Postal services in Poland and Netherlands go electric
Not only Deutsche Post looks into electrifying their delivery operations. A new initiative by the Dutch PostNL now replaces diesel vehicles with electric cargo bikes in Utrecht. Also the mail service in Poland, Poczta Polska, wants to electrify by developing their own vehicle.
Utrecht is the latest city where Post NL deploys what they call their electric carrier bikes. The cargo pedelecs replace small diesel vehicles and deliver mail to business. They also carry postmen and women to empty more than 150 letterboxes in the city, as well as delivering parcels.
According to PostNL, they thus replace 20 car rides every day. This means 560 emission-free delivery kilometres a day. A special transfer location, like a mini logistics hub, has been created in the Utrecht city centre.
The initiative builds on a trial to replace delivery vans with electric carrier bikes and small electric vehicles (Stints). It was carried out in the Amsterdam in 2016. In 2017, PostNL started making deliveries with 60 electric carrier bikes there. Also in Leeuwarden, PostNL delivers both mail and parcels emission-free using electric cars and small electric vehicles.
After Utrecht, Leeuwarden and Amsterdam, PostNL is planning to deploy electric carrier bikes in about ten cities across the Netherlands in 2018.
The post in Poland has yet to electrify but is working on it. Poczta Polska teamed up with the national research centre to develop an electric vehicle together. It shall deliver mail and parcels with zero emissions nationwide. Trials with nine different prototypes from Polish providers are currently underway.
The project brings to mind the StreetScooter of DP/DHL. Different from Poland, the electric van business grew out of a university spin-off. Since then, Deutsche Post has advanced to one of the largest electric vehicle producers in Germany. They have also teamed up with electric bicycle manufacturers such as Heinzmann in the past in order to build cargo pedelecs fit for postal purpose.
postnl.nl (Netherlands), verkehrsrundschau.de (Poland, in German)
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