Royal Mail expands its fleet, adding 87 new electric vehicles to one of its largest mail centres in London, Mount Pleasant. The move will expand on efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and emissions in the city and their push towards zero-emissions entirely. The mail centre at mount pleasant is one of the largest commercial charging points in London.
Postman pat’s new green van
The iconic red Royal Mail van is being replaced, it’s electric zero-emission counterpart will be green in colour and you’ll find it delivering letters and parcels in London and surrounding areas.
There are currently 30 of the new vehicles in operation and the remainder will roll out over the next two months. With load capacities between 3.7m3 and 6.3m3 the mix of Mercedes-Benz eVito and Peugeot Partner vans can be charged via wall or floor mounted charging posts and help postmen and women deliver in a secure and environmentally-friendly way.
A sustainable company
Royal Mail has already reduced its overall carbon emissions by 29% since 2004, and with the UK’s largest “Feet on the Street” network of 90,000 postmen and women, the Company already plays a key role in keeping its emissions low. The expansion of its fleet of electric vans and trial launch of e-Trikes2 earlier this year serve as recent examples of the Company’s efforts to continue to reduce emissions associated with its operations.
“As a Company, we are committed to making changes to our operations that reduce our environmental impact, while ensuring we continue to meet customer expectations. We are delighted that we can expand our fleet in London with more electric vehicles. This will allow the business to continue to deliver letters and parcels safely, efficiently and in the most environmentally-friendly way possible as we continue to shift to low emission technologies.”
– Paul Gatti, Royal Mail Fleet
As Royal Mail expands sustainably, questions on how it could effect merchants appear. DPD’s carbon neutral pledge brought up questions of the cost and upkeep of electric vehicles. Will delivery prices rise further to make up for the money lost or will a solution be found before electric becomes the mandatory vehicle choice?
One Response
Great news. The rise of ecommerce delivery has certainly had a negative impact on the environment. Customers from within 1000 yards of our store order online instead of click and collect in store, each buyer has their own valid reason: housebound, parking charges, lack of time etc but mostly it is a shift in buyer lifestyle and convenience. We send items to FBA and they are shipped around Europe (PAN EU) only to end up being delivered within the same originating county.
It is advised to enter a valid tracking number into the marketplaces for your account health metrics but it is often tempting to walk the item round to the buyer ourselves if it is a 5 min walk and the sun is shining!
Walking (if you can) to a local store has many health and local community benefits however this is being eroded due to convenient online shopping which does have a big impact on the ozone layer. Thus IMHO if delivery vans can be green it is huge step in the right direction.