Royal Mail has rolled out its 4,000th electric vehicle with a new zero-emission van deployed at its Blackpool Delivery Office.
Blackpool Delivery Office will, over the coming months, have 90 electric vehicles on site resulting in all delivery and collection functions operated by a fully electric fleet.
This latest introduction is part of the parcel giant’s goal of achieving 5,000 sustainable vehicles introduced by the end of Spring. Royal Mail is looking to introduce these vehicles in cities where low emission zones are in force, including London, Bristol, Glasgow, Cambridge and Oxford.
So far, more than 100 delivery offices across the country have made the transition to move to either full or part electric deliveries and collections. The first site that went live with an all-electric fleet was Bristol in June 2021 with Norwich expected to be its seventh all-electric delivery office this month.
Neil Barritt, Blackpool customer office manager, Royal Mail, said: “It’s been great to have the opportunity to be leading the way in the rollout of Royal Mail’s new electric fleet. The new vans will become a familiar site on the streets of Blackpool and our posties are really excited about doing their bit to reduce air and noise pollution in the town.
“As a company, we pride ourselves with having the lowest reported CO2e emissions per parcel amongst major UK delivery companies and showcasing the way to achieving a more sustainable future for our fleet & our planet.”
Furthermore, with lower maintenance requirements the electric fleet can offer more on-road time and higher levels of reliability. They can travel up to 130 miles in-between charges, depending on vehicle type, weather and load-size.
The fully electric vans also have up to 38% larger load space than the vehicles they have replaced, giving them additional capacity to deal with growing parcel volumes.
Royal Mail has also updated its statement on its international services, which were paused earlier in January following a cyber incident. It has now resumed international export despatches for all mail streams including parcels and letters across a growing number of destinations.
The company said it was making good progress in despatching items that are already in its network. But stressed customers may see less tracking information than usual and continued to ask customers not to submit new parcels for export as its initial focus is to clear mail that has already been processed and is waiting to be despatched.
