Babboe allegedly tried to cover up issues with cargo bike

The Dutch cargo bike manufacturer Babboe tried to keep issues with the cargo bike under wraps, RTL Nieuws reports after speaking with 12 Babboe employees and former employees. Several said they raised the alarm about safety issues with the bike, typically used to transport young children, but no one listened. They were also instructed to lie to clients.

On Thursday, the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) ordered Babboe to stop selling cargo bikes due to serious safety risks. The frames of Babboe bikes regularly break. According to the NVWA, Babboe received hundreds of reports about broken frames and failed to report them to the regulator, although that is required by law.

RTL Nieuws’s investigation showed that the company's directors were well aware of problems with the cargo bike frames. The issues with the bike frames were so large that an ironmonger came by once a week to collect broken frames. “In my role, I had access to files and have seen that an employee has been reporting this for years,” a former employee told the broadcaster.

The directors did nothing about the reports other than instruct their employees not to tell customers. “We always had to lie,” a Babboe employee told the broadcaster. “I made up a story to the customer: ‘This never happens.’ And gave them a free rain tent and a free pillow.” Another said: “Managers and directors always told me to keep my mouth shut, or people would laugh it off.”

Several current and former employees said they’ve delivered flowers to customers who got hurt on a Babboe cargo bike. They never admitted problems to the customer. “No, no, I didn’t say anything. Your income depends on it, your rent, your children have to eat,” a former employee said. “I felt like I was lying because I wasn’t allowed to say what happened. Then you have someone standing in front of you with their entire face damaged, tears on their face, but it is your job.”

RTL Nieuws says it knows the names of all the Babboe employees and former employees it spoke to, but they asked for anonymity. Their employment contracts have a confidentiality clause, the broadcaster reported after seeing several of them. “The employee is prohibited from making negative comments about Babboe to third parties,” the clause states. It applies during and after the term of employment and carries a fine of 5,000 euros per violation.

The broadcaster asked Babboe about what its employees had to say. The company declined to comment, only saying: “We take the situation very seriously, and all aspects are part of our ongoing investigation.”