A Londoner who left his job in construction behind to start a greener electrician business now has a whole fleet of e-bikes travelling across the capital. 

Aaron Fleming-Saheed, 42, set up his company Cycling Sparks in 2017, shortly after being diagnosed with a heart issue.

The electrician from Greenwich, south east London, first came up with the idea while he was working in the American Embassy, in Vauxhall and was having transport woes. 

He told Metro.co.uk: ‘I was late every day because of the trains, there was always a delay of some sort. 

‘In 2016, I did buy a bike and I did a dry run on a Sunday to Vauxhall and I was like, “This is amazing. This is easy, like, why is nobody else doing this?”

‘I just carried on doing it like that, really. Then I moved to a different site and when I wanted to leave construction, I’d already thought of the name and my mates missus said, “That’s a really good idea, you should do it.”‘

Luckily after being used to already cycling his 15kg of tools to work, it wasn’t too hard to adapt when he switched to his new business, which covers domestic and commercial work.

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‘When I wanted to leave construction, I set up the company, and basically started out on my own just doing local jobs.

‘I’ve just built it gradually and then in 2019 I got an e-bike. That allowed me to go further and then do more and then the next step was me buying this small fleet. 

‘I’ve done all the hard work essentially, carrying all the weight, now we use e-bikes, it’s a lot easier. It’s a lot less sort of challenging,’ he continued. 

He’s even travelled as far as Bristol on his bike, over 100 miles away, to do a job for a friend.

Now, he has a whole fleet of bikes and multiple people working for him after being granted a fund for the extra bikes by the Energy Saving Trust.

Aaron was invited to speak at the London Assembly last year to give the mayor of London some input on a future e-bike strategy.

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He explained why it’s catching on: ‘People want to see change, they just they don’t have a direction for it.

‘Basically, we’re that’s what we are is that option for them, I think, and that’s why they choose us.’

He says it’s all been very ‘coincidental’ that cycling infrastructure has improved while his business has grown too.

‘When I first started, Ulez wasn’t in and then that came in, and then just naturally the infrastructure has got better, the timing just seems to have been right.’

And it’s his customers who’ve helped give him the confidence to grow his business even further.

He continued: ‘My customers love it, that’s what encouraged me to take it further was my customers and their enthusiasm for it. 

‘I always knew there was something in it, whether we could expand and grow the business, I wasn’t sure but there was enough customers out there, but I mean, we’re still growing.’

He said this is what makes it ‘really exciting’ and added: ‘This e-cargo thing is quite like the Wild West, nobody really knows what works and what doesn’t work. 

‘To go from a construction site, then doing this, it’s great, because it’s very much my own thing and it’s really fun seeing what business you can get in. 

‘We are courting like more commercial clients, it’s great. I mean, I love it.’

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