve it.
The bottom line on the bikes; they dont really save us any time or miles, but they dont cost us anything either. We are spending a dollar... to save somewhere between 99 cents and a buck. And they are essentially a gamble in terms of planning, the moment we get snow or freezing rain they become useless.