DHL Express Spain has deployed electric tricycles for urgent deliveries of documents and small parcels in Barcelona and Valencia while New Zealand Post will start testing new eco-vehicles for mail and parcel operations in New Plymouth, the biggest city in the region of Taranaki, from next month.
DHL Spain started deliveries via tricycles in Barcelona in February this year, with an average of 70 shipments per day, where it serves pedestrian areas in the old town as the use of motor vehicles is usually restricted there. The company plans to deploy two more tricycles in the city soon. In Valencia, it distributes 60 documents or parcels on average per day, with one more tricycle to be added before the Christmas season.
“The use of tricycles for deliveries made us much more flexible and faster in the old town areas,” Rubén Pérez, DHL Express Valencia, Director Operations, said. “Unlike car drivers, tricycle couriers can always cycle to the door of the recipients, remaining unaffected by the volumes of downtown traffic or access restrictions, and sometimes they can use shorter routes.”
Juan Sabanés, Managing Director, DHL Express Barcelona, added: “The tricycles enable DHL Express to meet the demands of many customers for a cleaner transportation alternative that takes care of the environment and reduces noise pollution. Each ecological tricycle avoids CO2 emissions of 3.6 tons on average each year.”
From 3 June onwards, New Zealand Post will also start testing new eco vehicles for mail and parcel deliveries, with a ‘significant investment’, as the company stressed. From early July, the deliveries of letters and parcels to residential addresses will be combined.
NZ Post already tested these three and four wheeled vehicles in other areas and is therefore now starting a full, operational pilot in New Plymouth. “That will help us make decisions on a nationwide rollout,” Ashley Smout, Customer Service Delivery Chief Operating Officer for New Zealand Post, said. “Previous trials have shown the eco-vehicles are safe to use on the footpath. Our drivers receive safety training, and they will give way to all other footpath users.”
The postal operator said it will also start testing new services soon with some customers sending and receiving parcels in Taranaki. “Customers are buying goods online in numbers we’ve never seen before and our parcels business is growing,” Smout explained.
“We want to give customers more choice about where and when they get their parcels. The new technology we’re developing will help avoid the disappointment of a missed delivery, as customers will be able to tell us in advance what they want us to do with their parcels. We’ll test the new services with selected customers over the coming months,” he added.
The NZ Post staff driving the eco-vehicles will have a specially designed uniform including a black long-sleeved padded polo shirt and padded track pants with a combined New Zealand Post and CourierPost emblem. The new look builds on the changes to the delivery of standard mail in urban areas, including New Plymouth, which will be cut to three times a week from the middle of this year.
