Royal Mail to add 2,100 electric vans to fleet

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://transportandenergy.com/2024/07/ ... -to-fleet/



Royal Mail will add another 2,100 electric vans to its fleet over the next year as part of the company’s plans to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040.

The new electric vehicles, which will be the first of Royal Mail’s famous red vans to include the new King’s cruciform and livery, will be rolled out from August across the UK. Royal Mail plans for more than half to be on the streets in time for the Christmas shopping period, helping to provide greener deliveries during the busiest time of the year.

Royal Mail already has the largest electric delivery fleet in the UK with around 5,000 vans, and the new additions will increase the total by almost half in just one year, bringing it to 7,100.

Most of the vans will be charged on-site at Royal Mail’s delivery offices via a purchased 100% renewable electricity supply meaning they will be zero-emission. When all 2,100 new electric vans are in use, they are expected to reduce Royal Mail’s total emissions by around 6,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year.

Jenny Hall, Director of Corporate Affairs at Royal Mail, said:

“We are proud to take another big step towards our target to be Net-Zero by 2040. Electric vehicles provide a wide range of benefits, reducing noise and air pollution in local communities as well as reducing our impact on the environment. We want as many customers as possible can benefit from zero-emission deliveries to their doorstep.”

Electric vans are an important part of Royal Mail’s fleet strategy. Royal Mail has also introduced hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) to fuel many of its heavy goods vehicle fleet, which is a renewable alternative to diesel that produces up to 90 per cent less direct carbon emissions compared to diesel. The fuel was introduced in June 2023 and has already saved more than 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

According to the company, Royal Mail already has the lowest reported carbon emissions per parcel of any UK delivery company and aims to maintain this position in the long term. The company’s ‘Steps to Zero’ environment strategy set a goal of achieving Net-Zero by 2040. The company has already reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 18% in two years, with a target to achieve a 50% reduction by 2030.

[Basildon Bond]

Royal Mail already has the largest electric delivery fleet in the UK with around 5,000 vans, and the new additions will increase the total by almost half in just one year, bringing it to 7,100.

I'd be interested to know what that 7,100 number is as a percentage of all vans? I assume the vast majority of RMs vans are still belching out fumes at an alarming rate and probably more than they should due to poor maintenance over the years and possibly offsetting any "savings" in CO2 tonnes that the electric vans in the fleet bring in.

[kazardaimenu]

They will buy these and post huge losses on the balance sheets then plead poverty.

[Mr Rush]

Royal Mail already has the largest electric delivery fleet in the UK with around 5,000 vans, and the new additions will increase the total by almost half in just one year, bringing it to 7,100.

I'd be interested to know what that 7,100 number is as a percentage of all vans? I assume the vast majority of RMs vans are still belching out fumes at an alarming rate and probably more than they should due to poor maintenance over the years and possibly offsetting any "savings" in CO2 tonnes that the electric vans in the fleet bring in.

Using the Network Review document*, there are 1,249 offices and 56,659 duties. If, say, a tenth are singletons and the rest are P&L then it could be around 25,000 vans - so a third of the fleet.

* Not all offices were listed on the 2022 proposal.

[SMS1969]

How about investing in decent charging points. We have 6 for 21 vans, two are broken and the others stop charging at any time they like, leaving the vans on a low charge the next morning.

[Barnacle]

They will buy these and post huge losses on the balance sheets then plead poverty.

They’ll blame it on letters, strikes, Covid.

[Barnacle]

None of these vans will be appearing at our large office because we don’t have a single charging point.

[rubberbond]

None of these vans will be appearing at our large office because we don’t have a single charging point.

I take it you're not employed in a low emission zone then?

Considering that in London for example electric vehicles will be subject to the ULEZ charges from next year ,it tells you that these charges were not about the environment at all but a cash raising scam. From what someone told me from a neighbouring office these vans are god awful and they are going through tyres at an alarming rate ,so are they using environmentally friendly tyres or just the cheapest,nastiest tyres they can buy , like they do with everything else , including the uniforms.

[SpacePhoenix]

For most offices their incoming electric supply wil probably need upgrading to account the extra load of a number of electric vans charging up overnight

[Smoothbackground]

None of these vans will be appearing at our large office because we don’t have a single charging point.

I take it you're not employed in a low emission zone then?

Considering that in London for example electric vehicles will be subject to the ULEZ charges from next year ,it tells you that these charges were not about the environment at all but a cash raising scam. From what someone told me from a neighbouring office these vans are god awful and they are going through tyres at an alarming rate ,so are they using environmentally friendly tyres or just the cheapest,nastiest tyres they can buy , like they do with everything else , including the uniforms.

No, they won’t be liable for ULEZ charges from next year. They will remain exempt from ULEZ — which applies to combustion-engined vehicles only.

EVs will however lose their exemption from the Congestion Charge from next year.

The ULEZ and CC are two separate and unrelated charges.

[Barnacle]

How about investing in decent charging points. We have 6 for 21 vans, two are broken and the others stop charging at any time they like, leaving the vans on a low charge the next morning.

This is going to be an issue for decades. The cost of installing enough charging points at DOs & MCs is astronomical.

Have a feeling that when they eventually acknowledge the impossibility of the cost, they will have to build going to a charging point at a garage into shifts.

[Mr Rush]

They will buy these and post huge losses on the balance sheets then plead poverty.

Isn't the current fuelled fleet leased? I would expect that to continue with electric. RM won't want to repeat the experience of the original Intermec PDAs - kept until they were grossly obsolete because they were a huge sunk cost, batteries all shot, no demand on the secondhand market.

[Barnacle]

They will buy these and post huge losses on the balance sheets then plead poverty.

Isn't the current fuelled fleet leased? I would expect that to continue with electric. RM won't want to repeat the experience of the original Intermec PDAs - kept until they were grossly obsolete because they were a huge sunk cost, batteries all shot, no demand on the secondhand market.

How does leasing handle the trashing of the vans? Since the DPR nonsense started, our vans have become battered skips. Why DPR drivers need to hit every post or break every mirror and van door, I have no idea. Surely there is a charge if you hand the van back to the leasing company as trash?

[enskied]

May have somewhere to plug my phone in now, without blowing every circuit in the office.

[Smoothbackground]

They will buy these and post huge losses on the balance sheets then plead poverty.

Isn't the current fuelled fleet leased? I would expect that to continue with electric. RM won't want to repeat the experience of the original Intermec PDAs - kept until they were grossly obsolete because they were a huge sunk cost, batteries all shot, no demand on the secondhand market.

How does leasing handle the trashing of the vans? Since the DPR nonsense started, our vans have become battered skips. Why DPR drivers need to hit every post or break every mirror and van door, I have no idea. Surely there is a charge if you hand the van back to the leasing company as trash?

Oh, so the vans haven’t always been like that then? I didn’t realise damage to every panel of every RM van was
a new phenomenon occurring only since DPR.

Small query: if it is just the DPR drivers responsible for this very sorry state of affairs, how come the small fleet (Partner, Combo etc) — which aren’t normally driven by DPR drivers — are in even worse condition? Who has caused all that damage to the Partner fleet and left the interiors in such disgusting and unsanitary condition? Perhaps the DPR drivers too?