The DOCKR Box — rethinking the cargo container
When aluminium flight-case boxes kept getting written off in collisions, DOCKR built their own. A ground-up redesign in polyurethane foam that absorbs impacts, bounces back, and lasts far longer.
"An aluminium box doesn't bounce back. We found ourselves writing off a lot of boxes. That's unsustainable — both financially and environmentally."— Jurjen Vellinga, Product Development Lead, DOCKR
A box that couldn't survive the street
DOCKR's original cargo boxes were aluminium flight-case style units — robust on paper, but unforgiving in the real world. In a collision, aluminium doesn't deform and recover. It dents, cracks, and has to be written off. Labour-intensive to repair and expensive to replace, they were generating a disproportionate cost and waste burden across the fleet.
Out of necessity, a better idea
Rather than sourcing a better off-the-shelf box, DOCKR built their own from scratch. That meant visiting manufacturers, commissioning production moulds, and checking every detail at every stage — the kind of obsessive attention most operators outsource away.
The new DOCKR box is built from multiple layers of glued polyurethane foam — a material that deforms on impact and returns to shape. In a collision it absorbs the energy, preventing serious damage to the box, the bike, and critically, reducing injury risk. When the impact passes, it bounces back.
One of the most demanding details was the hinge — custom-designed specifically for this box. Off-the-shelf hinges weren't up to the load and usage cycles of a commercial fleet. Getting it right required its own development process: tooling, testing, iteration.
It's the kind of detail that doesn't make the headline but defines whether a product lasts two years in the field or ten.
Impact-resistant
Polyurethane foam deforms in a collision and recovers — replacing a write-off event with a non-event.
~90% longer life
The redesigned box lasts an estimated 90% longer than the aluminium original — cutting replacement frequency and a substantial recurring cost.
Less waste
A box that lasts longer and survives minor incidents is a sustainability win — across 1,300 vehicles.
"Jurjen's easy-going nature — he's a self-confessed bike nerd — belies a relentless focus on detail which has helped him see several high-impact design projects come to fruition."
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